Yesterday on TSN1050's First Up, analyst Dave Poulin said that he thinks Matthew Knies should be given the first opportunity to skate alongside Auston Matthews on the Leafs' top line. However, today, his colleague, former Leaf and current analyst Frank Corrado, disagreed with Poulin. Corrado believes that while Knies is good enough to play in the top-six, he might be better suited to help John Tavares on the second line due to his play style and that a new Leaf should be given the first opportunity to play with Matthews.
"My first instinct would actually be to give Tyler Bertuzzi that opportunity. This guy is coming in, he's a fancy new toy, he's got some profile, he's got some years in the league. I kinda wanna see how that would look first."
Given that Matthews was so successful playing with Michael Bunting, who is a similar player to Bertuzzi, it makes sense to give Bertuzzi the first look with the Leafs' best player. While Bunting provided some sandpaper and had a willingness to get into the dirty areas, Bertuzzi brings even more of that element and would likely create even more space for Matthews and provides more of a scoring touch than Bunting.
Bertuzzi has cracked the 30-goal mark once in his career and had 30 points in 50 games last season between Detroit and Boston. The real benefit to having Bertuzzi alongside Matthews however, could come in the playoffs. Last post-season, Bertuzzi had 10 points in just 7 games while Bunting was suspended and had just 2 points in 7 games.
I'm sure we will see all kinds of line combinations during training camp, which kicks off next week and during the first few weeks of the season, and Knies will likely see some time with Matthews, as Corrado pointed out, but it should be Bertuzzi's spot to start.
