Friedman mentioned today that Tavares wants to stay, but no way he's getting $11M per. It's really a matter of what TOR would offer and how low Tavares would accept to stay. I've previously mentioned that I thought there was no way Marner leaves given he's a Toronto kid with a new baby. After last night, I'm not so sure anymore.
It still makes no sense how Marner (and I think Matthews too) got such a high paying contract that took him right to UFA and he still got a NTC. If you let the player win on money and years, how did you still lose on the NTC? It finally bit them this year when they couldn't trade Marner for Rantanen because Marner wouldn't waive his NTC. Having Rantanen instead might have been enough to win this series.
You do, though. The only exceptions to teams not having a top 5 pick AND winning are Vegas and Boston (they did have Seguin but that was via a trade and not being bad).
There is a difference between needing to ACQUIRE top end talent and having to TANK for multiple years to garner said talent which is what several posters were insisting needed to happen to make the Blues relevant again. I'm not saying it's easy but the Leafs are proving that is a fallacy and Armstrong, conversely, is proving that it's clearly possible. Florida also has proven it's possible acquire several former high end picks to buttress its roster and make it the power it is today.
The 2019 Blues were a product of a botched tank, though. EJ was supposed to be the cornerstone (not Pietrangelo) and that involved a 3-4 year window of not trying to contend, which included a lackluster return from the 2007 draft considering they had 3 1st round picks.
Agreed. It's very odd to see so many well-informed hockey analysts characterize Toronto has a contender every year, when their roster isn't that great to begin with. Sure, Matthews is a great goal scorer, Nylander is talented, and Marner can play selke-caliber defense, but what else is there? The totality of their roster leaves a lot to be desired, especially on the backend. The Leafs have one of the worst defensive cores in the NHL, and Joseph Woll wouldn't be a starter on most teams. That's not a contender, and the pattern of 1st and 2nd round losses every year support that reality.
Binnington’s puck handling would have helped them.
Agree with this. They’ve lacked a true #1 d-man for what? A solid decade now?
Pretty sure Dubas tried to do so and lost his job because of it, to be fair he gave out those contracts in the first place but wasn't he fired for wanting to change up the core and Shanny said no?
I don’t recall that but I’ve also never been one to follow the Leafs super closely so could very well be true.
I also remember Shanny shutting down Dubas on at least a handful of occasions.
There was apparently a Marner trade a few years back before his NMC kicked in that was shut down by Shanahan.
