Apr 11, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; The Toronto Maple Leafs logo on the offices of the Air Canada Centre before the final game of the season against the Montreal Canadiens at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
The Toronto Maple Leafs
The reasoning behind this move practically explains itself. The Leafs are in the East, and thus a completely separate division. Ergo the Blues would be significantly likelier to grit their teeth and let Tarasenko go in the event of a deal they simply couldn’t match financially.
Thanks to some brilliant trading by former Leafs GM Dave Nonis and switching Horton out for Clarkson just days before deadline, the Leafs have a large amount of capital on hand as Horton is on LTIR and may actually remain so for the rest of his NHL career.
The sky may be the limit for a team that is intent on a rebuild and a superstar who won’t fade in and out as Phil Kessel is accused of doing. Tarasenko would be an excellent player to snag for a rebuild, especially for a hockey city like Toronto. If he continues on the upward trend he’s begun this season (and I have every confidence he will), Tank will be a top-ten player in the NHL for years to come.
The only limitation on this trade may actually be Kessel. He and Tarasenko are both right wings, and as many fans may be aware, there’s only one spot on the first line for a right winger. I don’t see the Leafs bumping Kessel down to the second line, but Tarasenko deserves to be on the first line next season wherever he is.
Vladimir Tarasenko’s HERO Chart from
Own The Puck’s Horizontal Evaluative Rankings Optic charts do an excellent job of laying it out on the line for visual learners like me: in everything but time on ice, Tarasenko is a first-line player. He has steadily improved over his first two seasons, but Kessel is still better, netting the same number of goals but 36 assists to Tarasenko’s 25. (Though looking at Kessel’s HERO chart, he is akin to a fourth-liner in shot suppression and blocking shots.)
Whether to start Kessel or Tarasenko on the first line is, of course, is a dilemma that the future GM and coach of a Leafs franchise would love to have.
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