If the Toronto Maple Leafs want to find depth in their line-up, they need to transition John Tavares to the third-line.
After choosing his hometown team when no other big-name UFA would, Tavares has had a spectacular career with the Leafs. Sure, it hasn't translated past the second round but he took a pay-cut (twice) and passed his captaincy over to Auston Matthews with grace. Despite sitting second on the team in goals scored, it's once again time for Tavares to take a step back and accept a third-line role.
If you look at the Leafs forward group, on a Stanley Cup winning roster, you could argue that they only have three top-six players and nine bottom-six forwards. You can make the case that Tavares is still a second-line centre based on his goal-scoring ability, but if you watch him closely, his speed has taken a step back and he's not the same player he once was.
Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Matthew Knies are all top-six players, while Max Domi, Bobby McMann, Nick Robertson, Nic Roy, Matias Maccelli, Scott Laughton, Calle Jankrok and Steven Lorentz are bottom-six forwards.
This roster has way too many players playing outside their skill group and they desperately need to improve their depth. You're probably yelling at me saying that McMann isn't a top-six forward, but I'm sorry, he's not. He's a perfect third-line winger with speed, size and skill that can be a difference-maker in your depth. He's not a top-line player you should rely upon and is benefiting stritctly because he's playing with Matthews, similarily like Domi.
McMann can be the equivilant of someone like Patric Hornqvist during the Pittsburgh Penguins' Stanley Cup run on a contender, but not in Toronto right now. Hornqvist, similarly to McMann is someone who can score 20-30 goals in a bigger role, but is much better suited in a depth role, playing against worse defenders. The third line of Hornqvist, Phil Kessel and Nick Bonino are arguably one of the biggest reasons why the Penguins won two championships.
Leafs can improve their roster by moving Tavares to third line
If I was playing arm-chair GM, this is how I would construct the current roster moving forward:
Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - X Player
X Player - X Player - William Nylander
Bobby McMann - John Tavares - Easton Cowan
Steven Lortenz - Scott Laughton - X Player
If this team wants to be great, they need to find a better first-line winger, second-line winger, second-line centre and one more bottom-six winger.
As for Tavares, I think he could shine with McMann and Cowan as his wingers because both of them have speed and skill. Tavares can rush the puck up to them and doesn't have to worry about carrying that line, which would be huge. If you were to look back at the Pittsburgh example, this could be the Leafs version of that "HBK Line".
As you can see with this roster, they're not too far off but they definitely need a few upgrades. Maccelli, Domi, Jarnkrok, Roy and Robertson make a combined $14.1M which is a lot of money you can use to upgrade the roster. In a perfect world, you can use the majority of that $14.1M to improve the second line, as Matthews can make a $2-3M player look like a $6M forward.
At the end of the day, the Leafs would be in a much better position with Tavares as their third-line centre so they need to build the roster that way, as Tavares will be 36-years-old when the season starts next year and isn't getting any younger.