Knowing Lou's reputation of it being take it or leave it, I honestly wonder if he would have let Nylander sit out the 2018-19 season? That's assuming him and Nylander couldn't agree to a contract and he missed the start of that season, which would also mean having to re-sign Matthews, Marner, and Nylander at the same time. So how do we even know Matthews still re-signs like we actually saw happen?
This is all hindsight.
Lou probably knew he was not coming back unless Leafs at least is in the Conf Finals.
That would explain why he didn’t trade any of the UFAs for picks or players with more terms. Didn’t want to bother with the Willie’s deal. I read somewhere how Lou wanted to get McDonagh but could not meet the asking price. I think there was a deal for Lou but Dubas and Shanny might have stopped it bc they don’t want Lou to overpaid for a dman with players like Kap and AJ.
Just by having this discussions here and refreshing my brain about Lou’s three years, it showed Lou was working toward something in his 1st and 2nd year but he seemed to lose the direction in his third year, or the directions changed in his third year.
We could make a case about keeping Leo and Bozak due to their set of skills, but keeping JVR was strange. The projection for Marleau’s production even with his declining play should have been equal or just a bit less than JVR. Esp since Kap showed he could be a regular while Brown just came off a 20 goals season while bouncing between the 1st and 3rd line. Also I don’t buy that there is no deal for JVR as he was a proven 30 goals scorer in a 4.75mil contract. That’s pretty attractive for any teams at that time.
This would have been the Fwd line if Lou trades JVR.
Hyman-AM-Willie
Leo-Kadri-Brown
Marleau-Bozak-Marner
Martin-Goat-Kap
Leivo, Boyes
Injuries aside, I really don’t see that big of a diff between the above lineup with the one they had with JVR.