Toronto Maple Leafs

It’s Time for the Maple Leafs to Split Up Matthews & Marner

The Toronto Maple Leafs two great young stars – Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner – love playing together. Is there a better way?

by
Old Prof
September 8, 2022

I believe that, if the Toronto Maple Leafs split up Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, the team would benefit during the postseason. Furthermore, given the history of the Maple Leafs’ regular-season success and postseason failure, I also believe it’s at least worth a try.

The Edmonton Oilers Split McDavid and Drasaitl

If Maple Leafs’ fans need any convincing, they have to look no further than the Edmonton Oilers, who split up their two big guns Connor McDavid and Leon Drasiatl and won several playoff rounds last season. In short, it was a success.

Specifically, although McDavid and Draisaitl love playing together, the Oilers’ head coach Jay Woodcroft split them up. Convinced each of them to go it alone; and, it worked.

The Maple Leafs Have a Similar Structure to the Oilers

Both the Oilers and the Maple Leafs are blessed with two exciting mega-stars. If it worked to split the Oilers’ stars, there has to be logic and a similar case to be made for splitting up Matthews and Marner. All four players could drive their own lines.

In fact, how tempting must it be for Sheldon Keefe to just create two lines where each of his young stars drives his own line – Matthews from the center position and Marner from the right-wing position?

There’s a History to Suggest This Re-Alignment Would Work

Before William Nylander’s holdout, then Maple Leafs’ head coach Mike Babcock played Matthews and Nylander together a lot. He almost refused to play Marner and Matthews together, even though that’s what the two stars wanted.

Given both their success playing with each other (alongside their friendship), both Matthews and Marner probably remain committed to an on-ice partnership. How then to convince them to think of the team first? [In fact, we can’t assume they don’t know this already and would be good with the switch.]

As noted, history supports how good a Matthews and Nylander partnership was and could be again. At the same time, we have history about how Tavares benefitted from having Marner on his wing.

The simple fact is that Matthews can push Nylander’s production upward; and, similarly, Marner can push Tavares’ production upward. Matthews might not hit the 60-goal mark again without Marner force-feeding him the puck, but he’s good enough to hit 50 all by himself – without Marner.

However, I’m convinced the team as a whole would benefit from having two really solid top two lines.

The First-Line Makeup

The first line would be made up of left-winger Michael Bunting–center Matthews– and right-winger Nylander. Bunting would be the digger and puck retriever, with Matthews becoming a double-threat (similar to McDavid in Edmonton). He can pass or shoot.

The Second-Line Makeup

The second line would be made up of a left-winger who can score (who might that be?); Tavares at the center, who becomes the puck-digger, on-the-boards worker, or net-front presence; and, Marner drives the offense from the right wing. Tavares, as he’s aging, loses the pressure of organizing the offense and can rely on his great hand/eye coordination, his hard work all over the ice, and his face-off skills.

The left-winger on that line should be able to score. It could be Alex Kerfoot, who’s a logical choice. Kerfoot had his best season in 2021-22. The third-line center position is covered by defensive specialist David Kampf.

But the second line left-winger also might be Nick Robertson, who has a great shot and has shown himself to be a capable scorer – just not at the NHL level.

One outsider who I think has a shot at the second-line left-wing position would be Adam Gaudette. He scored six goals in 10 games for Team USA in the World Championships in May. I’ve always liked him and think he will surprise fans with his play.

Bring the Team’s Leadership Together for a Planning Session

A simple plan might be to bring Tavares, Matthews, and Marner together into a planning meeting to discuss how the three on-ice (and I presume off-ice) team leaders might work with the idea of re-aligning them – for the good of the team’s next step in the postseason.

Whether Matthews and Marner like playing together or not – and that I think would be their preference – making them part of the planning to make that change seems reasonable. The team won’t take the next step without these three players/leaders on board.