The Toronto Maple Leafs are in need of a long-term solution at the centre position, and the Dallas Stars are a team that could be taken advantage of to land a potentially perfect player.
The Leafs continue to get solid offensive production from John Tavares, who is still listed as the team’s second-line centre but saw time on the top line after Auston Matthews’ season-ending injury.
With Tavares’ advancing age and drop in defensive quality, the Leafs need to find alternatives who can step in and lessen the load on the former captain.
Mavrik Bourque of the Dallas Stars could be the ideal player to fill that gap as early as this season, with his current team potentially an easy target for an offer sheet this summer.
Who is Mavrik Bourque?
Bourque is a former first-round pick of the Dallas Stars, having been selected 30th overall in the 2020 Draft after strong performances with the Shawinigan Cataractes of the QMJHL.
The Plessisville, Quebec-born forward stayed in juniors for a further two seasons to continue his development before eventually stepping up to the AHL full-time with the Texas Stars. Two years in the minors, including a 77-point campaign in 2023–24, saw him grow enough for Dallas to give him a chance in the NHL.
He has two seasons of NHL experience under his belt now, with 66 points (31 goals, 35 assists) in 156 regular-season games, spending time at both centre and on the right wing.
Bourque has shown positive growth over his first two years in the league, increasing his points tally from 25 (11G, 14A) in 73 games to 41 (20G, 21A) in 82 games. He also registered his first playoff goal in the Stars’ six-game series against the Minnesota Wild this year.
He could do with developing further in the faceoff circle, averaging just 45.8% across his NHL career to date, but he is a defensively reliable player who started in his own end 54% of the time this past season. Despite this, he had a Corsi rating of 51.6%, which would be a valuable asset for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
At 24 years old, Bourque is still very young and has a lot of room to grow at the NHL level. He averaged just 15:29 on the ice last season, and an enhanced role with a team such as the Leafs, who have talented veterans around who could support and elevate his game, could see him grow into a solid second-line centre.
How an offer sheet could look
Bourque is a restricted free agent this summer, with arbitration eligibility. The Stars, meanwhile, have a headache to deal with as they currently project to have just under $11M in cap space next season, with many players needing new deals or new faces needing to be added.
One such player is star forward Jason Robertson, who is coming off a four-year deal that paid him $7.75M per year. After hitting 45 goals and 90 points last season, it’s clear that the Stars will need to pay Robertson a lot, likely in the $10M+ range, which will stretch them extremely thin in other areas of the roster.
This puts the Leafs in the perfect position to hand Bourque an offer sheet, specifically up to a maximum of $4,775,666 AAV. The reason for this number is that this would cost the Leafs a 2027 second-round pick, which the team currently possesses, and would be able to put pressure on Dallas.
If the Stars have to pay Robertson, they are unlikely to afford nearly $5M for Bourque unless other moves are made, and the team could simply accept the compensation instead.
Why is makes sense for the Leafs
For the Leafs, who have over $22M in projected cap space, giving up a second-round pick is acceptable if they can land a player who could help resolve their issues through the middle.
This is doubly so as the Leafs currently have two picks in the second round next year, with either Columbus or Winnipeg’s being sent over as part of the Bobby McMann trade to the Seattle Kraken.
Losing a second-rounder for a player who could be a 20-goal scorer consistently and fill the gap on the second line seems fair value for general manager John Chayka to part with, especially as the team would still have a pick in that round regardless.
Having a centre depth of Matthews, Bourque, and Tavares would make the Leafs far stronger throughout the lineup. If the team also adds Gavin McKenna or even Ivar Stenberg to the mix, then the offence could look significantly improved with just a couple of moves.
There are few ready-made centres available this summer, and while an offer sheet is rare and poses some element of risk, the pressure would really be on the Stars to find a way to fit it under the cap.
This approach worked for the St. Louis Blues with Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg, so why wouldn’t an outside-the-box-thinking GM like Chayka at least consider it if it could help his team immediately?
