Leafs Address Big Potential Move to Bolster Top Line With Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies

Dating back to the summer, Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving has been making calls to rival GMs around the league in search of a top-6 forward.

Unfortunately, with a lack of blue chip assets to deal outside of Easton Cowan and Ben Danford and a shortage of potential trade partners available due to the rising cap alleviating many teams' cap crunches, the Leafs have come up empty-handed for their efforts.

As struggles continue for the team, who is off to a disappointing 3-3-1 start, many are pondering internal options to help Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies turn on the jets and pop off offensively like they have shown they can do. One of the primary options appears to be bumping up William Nylander.

On Wednesday, following practice, head coach Craig Berube was asked about this proposition when speaking with the Toronto media. His response gave fans and pundits hope that such a move may actually occur.

Nylander is off to a red hot start for the Leafs this season, leading the team in points through 7 games, more than doubling the captain, Matthews.

Even the veteran John Tavares, who signed for 4 more years on a sweetheart of a hometown deal this summer, has outpaced Matthews, producing 9 points through 7 games to begin the season.

The question here is, will moving Nylander up to play with Matthews boost the production enough to negate the hole they'd be creating on the second line next to Tavares?

After spending last game as a healthy scratch in the press box, Easton Cowan may be able to jump right in on that second line next to Tavares, if the Leafs opt to go that way, and add some youthful exuberance to Tavares' wing. He hasn't looked out of place, so perhaps this is a solution to the RW2 problem if Nylander is elevated.

The Leafs have a couple more days to ponder lineup decisions before the upcoming back-to-back against the Sabres this weekend.