Leafs Cup favourites? Some bookies on board
They effectively replaced Bozak — who signed in St. Louis after a solid career in Toronto in which he, too, was occasionally miscast as a No. 1 — with Tavares, only one of the great hockey prodigies the GTA has ever produced.
Now we’re beginning to see what a Kyle Dubas team is going to look like, and there’s a lot to like.
Now Babcock will have to coach the team without playing Leo Komarov 20 minutes a night, which was the coach’s occasional vice; Komarov signed with Lou Lamoriello’s Islanders on Sunday. Now Babcock will have to survive without Roman Polak getting a regular shift on right D; the veteran warhorse has signed with Dallas.
But that’s for another day. On Sunday, Leaf fans had the once-unfathomable luxury of debating which of their two alpha dogs — Tavares or Matthews — ought to be worthy of the top-line role. It’ll be up to opposing coaches to decide, really. If they see Matthews as the prime target of their top checking line, that’ll only open up space for the unit centred by Tavares. If they see Tavares as the shutdown priority, it’ll be fun to watch Matthews make hay on second-tier competition. And as for Kadri — he’ll be playing against relative chaff all season. No matter who ends up as the fourth-line centre, and Swedish import Par Lindholm is the pre-training-camp favourite to land the role, it’s hard to imagine a team rivalling Toronto’s talent down the middle.
There’ll be those who look at the downside of the deal. Considering Tavares’s $11-million cap hit will be on the books through his age-34 season, there could come a moment when he can’t possibly provide value for the money. Maybe instead of piling strength on strength in the forward ranks, Toronto should have spent its resources on improving its oft-maligned defensive corps.
Maybe, sure. But the options for improving the blue line simply didn’t exist in free agency. And perhaps the best way to improve the defence is to improve the offence.
It was hard to argue with the assets Toronto had to forfeit for Tavares’s services. The last time the Maple Leafs acquired a No. 1-worthy centre in a transaction that didn’t come courtesy of a lottery win a la Matthews, they had to give up team captain Wendel Clark coming off a 46-goal season to land Mats Sundin. All Tavares cost was cap space. And if the Maple Leafs can make good on the bookmakers’ prophesy — on Sunday the Maple Leafs were promptly installed as Stanley Cup favourites on more than one online betting site — Tavares will be remembered as the best money the franchise ever spent.