Insider Suggests Important Roster Change May Be Upcoming for John Tavares and the Maple Leafs
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman suggested during pre-game coverage of the Leafs and Ducks game that the Maple Leafs may be pondering big change for John Tavares.
Fresh off of their 2-1 OT win over the New Jersey Devils in Tuesday, the Maple Leafs are back in action on Thursday evening against the Anaheim Ducks.
The Leafs have had a tough time generating offense this season outside of the Core 4 forwards, but thankfully, the play of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares has been so good that it hasn't hindered them as much as it could have.
Ahead of the Leafs' matchup with the Ducks, the Sportsnet panel discussed the Leafs' league-wide rank for scoring from the left wing. The Leafs are currently 28th in this category out of 32 teams, and could certainly use some more productivity from that left side.
During the discussion, NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman suggested that the Leafs could revisit a scenario that they had experimented with at points over the last couple of seasons, which would be to shift John Tavares to the wing. Of course, that means that the Leafs would have to acquire a center -- something that Friedman suggests is a possibility.
After passing off the captaincy to Auston Matthews this past summer, Tavares has really responded well to the reduction in overall responsibility to the team. The reduced pressure has Tavares playing some of the best hockey of his career, and if he were to shift over to the wing, his foot speed issues would be far less of a problem over the long haul and could help him to increase his productivity even more.
Friedman did not name any names that the Leafs could potentially pursue, but there are a number of pending UFAs that could make sense, starting with Panthers pivot Sam Bennett, who hasn't shut the door on potentially signing in Toronto this summer if he makes it to UFA on July 1st.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 12 | 1616 ANSWERS Insider Suggests Important Roster Change May Be Upcoming for John Tavares and the Maple Leafs Should the Leafs acquire a 2nd line center and move John Tavares to left wing? | ||
| Yes | 826 | 51.1 % |
| No | 790 | 48.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
