Lou was not finishing the job he just initiated what Dubas continued. When you're rebuilding there's no need to add a Marleau to teach the youngsters how to coast through an NHL career or make deadline acquisitions for high draft picks. Bozak and JVR could have been traded for big premiums. When you're rebuilding you don't keep expiring contracts because you think you're going to win the cup in year 2 of the rebuild. This is the issue some people no matter what will never point a finger at Lou and some will never point a finger at Dubas. If Lou was delusional enough to keep Bozak and JVR on expiring contracts you bet he would have hunted for a big name Ufa like Dubas did as well
Around the League - PLAYOFFS!?
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MCR74
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- Nov 11, 2022
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You'd figure with millions coming to him on July 1, McDavid could splurge on a half decent brew.
The Leafs were never trading JVR and Bozak after they made the playoffs in 16-17. They were one of the few veterans on the team at the time and it was also part of the reason Marleau was brought in.
Everything you're complaining about is because of hindsight. That 17-18 team? They had 105 points largely on the backs of their young players. That's not a team that's rebuilding anymore, especially after making the playoffs the previous season.
It's hard to say what Lou wouldn't have/would have done if he stayed on longer. I am pretty confident Tavares would not have been a Leaf if he stayed though. Lou does not have a history of giving mega dollar contracts in UFA. Marleau is actually his biggest in terms of cap hit straight from UFA.
Bomber0104
Registered User
The JT Marner and first Matthew and Nylander deals that Dubas signed had exactly zero to do with Lou.
That was completely and fully Dubas’ responsibility and failure.
Treliving’s deals to Matthews and Nylander have a lot do with the precedent set by Dubas on the last deals, but ultimately was his decision to continue further along that payscale.
He’ll be judged on that if they continue to fail, as well as the looming Marner decision.
LaPlante94
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- Apr 12, 2011
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Tampa Bay scored 16 goals in their 5 games against Price. We also played Korpisalo 1 year. Goalie excuse is old and so is the Atlantic being hard. If that's the case then we need to be more careful with our cap and not be so damn top heavy on offence if they can't get it done.
MilkofthePoppy
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Price and Weber played on one leg practically. The fact that we couldn't finish off a badly injured Montreal team is just embarrassing.
Dreakmur
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Not just badly injured, but a bad team. They would not have even made the playoffs in a regular year (they would have lost their spot to a wildcard team in the Metro)
Stephen
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I kinda disagree with “never trading JVR or Bozak” concept. At the time it seemed inconvenient to unload them because a team beginning its ascent may want to keep all hands on deck. So they did the conservative thing and kept them and walked them to free agency. Fine. But there’s an alternative solution where they could have been flipped for more youth that could be plugged back into the lineup. Which would have been a higher standard of asset management and continued development of the overall health of the franchise.
One example off the top of my head would be the Rangers moving Derrick Brassard to Ottawa in 2017-18. They got back Mika Zibanejad who was a struggling young player. Maybe something in that spirit could have been done with our last generation players.
Also, having been more conservative and not trade for Boyle and Plekanec would have added 2 more second rounders. A few tweaks and some good luck and the fortunes of this team could have been very different. More of a Hurricanes type approach to asset conservancy.
Menzinger
Kessel4LadyByng
Drafting better (or having better luck) also would have helped. Recent drafts have been better (seemingly), but it would have been nice to have found some legit impact players outside of the top 10 in the draft during the early rebuild years
PromisedLand
I need more FOOD
I mean we did its just they were traded:
1) Marchment
2) Verhaeghe
3) Durzi/Sandin (not high impact but useful)
4) Dakota Joshua*
I think with current crop we've been lucky although not bonafide superstars they should be impactful enough with ELCs or low AAVs (Knies, Cowan, McMann, Minten, Holmberg) TBD of course. Gotta get Marner and his cap hit the hell out though
MSZ
Car guy
Dreakmur
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MCR74
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Stephen
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The good news is we can find them. Now let’s find some more and be smarter than we used to be. That 2014-2018 build doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out as intended but we have a lot of raw pieces that can form the next wave. Just needs to be glued together properly.
Considering we made the playoffs by like 2points in the first year of AM's era. IF only Tampa Bay was healthy that year and played better than us by a lot that season. They really should had stick to rebuilding and see what Bozak, Polak, Leo, JVR and others vets can fetch at the TDL instead of spending it on Boyle.
Imagine we were in the draft lottery and got Makar. Jason Robertson in the 2nd round, along with both Scott and Swayman, lol.
Florida
Forsling waiver pickup
Montour picked up for table scraps
Bennett a couple of 2nds I think
Verhege didn't give up to much
Ekman Larson signed as a ufa
Reinhart didn't give up to much
To get these players
1sr 2nd 3rd and 2 prospect
Smart and lucky organization
They are out there we just need to find them
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- Sep 8, 2004
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is that why they got knocked out the next round? ...oh yea, they didnt, the one legged Price and Weber took them to the SCF.
How many of the other teams had to watch their Captain nearly decapitated on the ice?
Keefe Should have been fired for losing that series too, he was badly outcoached as usual (and not even vs a 'good' coach).
Peasy
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When Dubas first became the GM, everyone talked about him being an out of the box thinker, able to identify guys like gourde that havent quite broken out yet but just needed the chance. Instead we got the complete opposite. Never found dope underrated dudes for cheap that we ended up keeping, and instead we just gave away a bunch of those types of players for nothing.
The only one I recall was Bunting
He'll he even let Hyman go, you could see he was getting better and better every yr
What he is doing is off the charts never saw that coming but I thought 25 g 60 pts and our hardest worker..
Ow we keep looking for the next Hyman
Bertuzzi will be 5 mil * 4 yrs
I agree we were still building .
Our defence was never ser with young D prospects in the system
Lou literally handed out the most expensive UFA contract in NHL history. He massively overpaid Marleau in UFA while with the Leafs. He even tried to sign Tavares himself, for more money than we gave him. He would have absolutely tried to sign Tavares if he were still here. The only question is whether he would have screwed it up like everything else.
- Dec 12, 2017
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That was the beginning of the insanity. People tried to tell me the team as done rebuilding when they tried to justify the JT signing. They had potential to build something and royally screwed it up.
Time will tell, but maybe it’s all for naught, considering Matthews is the supposed leader.
Punch Drunk Loov
Thought Viktor Loov was going to be a guy
- Dec 6, 2011
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Can this series please start? Are they trying to dodge a competitor sports league that US markets will actually watch?
- Dec 12, 2017
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They should just flip a coin and award the Cup….or just say they awarded it, who cares at this point.
If they do play it, I hope it goes four games and they’re all blowouts.
Stephen
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They should call them the Utah Phoenix and blow people’s minds.
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