  A good deal of the connectivity of complex networks can be characterized in
terms of their constituent paths and hubs. For instance, the Barab\'asi-Albert
model is known to incorporate a significative number of hubs and relatively
short paths. On the other hand, the Watts-Strogatz model is underlain by a long
path and almost complete absence of hubs. The present work investigates how the
topology of complex networks changes when a path is transformed into a star
(or, for long paths, a hub). Such a transformation keeps the number of nodes
and does not increase the number of edges in the network, but has potential for
greatly changing the network topology. Several interesting results are reported
with respect to Erdos-R\'enyi, Barab\'asi-Albert and Watts-Strogats models,
including the unexpected finding that the diameter and average shortest path
length of the former type of networks are little affected by the path-star
transformation. In addition to providing insight about the organization of
complex networks, such transformations are also potentially useful for
improving specific aspects of the network connectivity, e.g. average shortest
path length as required for expedite communication between nodes.
