Maple Leafs Will Have To Address Issue at Center

In sports it’s almost foolish to assume anything. Assuming that Brian Burke will somehow acquire a skilled top-line center before next season should be almost common sense.

If the Maple Leafs are to start the 2010-11 season with Tyler Bozak and Mikhail Grabovski as their top two pivots, quite frankly it’s going to be a long season. Nothing against either of the two, but where the Leafs currently stand at center simply won’t cut it.

Tyler Bozak is a second-line center at best. After being signed last year out of the collegiate ranks, and eventually paying some dues in the AHL before making the big club, expecting any more of him right now is a little far-fetched.

He can play a secondary role on the power play and exhibits an all-round game to go along with excellent faceoff ability, but Bozak cannot be counted on as the primary pivot just yet. At only 24 years old, there’s plenty of time down the road for that possibility.

Grabovski, on the other hand, is a speedy center who’s pretty brutal in his own end and does little to nothing on the power play. As a top-two middle man, he simply isn’t on the level of a Joe Pavelski or Claude Giroux.

Those are special players, I know, but that’s what the Leafs will need if they have any hopes of ever competing in the postseason. On the third or fourth line Grabbo is useless.

When Burke decided to announce that he builds his teams with a top six and bottom six of forwards, he meant that the top two lines will score, and the bottom two will crash and bang. Crash, bang, and Grabovski shouldn’t be in this sentence together. Put simply, it’s easy to see where a Grabovski trade scenario could arise. Though his $2.9 million might be a little tough to toss around to other teams.

With the Leafs likely to have two centers ahead of him next year (either through trade or Nazem Kadri), it’s puzzling where Grabbo really fits in to everyone’s speculated 2010-11 Leafs roster.

It’s easy to assume Bozak stays in the top two lines. But without an elite center for him to play behind on the depth chart, the Leafs will remain weak at forward.

Of course there’s a consensus that Burke could forgo acquiring a center and grab a high-profile winger. Though I admit that another winger should be in the plan, right now the priority has to be down the middle.

Bozak is a great player, but he’s better suited to a secondary role, especially at this point in his career. If Brian Burke indeed plans to stay away from a full five-year rebuild, a new center with some major chops has to come in to the fold before October.

It’s doubtful the Leafs will let Kadri take the first-line center job right away. Even if he shines again in training camp he will likely grab some AHL seasoning to start next year's campaign.

So who will this No. 1 be? And where is Grabovski going when they get to Toronto? We'll find out soon enough.

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