So you are willing to rather split up ROR - Tarasenko then Maroon - ROR? Tarasenko has finally gets his #1 center who can play with him, center who is top notch FO dot, great all three areas of game. But you give Tarasenko 3rd line center ala Berglund or Sobotka, in this case Bozak who is such a bit upgrade of Berglund/Sobotka at FO dot + offensively, but easily worse defensively?
Wow just wow
1- Bozak was pretty much the designated C for Phil Kessel. He has plenty of experience playing with a 1-way scoring winger.
2- Bozak wasn’t just put with Kessel because he had the foot speed to keep up with him, he was Toronto’s best defensive C and covered up a lot of Kessel’s defensive lapses. I know that the Leafs fans are pushing an agenda that Bozak is bad defensively, but he absolutely is not. He is easily Stastny level on the defensive side of the puck, and that is a big step up from Berglund/Sobotka.
3- ROR is the shiny new toy and I get that. That said, both ROR and Bozak are roughly on par with Stastny(obviously there’s some variance but all 3 are extremely close in overall impact). Putting Vladdy and Bozak together is not some massive punishment for Vladdy.
Bozak is good. He is a legitimate #2 center on most teams(maybe 7 or 8 that he isn’t). On top of that he is a RHS which is rare for a top 6 C. I get that we really want ROR and Vladdy to show some chemistry, but if that doesn’t work out we have 2 extremely good backup options to fall back on. Bozak is very capable of being a #2 center and we can always put Vladdy back with Schenn/Schwartz.
The good thing about having depth at C is that it gives you multiple options with your wingers. I get that we want to stop experimenting with Vladdy and just watch him rack up the points, but it’s not all about Vladdy. A coach needs to do what’s best for the team and if that means going to option 2 or 3 with Vladdy, then that’s what needs to happen.