I wouldn’t mind getting Mercer some center reps with Lazar out. He’s been showing some more offense recently but if the offense doesn’t end up coming back then he’ll need to be the 3C of the future to really be important.
I’m fine with trying Mercer at center but it’s almost for the opposite of your reason.
I think Mercer has really struggled to be effective all season, and I don’t think it’s much better recently. He’s had Nico’s monster start next to him and he’s struggled to even get dragged along with it. He hasn’t been great at recovering pucks, skating with pucks, shooting, or dangling.
Dangling and finishing are 2 things I expect to be his strengths so the fact the he hasn’t been strong there yet shows he struggling, to me.
So I’d be fine trying him at center but it would be more to try and shake his game up. He’s always been bad at center so I’d expect it not to work but the future move back to wing may let his brain reset and get him back in a groove.