Maple Leafs to use both Matthews, Tavares in loaded power-play unit

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock will seemingly take a different approach to his power play this season.

Auston Matthews will join a stacked top unit featuring Morgan Rielly, Mitch Marner, Nazem Kadri, and John Tavares, reports TSN's Mark Masters.

For the past two seasons, Matthews was relegated to second power-play unit duties, while Rielly, Marner, and Kadri were joined by departed forwards Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk.

Matthews doesn't believe loading up so heavily on one unit will be problematic.

"Look at Pittsburgh's power play," he said to reporters. "They do pretty well for themselves."

The Penguins' power play, which features Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Phil Kessel, operated at a league-best 26.2 percent last season. Toronto was second at 24.9 percent.

As for the positioning, Rielly will patrol the top of the umbrella, flanked by Marner to his right and Matthews to his left, according to Masters. Kadri will man the middle while Tavares serves as the net-front presence - a role he told Babcock he wanted to play during the free-agency recruitment process.

Tavares doesn't have a lot of experience filling the net-front spot, but he did rack up 30 points with the man advantage last season - a mark that would've led the Maple Leafs.

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