The Toronto Maple Leafs need to improve at centre-ice to become true contenders
At the time I'm writing this, the Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off an impressive 6-4 victory over the Winnipeg Jets (Game stats from NHL.com).
Much has been made of the new acquisitions Brad Treliving made this offseason, creating a new look blue line for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And while it is somewhat impressive, they still lack the high-end option the team has been desperate for for years.
While his signings have looked solid up until this point, there is one position on this roster that the Leafs have a glaring hole at.
Coming into the year the centre position was an area of concern for me. It has been an issue through ten games.
The Toronto Maple Leafs need a centre
I think the thing that has hurt the Leafs up the middle is that after Matthews and Tavares, they don't have another top-nine NHL centre on the roster.
Tavares isn't the guy he used to be, but he's still an above average second-line centre and won't hurt the team playing behind Auston Matthews. That said, in a perfect world, the Leafs would move him to the third line or even the wing.
The current problem is that they're forced to play Max Domi up the middle when he is a much better winger, and is closer to replacement level as a centre than a team hoping to win the Cup can be comfortable with.
I don't think Domi works as a centre because of the defensive responsibilities that come with it. Holmberg has struggled to start this year and having two centres who can't provide offense (Kampf and Holmberg) puts a lot of pressure on the top six. You simply cannot have 2 x fourth line centres taking up half the centre spots on the roster.
The other option they could try is moving Nylander to centre, something they tried for about 45 seconds. They talked about how they would give Nylander a real shot at centre this year at camp, which has turned out to be a lie. Watching how shortsighted this team has been with the Nylander at centre experiment is frustrating. He may struggle to start, but if he gets comfortable it would be beneficial for the team to have him there.
Treliving needs to find a way to go out and get a centre for this roster. Domi isn't a centre, Homberg isn't a top-nine player, and David Kampf is the NHL's most expensive fourth liner.
One move would make this team much stronger and deeper. Trading for a quality centre will push Tavares to the third line and give him favourable matchups while also allowing Domi to play his best position, which is the wing. The only other option is to recall Roni Hirvonen or Fraser Minten and hope to get lucky.
We saw Kyle Dubas make a trade for Ryan O'Reilly, which gave Keefe a lot of options with the lineup. At times, he played Tavares on the wing and other times, he allowed Tavares to play on the third line.
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Centre is one of the most important positions on a team and the Leafs are very flawed up the middle. They won't be a contender unless they address it.