Toronto Maple Leafs: How Marleau can help Matthews elevate his game

With a shuffling of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top two lines, Auston Matthews finally gets to play with Patrick Marleau and it should only benefit him going into his third season.

When Patrick Marleau first signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, many expected him to play on the top line with Auston Matthews, but Mike Babcock had other plans.

Instead, the top line remained intact while Marleau started the season with Leo Komarov and Nazem Kadri, until Mitch Marner was promoted later in the season. It made sense, given the desire to have a balanced attack throughout the lineup and this season won’t be any different.

There are reasons why a player like Marleau has had as long of a career as he’s had; he not only has strong individual success, but has the same influence on his linemates. One player who benefitted from playing with Marleau last season other than Kadri, was Marner.

When Babcock made changes to the lineup putting Marner on Marleau and Kadri’s line, his offensive production skyrocketed. In the 49 games prior to the move, Marner had six goals and 26 assists; in the final 33 games following he had 16 goals and 21 assists for 37 points.

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Granted Marleau and Marner didn’t play exclusively together, with Matthews’ injury forcing Marleau to spend some time at centre. When the duo played together, Marner scored 10 of his 14 even strength goals.

So how does this relate to Matthews? Well going into training camp, he said he wanted to put up more assists than goals, which might be a tough task given his reputation as a goal scorer. With Hyman expected to play with John Tavares and Marner, having Marleau on his wing should give Matthews a more dependable goal scorer to pass to.

No disrespect to Hyman but Marleau was third on the team with 22 goals at even strength, while Hyman had 12. Simply put, Marleau is known for his goal-scoring, while Hyman is expected to be the puck retriever instead of a finisher.

Aside from that, Marleau is also a player who can push Matthews to take his game to another level, something we saw in San José with the way Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture have grown as players. Matthews has been a dominant player for the Leafs, but injuries and a poor performance against the Boston Bruins made it a tough end to his season.

Hopefully, the presence of the 39-year-old veteran gives Matthews a player who can keep up with him physically and make sure his head is in the right place.

Marleau also knows that the expectations will be sky-high, playing with two highly skilled players like Matthews and Nylander.

"“They command the puck and they play the right way,” Marleau told reporters after Sunday’s scrimmage. “They go to the right areas, they’re both highly skilled. To play with high-end skill players like that, you know you’re going to get your looks, so you’ve just got to be ready.”"

Hopefully, the chemistry doesn’t take long to develop, but given the relationship Marleau has with Matthews off the ice, it shouldn’t be a concern. If anything it might have some people wondering why this was not a consideration last season.

What do you think about the possibility of having Marleau play with Matthews? How much can he help his game? Let us know in the comments below.