Toronto Maple Leafs top line posting insane numbers, should be split up anyways

The Toronto Maple Leafs top line so far this season has been made up of Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

This Toronto Maple leafs first line has been nothing short of incredible, but I still think it makes sense to break it up. The Leafs just shouldn't be playing their two best players on the same line.

In my opinion, Mitch Marner looks like a much more dangerous, confident player when the Leafs play him on his own line, and since they don't have enough good NHL centres to ice a fully Cup Contending lineup, perhaps Marner would help prop up a lesser player and stretch the lineup.

I don't believe that when you have two Franchise Players on the same team, that it ever makes sense to play them together. (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

Toronto Maple Leafs top line posting insane numbers

First, the numbers:

At 5v5, here are the results that each of the members of the Leafs top line have so far (not counting last night's game):

The Leafs are 5-3 with Matthews on the ice, 5-5 with Marner on the ice, and 7-5 when Knies is on the ice. In their last game they were outscored 3-0, and Knies was outscored 4-1, so you can see how early season results skew the entire set of numbers. Prior to that game, the top line was scoring 70% of the total goals.

Matthews: 61% Corsi, 59% shots, 66% scoring chances , high danger chances 70%, 62% XGoals,

Marner: 59% Corsi, 56% shots, 65% scoring chances, 67% high danger chances, 58% xGoals

Knies: 57% Corsi, 55% shots, 60% scoring chances, 62% high danger chances, 56% xGoals.

As you can see, the Toronto Maple Leafs are destroying the opposition when their top line is on the ice. The fact that the Leafs have a line that can do this, and then have William Nylander to follow up on a different line, is totally crazy.

We are used to it, so it doesn't seem totally crazy, but it is. When you have a situation like this, you are automatically a top team. If you then happen to get a bit lucky with your depth players, your potential breakout plyaers or your goalie, extremely good things can happen.

However, the Leafs are actually limiting how good they can be, because they don't have two franchise players, they have three. Simply putting Nylander, Marner and Matthews on to different lines will make them unbeatable.

To have a franchise player on the ice constantly is better than anything else a team can do. We can and do argue about the addition of a new defenseman or whether Ryan Reaves should play or whether David Kampf should be traded, but those things are minor in comparison to what splitting all three franchise players up would do.

The Leafs need another centre by all conventional wisdom. But what if playing Marner could help an average player post superstar numbers? Marner will post similar numbers to what he's already doing no matter who he plays with, so why not try someone like Pontus Holmberg or Fraser Minten on a line with him? In that situation, you could put all your assets towards getting a defenseman and not have to worry about addressing two lineup spots.

Splitting up Marner and Matthews is the most important thing the Leafs can do to win the Stanley Cup. I suggest a first line of Knies- Matthews-Domi, a second line of Robertson- Holmberg-Marner and a third line of McMann-Tavares-Nylander.