Around the League - 2022-23 Season Edition

[ULF_55]

Great pick ups, no doubt, imagine adding Ekholm to that group.

Ekholm would address their one of their greatest needs, 1st. pairing defender, who can defend.

 

[Dekes For Days]

Great pick ups, no doubt, imagine adding Ekholm to that group.

Did you also imagine the cap disappearing?

 

[ACC1224]

Ekholm would address their one of their greatest needs, 1st. pairing defender, who can defend.

It really would have changed the team dynamic.

 

[Stephen]

My God man, what has happened to this fanbase. This is some Fox news level commentary.

Well, when people are bemoaning the Sandin trade by citing his pre-trade elite analytics… and he was traded away by an analytics driven GM in Dubas… who also drafted Sandin… that would indicate there’s something not aligning between what management is thinking and doing and a lot of the fanbases ideas.

 

[Stephen]

Did you also imagine the cap disappearing?

If only we had cap space the size of Matt Murray’s contract.

 

[Stephen]

It really would have changed the team dynamic.

I think Ekholm would have been a fine add… but it is kind of interesting to me that Edmonton has been a lot more reckless with their cap adds over the past 2 years: Hyman, Campbell, Ekholm, E. Kane and most of them haven’t been too bad.

 

[Dekes For Days]

If only we had cap space the size of Matt Murray’s contract.

You'd need more than that. And that wouldn't fix the problem it creates down the road anyway.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

Well, when people are bemoaning the Sandin trade by citing his pre-trade elite analytics… and he was traded away by an analytics driven GM in Dubas… who also drafted Sandin… that would indicate there’s something not aligning between what management is thinking and doing and a lot of the fanbases ideas.

See the problem here is that you think you know everything about how Kyle Dubas operates, and you also believe that the analytics that we see constantly posted around here (Fresh, Dom, RAPM charts) are equivalent to what the Leafs organization uses.

You don't need to be Scottie Bowman to know that a player who is sheltered is generally going to have better on ice numbers, because there is a distinct difference between playing against Marchand or Kucherov vs. Nosek or Bellemare.

If I had to speculate, the Sandin trade comes down to his inability to handle heavy forecheck, his lack of footspeed, and the fact that he's an offensively gifted dman who cannot run a powerplay without giving up a lot of dangerous chances against. Couple this with the speculated bad blood from the his contract demands....

But ya, I guess make this an "us vs them" thing if you think that is better for stirring up replies.

 

[ACC1224]

I think Ekholm would have been a fine add… but it is kind of interesting to me that Edmonton has been a lot more reckless with their cap adds over the past 2 years: Hyman, Campbell, Ekholm, E. Kane and most of them haven’t been too bad.

They're really trying to do everything they can to win while McDavid is still in his prime.

 

[Dekes For Days]

it is kind of interesting to me that Edmonton has been a lot more reckless with their cap adds over the past 2 years: Hyman, Campbell, Ekholm, E. Kane and most of them haven’t been too bad.

Yeah, Campbell's been spectacular for them.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

Edmonton can be wreckless because they have basically wasted 6 years of a legendary player's career while both he and his side kick are massively underpaid.

That's like showing up to a poker table with 2 aces up your sleeve, then barely winning despite making terrible decisions - anything but success would be worse than just everyday incompetence due to this huge advantage you almost squandered. I still think Edmonton could squander it.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Gotta say, Edmonton's 9-0-1 run is the kind of momentum I'd like to enter the playoffs with, "meaningless games" be damned.

Edmonton has two advantages over Toronto that’s allowed them to have more consistent play after the TDL. The first being that they’ve only added two players to their roster while the Leafs added six. And for Edmonton those adds are basically one for one exchanges of Puljujarvi for Bjugstad and Barrie for Ekholm. The second advantage is that their acquisitions have all been healthy this whole time, while ROR got eight games in before having to miss a month and Acciari has been in and out of the lineup. Gustafsson has also been away for a while for who knows what reason.

 

[ULF_55]

Edmonton can be wreckless because they have basically wasted 6 years of a legendary player's career while both he and his side kick are massively underpaid.

That's like showing up to a poker table with 2 aces up your sleeve, then barely winning despite making terrible decisions - anything but success would be worse than just everyday incompetence due to this huge advantage you almost squandered. I still think Edmonton could squander it.

Yes, one really dislikes wasting careers.

McDavid has 3 more playoffs, beyond this year, to go through.
Draisaitl has 2 more, beyond this year. Give him a 50% increase and he's less than 13mm.

But he has been past the 1st. round more than once in Edmonton.

 

[BallardEra]

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

Yes, one really dislikes wasting careers.

McDavid has 3 more playoffs, beyond this year, to go through.
Draisaitl has 2 more, beyond this year. Give him a 50% increase and he's less than 13mm.

But he has been past the 1st. round more than once in Edmonton.

Maybe there's an opening over on the Edmonton board for mods?

 

[ULF_55]

Maybe there's an opening over on the Edmonton board for mods?

Is there an Edmonton board?

 

[1specter]

Edmonton has two advantages over Toronto that’s allowed them to have more consistent play after the TDL. The first being that they’ve only added two players to their roster while the Leafs added six. And for Edmonton those adds are basically one for one exchanges of Puljujarvi for Bjugstad and Barrie for Ekholm. The second advantage is that their acquisitions have all been healthy this whole time, while ROR got eight games in before having to miss a month and Acciari has been in and out of the lineup. Gustafsson has also been away for a while for who knows what reason.

Also, Edmonton had one of the easiest second half schedules - all the strength of schedule stats had them near the lowest difficulty.

Since Jan 1 they are 25-7-7, with wins over the following teams:

NYI
Anaheim x2
San Jose x2
Vegas x2
Seattle x2
Arizona x2
Ottawa x2
TB
Vancouver
CBJ
Chicago
Detroit
Philly
Pittsburgh
Boston
Toronto
Winnipeg
Buffalo
Dallas
Kings

Bolded teams are all either lottery or bubble wild card level teams. They've also lost to Vegas, Toronto, Boston, LA, Seattle, Colorado x2, Philadelphia, CBJ, Montreal. And, they get to play Anaheim one more time still along with two more games against San Jose before the season closes lol.

They can only play who is in front of them of course, but having almost half your games against lottery teams certainly helps pad a record, including 16 games alone against teams ranked 25th and lower in the league.

 

[ACC1224]

Maybe there's an opening over on the Edmonton board for mods?

If you have issues with people discussing other team why go into the 'Around the League' thread?

 

[Dekes For Days]

If you have issues with people discussing other team why go into the 'Around the League' thread?

The issue is clearly not "discussing other teams".

 

[Stephen]

The issue is clearly not "discussing other teams".

There’s no issue with talking about things other teams have done well and things we like and comparing it to things about our own team which we don’t like.

 

[ACC1224]

There’s no issue with talking about things other teams have done well and things we like and comparing it to things about our own team which we don’t like.

I'm sure everyone agrees that Edmonton made the best move of the deadline in getting Ekholm.

 

[Stephen]

I'm sure everyone agrees that Edmonton made the best move of the deadline in getting Ekholm.

Yeah Edmonton did very well with Ekholm and hopefully once we get ROR back our deadline acquisitions can really be put on display too. When he was healthy I thought the was a breath of fresh air.

At the end of the day the Leafs mission is very clear. Edmonton having success shouldn’t be a radioactive topic. Doesn’t really impact what Toronto needs to do.

 

[Dekes For Days]

There’s no issue with talking about things other teams have done well and things we like and comparing it to things about our own team which we don’t like.

That's certainly a... creative way of describing what's going on, and completely misses the legitimate issues that exist.
But let's get back to how super duper awesome Edmonton is.

 

[ACC1224]

Yeah Edmonton did very well with Ekholm and hopefully once we get ROR back our deadline acquisitions can really be put on display too. When he was healthy I thought the was a breath of fresh air.

At the end of the day the Leafs mission is very clear. Edmonton having success shouldn’t be a radioactive topic. Doesn’t really impact what Toronto needs to do.

ROR was a great pickup.
I find if you mention another team in a positive light some, for whatever reason, take is a a slight to the Leafs.
I forget how insecure some are.

 

[ULF_55]

ROR was a great pickup.
I find if you mention another team in a positive light some, for whatever reason, take is a a slight to the Leafs.
I forget how insecure some are.

Looking at their (Oilers) recent record you have to acknowledge they've been playing extremely well. Beat Leafs and Bruins.

Same with the Kings. One of the better teams the past couple of months.

I find the Kings more surprising. Impression I had was a team on the way down, not on the way up.

McDavid and Draisaitl are well known, but finding a rookie goaltender has really made a difference for the Oilers.