Jack Roslovic would be good but shouldn’t be the Maple Leafs’ end goal

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ rumoured interest in Jack Roslovic reminds me a lot of the third episode of The Office (US version) in which they are selecting a new Health Plan. Recognizing that the employees are understandably on edge from this, Michael Scott promises everyone a big surprise is coming by the end of the day. Over the course of the day, he comes back with ice cream sandwiches hoping that will satisfy the “big surprise” promise. It did not. If the Leafs sign Jack Roslovic, he will be that ice cream sandwich.

If this is something that seems clearer in my head than on a screen, let me break it down. There is nothing wrong with either Jack Roslovic or ice cream sandwiches. They are simply not what was promised. And in this scenario, Brad Treliving (the Michael Scott of the Leafs) has promised a top six forward (a big surprise if I’ve ever heard of one), and he seems to be hoping that Roslovic is enough to satisfy Leafs fans (the rest of the office). He doesn’t deliver on that top six forward promise. (You can point out the flaw where I doubt that Brad Treliving is prioritizing what Leafs fans will want, but honestly the Leafs players are equally likely as fans to be hoping for a big surprise.)

Again, Jack Roslovic is pretty darn good and the Leafs can make good use of him. And a lot of the Roslovic to the Leafs rumour talk seems to be born from Elliotte Friedman connecting the dots between Roslovic being the best free agent to fill the Leafs needs and his early hockey career history with Auston Matthews. The thing is, he’s more of a third line guy as seen by his 13:49 average icetime last season on the Hurricanes. He certainly averaged a bit higher on the Blue Jackets in previous years, but you can also see where him in a third line situation on a good team like Carolina having gave him breakthrough offence rather than having him play against tougher competition and with weaker teammates.

Roslovic is also another sometimes centre used to the responsibilities that come with being a third liner. He’s a definite bottom six upgrade, but not a physical force or defence first guy, though he would bring Toronto a lot closer to having four challenging lines to match up against. While he briefly dabbled in penalty killing when he was in Columbus, those responsibilities were never asked of him again, but he has consistently been a second unit powerplay guy, including last season in Carolina. The Leafs would be incredibly deep on second unit powerplay options, which isn’t bad thing given the streaky nature of secondary offence producers. And he is certainly another streaky option, as he had 24 game stretch were he produced just four points last season, and that included a 12-game stretch where he was held without a point.

The Leafs might be looking at how Roslovic was deployed in Carolina and see some value in emulating that in Toronto. While he didn’t play over half his 5v5 icetime with any one linemate, he was most frequently with Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov and other than a very high goals against and resulting low PDO, it seemingly worked well for the Canes. Presumably, if the Leafs brought in Roslovic he’d be seen as a lesser producer on one of the top two lines, rather than being part of a third line where more would be asked of him to create his own opportunities.

When looking at Roslovic as an option for the Leafs, he does create a situation where the Leafs are potentially stacked to the point where you’d now likely see Calle Jarnkrok and David Kampf as the 13th and 14th forwards on the Leafs (assuming no further changes.) If Easton Cowan is NHL ready (a good problem to have), the Leafs will be a giant bag of ice cream sandwiches but without that big surprise factor that isn’t out of the realm of possibility with their cap space and lineup.

Roslovic makes sense as a prelude to another move, the substantial move. If Brad Treliving knows he will be clearing out other pieces from his roster, Jack Roslovic could be a preemptive way of replacing a lineup card hole. If it’s not that and Jack Roslovic is meant to be the “big surprise,” the Leafs are probably better off sitting on their cap space rather than spending it all on ice cream sandwiches.