Last year, the Toronto Maple Leafs moved Max Domi to Auston Matthews’ wing when Mitch Marner sprained his ankle and missed a month.

This was one of the most successful moves the Toronto Maple Leafs ever made, because as a third-line centre, Max Domi was bad – essentially a replacement player who had to be so extremely sheltered to win his minutes that it altered how the entire team was coached and deployed. As Matthews’ winger, he scored at the rate of a franchise player (literally).

The only problem; while Marner as out, the Leafs employed a Robertson – Holmberg – Knies third line, which Keefe really deployed more like a fourth line, which meant overusing the Kampf/Reaves line, which didn’t help the team.

We never got to see where Marner fit into a lineup with Domi as Matthews side-kick because by the time Marner returned from injury, the Leafs were in the playoffs and had so many injury problems they never once dressed anything close to an optimal lineup against the Bruins.

A little over a week before Training Camp, the Toronto Maple

The Leafs chose Domi over re-signing Tyler Bertuzzi, which assumes they like the Matthews/Domi combo because otherwise Bertuzzi was a much, much better choice. Domi is untenable as a third line centre, and I don’t think that the Leafs would not have re-upped him if he didn’t blend so seamlessly with Matthews.

But at the same time, they don’t really have a third-line centre on the team. At the time of this writing, their best option is Pontus Holmberg, who doestn’t really seem like a very good option.

However, I’ve often been critical of teams for failing to give young players a chance to perform. Maybe they’ll get lucky if they try him out there. Perhaps Holmberg is more of a fourth liner than a third liner at this point, however, what other options do the Leafs have?

Max Domi is worse as the 3C than Holmberg, who can at least defend and doesn’t need extreme sheltering to have a shot at winning his minutes. David Kampf has zero offense to his game and therefore also cannot be a long-term answer as the 3C. But he’s still preferable to using Domi in that role.

Fraser Minten is expected to be a very good third line centre on a cup contender – if he hits is ceiling. Expecting him to do that as a rookie might be a longshot.

Easton Cowan is likely more of a winger in the NHL than a centre. Meanwhile, the team has never shown much indication that they are interesting in converting either William Nylander or Mitch Marner into a centre.