Centre

There has been a lot of talk about filling the void at centre for the Leafs. I'll admit that we do not have a proven first line centre. However, that doesn't mean we don't have a first line centre.

If you read my post below (one move away), you'll see that, given the cap situation, the Leafs are basically in a position where they ship Finger to the minors and then trade Kaberle for a top 6 forward.

In my opinion, that forward needs to be a scoring winger; not a centre. Bozak showed last year that he is a very capable centre and I firmly believe he can carry the load on the first line with Kessel and another solid winger.

There has also been a lot of talk about Kadri making the big club next year. If he does, you can't put him on the 3rd or 4th line, so expect him to be the #2 centre if he makes it. In such instance, Grabovski would have to be moved. He's too expensive to put on the 3rd line and, quite frankly, deserves to be playing on a #2 line somewhere. If Kadri isn't ready to make the jump, then we have Grabovski who is a decent playmaker with the potential to hit the 50 pt range as our #2 centre.

What I'm saying (in a somewhat long winded manner) is that we have three young players capable of filling the top two centre roles. If we surround them with solid wingers who can score, our top 6 will be fine. Kessel, Versteeg and Kulemin are already there. All we need is one more winger (Bobby Ryan? Simon Gagne?) to fill out the top 6.