How will the Maple Leafs build a power play of death?

If the Toronto Maple Leafs live up to the hype this season, it’s going to be on account of their ability to fill the net.

Their defence corps is unspectacular and its most talented members — Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner — are offence-oriented. Their goalie, Frederik Andersen, is more solid than a week-in week-out game-stealer.

What makes this team special is its forward depth. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander are already major difference makers who are getting better each season. Nazem Kadri is one of the more underrated centres in the game, Patrick Marleau seems like a mortal lock for 25 goals, and up-and-comers Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen are ready to make an impact. Oh, and they added John Tavares for good measure.

Goals should not be problem. However, in order to meet their potential from a scoring perspective, the club needs their power play to stay lethal. Over the last two seasons, the Maple Leafs have scored 23.4 percent of their chances with the man advantage. Only the Pittsburgh Penguins have been better.

When you add a guy like Tavares, who excels in every situation, the assumption is that’ll make your power play better. Things are a little more complex for the Maple Leafs, though, because they lost both James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak in free agency — two of their best power-play contributors.

Last season their two power-play groupings looked like this:

#1: Rielly – Marner – Kadri – Bozak – van Riemsdyk

#2: Gardiner – Nylander – Matthews – Marleau – Brown

When you remove two pieces from an incredibly successful top power-play unit that is somewhat concerning. Bozak and van Riemsdyk have combined for 70 power-play points in the last two seasons. They are both top 100 players in the NHL in that category, and the chemistry they had with both each other and, particularly, Marner was significant.

The addition of Taveras more than makes up for Bozak’s departure, but replacing close-quarters specialist van Riemsdyk is a little bit trickier. This whole thing is going to get shaken up and there a few ways to do that (all of them suppose that Nylander will be available, if not initially, then soon):

1. Ride the preseason Cerebus look

The Maple Leafs have success in the preseason with an unusual three-centre setup featuring Matthews, Tavares and Kadri. This strategy is going to be the first one Mike Babcock employs, although he’s likely to fiddle with his setups. It’s hard to doubt the effectiveness based on what we’ve seen so far, but using Tavares as a net-front presence is going to continue to be controversial as he seems overqualified for the role.

#1: Rielly – Marner – Kadri – Tavares – Matthews

#2: Gardiner – Nylander – Johnsson – Marleau – Kapanen

Pros: The first unit is super talented and they already flashed some chemistry. There are three top-notch finishers for Marner to feed and Matthews can get his long-overdue PP1 minutes.

Cons: The second group isn’t that scary and put’s a lot of weight on Nylander’s shoulders. This setup makes it absolutely mandatory for the Maple Leafs to play their fourth line after the power play given that they’ll have three tired centres.

2. Try to recreate the magic

Despite arguably inferior talent, the Maple Leafs’ top power play unit was significantly more effective than its second last season. Babcock ultimately may decide that the best way to sustain the last season’s success it had would be to recreate it to the best of his abilities. That means keeping Rielly, Marner and Kadri in place, replacing Bozak with Tavares on the first group, and plugging in another scoring winger like Andreas Johnsson in for van Riemsdyk.

Stylistically, Babcock isn’t going to find another JVR-like net presence on the team, but Johnsson can score in tight. There’s just about nothing Tavares does worse than Bozak, so it’s hard to see any worries there. That configuration looks something like this:

#1: Rielly – Marner – Kadri – Tavares – Johnsson

#2: Gardiner – Nylander – Matthews – Marleau – Kapanen

Pros: Talent is well distributed between two lines. Successful scheme doesn’t have to be re-jigged for Line 1. Line 2 can continue to grow together and take advantage of the Matthews-Nylander chemistry.

Cons: Matthews is playing behind the less dynamic Kadri. Johnsson has a huge role as a relatively unproven player.

3. Go with the double-barrel attack

At the core of the Maple Leafs power-play success has been Kadri freewheeling around the offensive zone and scoring from just about every angle. His 24 power-play markers in the last two seasons is ninth-best in the NHL.

If you’re talking about a role for a creative shoot-first centre, Kadri’s clearly been a good option, but wouldn’t Matthews be even better? Seems likely. The third-year star still hasn’t been completely unleashed on the power play and this could be the year. For the sake of this hypothetical let’s try Brown in a net-presence role on the first group because of his chemistry with Matthews and give Johnsson a shot on Line 2.

#1: Rielly – Marner – Matthews – Tavares – Brown

#2: Gardiner – Nylander – Kadri – Marleau – Johnsson

Pros: Tavares and Matthews get to show what they can do together. The oft-contemplated pair of Matthews and Marner sees the ice together. The top unit has a little more size and strength and should be good in rebound situations. Nylander, Kadri and Marleau have played together with some success.

Cons: The second unit here isn’t bereft of talent by any means, but there is certainly less balance under this configuration.

4. Try the nuclear option

This Maple Leafs team is characterized by an accumulation of pure skill above all else. Grinders and role-playing veterans have largely been jettisoned in favour of young talent at almost every spot. So with that philosophy in mind, why not just put all the most dangerous players on Line 1 and hope for fireworks.

#1: Rielly – Marner – Matthews – Tavares – Nylander

#2: Gardiner – Kadri – Marleau – Johnsson – Kapanen

Pros: Line 1 here is absolutely bonkers. Those five players combined 329 points last season. Red lights would go on when that quintet jumped over the boards.

Cons: Nylander isn’t much of a physical presence which could force Tavares or Matthews into a less creative net-front role here. Continuity and style from last year is 100 percent obliterated. The second line is infinitely less scary than the first.

If the Maple Leafs don’t produce on the power play this year it will be a significant coaching failure considering the personnel this club has at hand. How they choose to make it work will be an interesting storyline to follow this season. If it involves Matthews and Tavares sharing the ice all year, it could be awfully fun to watch as well.

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