John Tavares has been a fixture of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ core group since signing with the team six summers ago but last season, there were stretches where he began to show some signs of age-related decline. Tavares still posted a season that would be the envy of the vast majority of players, recording 29 goals and 65 points in 80 games, while adding a goal and an assist in seven playoff games — these are fine totals in a vacuum, but it doesn’t approximate what we’ve come to expect from his stellar career.

Pierre McGuire joined Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on Thursday’s edition of Leafs Morning Take where he argued that Tavares should be utilized in a third-line centre role next fall, likening Tavares to Bryan Trottier on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ mini-dynasty during the early 1990s.

“Johnny hasn’t won like Bryan, don’t get me wrong, but if you move Johnny to the three-hole and create the proper role for him, I think he can be an elite player in that position,” McGuire said. “Forget what he makes! Don’t pay attention to the money, just play him in the three-hole and you watch how important he is to the team.”

It’s an interesting point of contention from McGuire worth exploring, so here’s the case for and against Tavares in a third-line centre role next season.

From what I observed last season, both in-person and watching tape, Tavares isn’t declining at the rate people seem to suggest and he’s a better skater than he’s given credit for. If Toronto wants to tinker with its offense this season under Berube, with the idea of placing Auston Matthews as the No. 1 centre and either Max Domi or William Nylander in the No. 2 centre role, it’s probably worth an experiment. Berube takes over this fall and he’s not as prone to constant sampling like his predecessor but it’s at least an option the Maple Leafs can explore if they want some more balanced scoring — when the season was on the line, Sheldon Keefe ran out of answers, other than rolling out the Tyler Bertuzzi-Matthews-Domi line and a few prayers.

Tavares would straight up dominate bottom-six opponents if he’s exclusively facing off against inferior competition although one surmises that in McGuire’s scenario, he’s still getting ample time on the power play. Toronto would effectively dominate possession share from set plays and faceoffs — Tavares cooked his opponents with a 59.3 faceoff win rate last season, he’s still elite in the circle and would help the Maple Leafs control the puck in 50-50 scenarios.

Tavares to square off against lesser competition may make him a more effective scorer at 5-on-5. Tavares finished with 35 points at 5-on-5, which won’t blow anyone away but he was tied for 91st with Adrian Kempe, William Karlsson and Roope Hintz among others. Putting him against inferior defenders who aren’t used to Tavares’ ability to push himself into high-danger areas and innate hockey intelligence would be a winning combination, at least on an individual level.

OK, that’s great but Tavares still has to function within the team’s system and he’s too valuable to be placed exclusively on the third line, unless his primary goal next season is to aid Easton Cowan’s development as one of the future pillars of the franchise. Tavares still has a ton of value and while his best role — independent of team structure — is a second-line left-wing, he’s an elite faceoff man and the hockey intelligence to cover off defensive responsibilities through the middle.

For the third consecutive year, the Maple Leafs posted a 54 percent share of the expected goals at 5-on-5 when Tavares was on the ice, and his plus-nine goal differential is the best sum he’s posted since the 2018-19 season. It’s not as if the team is suffering when Tavares was on the ice. Much like Tyler Bertuzzi, who has since joined the Chicago Blackhawks in free agency, Tavares’ expected goals and predictive stats suggested that he was unlucky in the offensive third during the 2023-24 season.

Tavares wasn’t static in his approach last season, either. He created 41 rebounds at 5-on-5, smashing his previous career-high of 25 — set in 2022-23 — with the intentionality of creating offense for his linemates. If Tavares isn’t shooting the lights out, he’s at least getting pucks to the net, while pushing himself to the front of the net. Tavares ranked seventh in individual expected goals at 5-on-5 so it’s clear he’s putting himself in dangerous scoring areas, with the idea of getting pucks to the net and banging away net-front. Sometimes, the puck just doesn’t go in! It’s unfamiliar territory for someone like Tavares, who has been known as a prodigious goal-scorer since his early teenage years.

There are lots of clever ways to deploy Tavares. For now, we’d make the case for keeping Tavares in a second-line role but ultimately, we’re more curious to see what Berube thinks in the fall.