The Toronto Maple Leafs are staring at a familiar kind of problem, and it showed up right after a rough 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena. With John Tavares sidelined and no clear return date in sight, the question quickly shifts from what went wrong in one game to who, if anyone, can handle the second-line centre job while he’s out.
The loss itself left plenty to unpack. The Leafs were out of sorts in a lot of the same ways teams get out of sorts when a game slips away: the defense wasn’t sharp, Sergei Bobrovsky had an uneven night, forwards were caught flat-footed at times, and battles along the boards and in the corners went the wrong way too often.
Toronto finished with just 18 hits, gave the puck away 19 times, and managed only three takeaways. It wasn’t hard to see why the mood around the team turned quickly.
Tavares’ absence makes the whole thing more urgent. He’s listed as “week-to-week” with a lower-body injury, and that leaves Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller piecing together answers with roster players such as Nick Paul and Colton Sissons in the No. 2 centre role.
Neither one is Tavares, and that’s the core of the issue. They can cover minutes, but they don’t give Toronto the same skill set.
That reality has pushed attention toward the farm, where the Toronto Marlies have opened the season 4-1-0 and sit third in the North Division and ninth in the league standings. They’ve also been productive offensively, ranking eighth overall with 21 goals. Center Logan Shaw has been the standout there, piling up two goals and eight assists for 10 points in five games, which puts him second in AHL scoring.
Shaw’s résumé is not thin. Drafted 76th overall by the Florida Panthers in the third round of the 2011 NHL Draft, he hasn’t played in the NHL since 2021-22, when he appeared in 17 games for the Ottawa Senators.
Across his career, he has 232 NHL games, 16 goals and 23 assists for 39 points. At 6-foot-4 and 213 pounds, he looks the part of a call-up on paper, and he brings a captaincy, AHL playoff experience from helping lead the Marlies to their Calder Cup championship last year, and a reputation for gritty play, strong skating, defensive awareness and shot blocking.
Even with all that, a call-up still looks unlikely. Shaw is on an AHL contract that runs through 2026-27, so Toronto can’t just move him up without first signing him to an NHL deal.
Another Marlies player turning heads is Brendan Brisson. He followed up a hat trick in Toronto’s 5-2 win over the Hamilton Hammers last Sunday with a goal - the overtime winner - and an assist against the Belleville Senators. Through five games, he has six goals and nine points, a sharp start for the former first-round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights, who went 29th overall in 2020.
Still, early production isn’t enough to make him the answer. Brisson carried a league-worst minus-32 last season in the AHL, and his 5-foot-11, 179-pound frame doesn’t exactly scream physical force.
His skating has also drawn questions, with one scout giving it a 3.5/5.0 grade, and his NHL track record - two goals and seven assists in 27 games - hasn’t changed that story. The upside is real, though.
He has an elite shot, can help on the power play, and his hat-trick showed it with a bar-down finish and a one-timer off the dot. But even if he keeps scoring, he doesn’t replace Tavares.
Newly acquired Aatu Raty is another name in the mix, but it’s too soon for that conversation. Heading into the Marlies’ game against Belleville on Sunday afternoon, he had only one game with the club, which is nowhere near enough to judge whether he’s ready for the NHL roster.
There are other possibilities, but none feel clean. Hiller and general manager John Chayka could ask Sissons or Paul to settle in as the regular second-line centre.
Jack Roslovic can play the position at the NHL level, though using him there would weaken Toronto’s top line, where he and Matthews have built good chemistry. William Nylander is another thought, but he’s more comfortable on the wing and hasn’t looked like a natural fit at centre.
Bo Groulx is also in the picture, but he hasn’t done enough yet, with no points in six games while mostly skating on the fourth line and averaging 8:19 per night.
So the Leafs are left where they started: with options, but no obvious solution. There doesn’t appear to be an internal replacement who can truly fill Tavares’ shoes, and the trade market doesn’t look much more promising.
Finding a competent second-line centre in a deal would be difficult, especially with so many teams searching for the same thing and holding more trade capital. For now, the most likely answer is the simplest one - next man up - even if that doesn’t come close to matching what Tavares gives them.
In Other News...
Maple Leafs Face A Costly Trade Dilemma On Defense
The Maple Leafs are still working the phones as they look for help on the blue line, with general manager John Chayka reportedly in trade discussions involving the Detroit Red Wings and Carolina Hurricanes. The names being floated are Simon Edvinsson and Alexander Nikishin, two defensemen whose contract situations have pushed their teams into a more complicated spot and opened the door to serious conversations.
For Toronto, the appeal is clear: these are the kinds of younger defensemen who can change the look of a back end, even if getting one would not come cheaply. The club is weighing future assets, but there is also a belief a deal might require roster players going the other way, which would make any move more painful in the short term and more consequential for the current lineup. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Trade Talk Signals A Bigger Blue-Line Swing Than Expected
Elliotte Friedmans latest read on the Maple Leafs blue line suggests Toronto is not just nibbling around the edges. The club is reportedly open to a significant trade for a game-changing defenseman and is willing to put a premium asset on the table, which is a notable shift for a team that has spent plenty of time trying to thread the needle with its roster instead of making a bold swing.
The broader goal appears to be a younger back end, with veterans like Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe and Troy Stecher coming up in trade conversations, even if no specific deal is close and several of those players carry protections. For now, the picture is more about intent than execution, but it is clear Toronto is exploring a bigger blue-line shakeup than many around the team expected. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Drop A Third Straight As One Offensive Problem Stands Out
After a 4-1 loss to the Islanders, Jim Hiller spent a good deal of time on the Maple Leafs offense, or more accurately, the lack of it. Toronto has now dropped three straight, and the coach pointed to the Islanders defensive structure as a major reason the Leafs could not create much of anything, even if he still felt the groups spirit remained intact through the skid.
The bigger concern is how the attack has looked against teams willing to sit in and make the game uncomfortable. Hiller did not have a fresh update on Chris Tanev beyond saying the defenseman skated in the morning, and while he also spoke about Sergei Bobrovskys performance and Gavin McKennas effort, the conversation kept circling back to the same problem: Toronto is not generating enough when the game tightens up. [Read more 🡒]