How John Tavares changes the shape of the Maple Leafs



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It is far from exaggerating to say that when John Tavares signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, their prognosis for 2018-2019 – and beyond – has improved considerably.

Tavares is a legitimate superstar who would enhance any team. It's a guy who comes out of an 84-point season – if you have four better centers than the 27-year-old, you have to find a better league than the NHL to play.

That said, while the plan for the Maple Leafs here may seem as simple as putting Tavares on the ice and waiting for good things to happen, it's a more complicated twist than that.

Last season, the first three lines of the club served very different purposes. The Auston Matthews line has been used in virtually any situation against any competition. Nazem Kadri's unit served more of a stunt role, and Tyler Bozak's group was a protected front row that took a lot of zone offensive offensives and struggled with the lower competition. As stupid as it may seem, Tavares replaces Bozak in this rotation, although he is capable of much more than the St.Louis veteran.

Clearly, Tavares is a good enough player to be used in any scenario. In addition to his prolific points production, he is generally defensively responsible, wins faceoffs and leads the game. The last time the Maple Leafs faced him, they could even see him flaunt sandpaper eliminating Morgan Rielly

The question is exactly how Toronto wants to deploy it – other than liberally on the numerical advantage. Essentially, there are two options. The first is to make him drop anchor on a line of all situations like Matthews, which would make Mike Babbad roll three lines indiscriminately and leave intact his best units of last season. As usual, the fourth line would only clean the leftovers.

Here's what this philosophy might look like, keeping in mind that the fourth unit is not really better than an estimate and that there might be some changes to be made :

<p clbad = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mo (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = " Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – William Nylander "data-reactive =" 58 "> Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – William Nylander

<p clbad =" canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "type =" text "content =" Andreas Johnsson – John Tavares – Kasperi Kapanen "Data-Reactive =" 59 "> Andreas Johnsson – John Tavares – Kasperi Kapanen

<p clbad = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mo (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "[19459020PatrickMarleau-NazemKadri-MitchMarner ] Patrick Marleau – Nazem Kadri – Mitch Marner

08] p clbad = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = " Josh Leivo – Josh Jooris – Connor Brown ] "data-reactid =" 61 "> Josh Leivo – Josh Jooris – Connor Brown

You could trade brown and kapanen if you like, but the idea is that the l & # 39; maple The Leafs try to hit their opponents with such depth. Babbad would not have to put on his tactician hat very often, as his three big players are all playing at any moment.

Another way to set up the team would be to do everything you can to free Tavares offensively. In this scenario, you continue to give stop minutes to Kadri and a right winger who better reflects that role. Tavares would not be as at home as Bozak last season, but he could be deployed in more favorable offensive situations. This configuration would look like this:

<p clbad = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mo (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = " Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – William Nylander "Data-Reactive =" 64 "> Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – William Nylander

<p clbad =" canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "type =" text "content =" Andreas Johnsson – John Tavares – Mitch Marner "Data-React =" 65 "> Andreas Johnsson – John Tavares – Mitch Marner

<p clbad = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = " Patrick Marleau – Nazem Kadri – Connor Brown "data-reactive =" 66 "> Patrick Marleau – Nazem Kadri – Connor Brown

<p clbad =" web-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm "type =" text "content =" Josh Leivo – Josh Jooris – Kasperi Kapan in "data-reactive =" 67 "> Josh Leivo – Josh Jooris – Kasperi Kapanen

With this group, you can also use Tavares more theoretically like Matthews last season, and try to To get the 20 years in the best marking places. Whatever it is, it would mean a less balanced line with two really elite score lines and a heavy defensive burden on Kadri. He could even go a step further if Marleau was sent on Matthews' side with Hyman on the third row, but that rumor badumes that Babbad will not separate his top three dynamic from last season.

Consistency, Tavares changes the shape of the Maple Leafs lineup with its presence. We do not know the details yet, but it's not difficult to guess some things already. He will be the center of the club's power play units. It is safe to badume that it will record heavy minutes too – last season was its first average of less than 20 minutes per night since 2010-2011.

Beyond that, we do not really know what this range of John Tavares looks like. We are at 94 days of knowing with 100 percent certainty, but you can bet that your bottom dollar, there are fans all over the world who are dying to discover it.

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