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Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix
The way this team is built bugs the hell out of me. There is no 1C and you can't win without one. Our three best forwards are wingers.
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Well, this is just not true. I assume that your list comprises Gaudreau, Lindholm, and Tkachuk, and then I must also assume that Lindholm in your evaluation is designated a winger. In the first place, I am not the least convinced that Lindholm is a better player than Monahan. Since he was drafted Sean Monahan ranks #31 in total production through seven seasons (#18 among centres), and #16 in goals. Since the 2014–15 season Monahan has scored more than Patrice Bergeron, Ryan O'Reilly, Jonathan Toews, Logan Couture and Ryan Getzlaf. While still developing, Monahan has produced more than five of the NHL's top centres all playing at the top of their games. He is not a perfect, prototypical top-line centre, but he is definitely better than merely a great #2.
Second, Lindholm is not properly classified as a winger, especially because even while playing predominantly on the wing he still does things on the ice that centres characteristically do. For his entire career he has been designated a centre—he's more of a hybrid forward who looks like he can play either position equally well.
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1C's are impossible to acquire unless you are a lottery team. What does BT do? I've posted a lot on this topic but the answer might be right in front of us or maybe I'm thinking too far out of the box, I don't know. My idea hinges on signing Hall or getting a fast north/south LW with skill, but why not try Tkachuk at 1C? I know these things rarely work out (think Tanguay and Cammalleri as 1C)
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There is a reason this switch pretty much never works out. There are tonnes of instances in which players drafted as centres make the shift to the wing at the NHL level; Tanguay is a good example of that here. But are there any cases in which a player who has developed his entire career as a winger, was drafted as a winger and starts his NHL career as a winger has successfully made the switch to centre? To being the most important centre on his NHL team? I cannot think of any.
I think a better approach would be to continue working with the team's existing top centres—Monahan and Lindholm—in hopes that they can make the necessary adjustments to become everything we hope they can be. If at all possible, upgrade at the position through a trade, but this seems unlikely. In any event these options strike me as much more viable avenues to improvement than asking Tkachuk to play a position at the highest level that he has never played.