The Toronto Maple Leafs ended the season with Auston Matthews more or less centering the third line due to whatever was keeping him out of games against Boston this past spring.
For reasons that were mysterious then, and seem downright bizarre now, ex Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe went down in his last game with the team using Auston Matthews between Pontus Holmberg and Calle Jarnkrok.
An injured Auston Matthews and two of the Leafs worst other players combined for a 31% over nearly 7 minutes of 5v5 ice-time in the Leafs final game of the season. Individually, Matthews played nine of his 16 minutes that game with Holmberg, as Keefe struggled to make use of whatever percentage of Matthews' normal game was available to him.
When Matthews was healthy and on a better line with better players, Pontus Holmberg was the Leafs 3C and...well.....you know how that worked out.
Brad Treliving had arguably the worst single season of any Leafs GM last year, and his worst mistake was not upgrading the third-line centre position at the trade deadline.
The Importance of an Elite Third-Line Centre For the Toronto Maple Leafs
The year before, the Leafs traded for Ryan O'Reilly at the trade deadline, giving them three elite centres and the best roster in the NHL, while making it nearly impossible to play against them. Of course, they ended up losing, but that was partially, if not totally, due to the fact that Auston Matthews couldn't shoot the puck properly.
The strength of their roster was indisputable with Matthews-Tavares-O'Reilly down the middle. The NHL is a hard league to win in because of the randomness of their playoffs, but teams with a third line centre who is a star are extremely hard to matchup against.
The Panthers just won the Cup using Anton Lundell as their 3C and he is basically a replacement player, certainly not a star. You can win in different ways. But, the easiest way to win is to have a third line that scores and drives play (which can't be done without a star on the line) and forces other teams to thin out their roster to compensate for it.
The Leafs were at their best when they had three star centres, and they should try to get back to that. Fortunately for them, they wouldn't even need to make a trade. Just move Mitch Marner to centre.
With Domi switching from centre to wing, this is the most obvious move the team could make. There are zero drawbacks and only upside. The Leafs have an elite centre on their roster, and by using him there, they can move Tavares to the third line, get him some easy minutes and dominate a league where most teams fall off a cliff after their top-six, due to the salary cap.
One thing is certain: coming into the season with their current bottom-six, one that will likely see Pontus Holmberg take the role of third line centre is a recipe for disaster.