Johnny Engine
Moderator
- Jul 29, 2009
- 4,983
- 2,365
Alright, a few bullet points:
- WHOOOOOOO TAVARES WHOOOOOOOOO JOHNNY T YUS WHOOOOOOOOO
- That said, I think it's sensible to think of Tavares as just a good get, and once we've all sobered up from our Canada Day beer, not assume this is a Ducks-after-Pronger roll to the cup. Hell, those Ducks don't even look that great if Getzlaf and Perry don't break out in a big way in the '07 playoffs.
- Any attempt to compare the centre depth to Pittsburgh's is contingent upon Matthews taking another step (or 87 and 71 losing one, who knows). That might happen, or he might still only be a first liner who scores on a 40 goal pace. Relax.
- This does not guarantee the Leafs will have to trade Marner or Nylander. I'm not sure if some of you are just assuming a team can't have those 4 guys on the same team, or whether Kypreos's opinions have somehow become canon, but that doesn't check out mathematically and Kyper says dumb stuff all the time.
- One thing to keep in mind if you're doing the math yourself - Matthews, Marner and Nylander aren't getting raises from ~900k to their next cap hits (say 11M, 8M, 7M, whatever). Any time you have kids putting up big numbers, there are going to be bonuses that put their cap hits closer to 2-3M or so. This brings down the amount of cap you have to clear out to sign them for real, but it also means that if you think they're going to bring in Karlsson (and Bobby Ryan? ugh) for one year for a maxed-out juggernaut, then you're putting them in absolute cap hell if any of these players play well.
- Matt Martin already costs next to no real money but still carries a good-sized cap hit, Patrick Marleau will be in that boat next year. Those guys will be gone, in that order, and that's more money to use.
- Jake Gardiner carries almost the same time-bomb contract that JVR did - a guy making around 4M for one more year that half the teams in the NHL would give 7M in a heartbeat. He also plays the same side as the nominal #1 defenseman, Morgan Rielly, and a 21 year-old who might already be their 3rd or 4th best defenseman, Travis Dermott. He's gone. Maybe in a trade for a similar but cost-controlled righty like Justin Faulk, maybe he flutters away in the wind to be replaced by guys like Dermott, Liljegren, or any mid-ticket free agent you can think of. I'm ok with either of those things.
- I mean, you could trade Nylander and a complementary gift bag for some incredible right-handed stud who solidifies the defense and makes the team better forever. If you don't like Nylander, maybe you really want to do that. I'm sure other teams will let the Leafs know if they want to do that.
- For all the talk of a big #1 horse as a necessity, it's hard to overstate how bad the right-side of Toronto's defense was this year. Nikita Zaitsev is a talented athlete, but he was banged up all year and couldn't do anything right. Ron Hainsey is 100 years old. Connor Carrick is a gas station scratch ticket, and Roman Polak would be a nice piece to have if his lack of puck skill didn't magnify the biggest problem the team already had. Literally anyone who's even average at skating or passing the puck over the line would be an improvement here.
- I honestly don't believe in coaches just "losing touch with the modern game". You see maligned guys like Tortorella or Carlyle constantly land on their feet after getting turfed out of some embarassing situation, and the strategies that are popular in hockey are extremely cyclical. I mean, there was Mike Keenan, but he was more crazy than old-fashioned.
- Frederik Andersen is an average NHL starting goalie or a little above. Next.
- It's going to be a hell of a lot of fun. Buckle in, and don't read Facebook.
- WHOOOOOOO TAVARES WHOOOOOOOOO JOHNNY T YUS WHOOOOOOOOO
- That said, I think it's sensible to think of Tavares as just a good get, and once we've all sobered up from our Canada Day beer, not assume this is a Ducks-after-Pronger roll to the cup. Hell, those Ducks don't even look that great if Getzlaf and Perry don't break out in a big way in the '07 playoffs.
- Any attempt to compare the centre depth to Pittsburgh's is contingent upon Matthews taking another step (or 87 and 71 losing one, who knows). That might happen, or he might still only be a first liner who scores on a 40 goal pace. Relax.
- This does not guarantee the Leafs will have to trade Marner or Nylander. I'm not sure if some of you are just assuming a team can't have those 4 guys on the same team, or whether Kypreos's opinions have somehow become canon, but that doesn't check out mathematically and Kyper says dumb stuff all the time.
- One thing to keep in mind if you're doing the math yourself - Matthews, Marner and Nylander aren't getting raises from ~900k to their next cap hits (say 11M, 8M, 7M, whatever). Any time you have kids putting up big numbers, there are going to be bonuses that put their cap hits closer to 2-3M or so. This brings down the amount of cap you have to clear out to sign them for real, but it also means that if you think they're going to bring in Karlsson (and Bobby Ryan? ugh) for one year for a maxed-out juggernaut, then you're putting them in absolute cap hell if any of these players play well.
- Matt Martin already costs next to no real money but still carries a good-sized cap hit, Patrick Marleau will be in that boat next year. Those guys will be gone, in that order, and that's more money to use.
- Jake Gardiner carries almost the same time-bomb contract that JVR did - a guy making around 4M for one more year that half the teams in the NHL would give 7M in a heartbeat. He also plays the same side as the nominal #1 defenseman, Morgan Rielly, and a 21 year-old who might already be their 3rd or 4th best defenseman, Travis Dermott. He's gone. Maybe in a trade for a similar but cost-controlled righty like Justin Faulk, maybe he flutters away in the wind to be replaced by guys like Dermott, Liljegren, or any mid-ticket free agent you can think of. I'm ok with either of those things.
- I mean, you could trade Nylander and a complementary gift bag for some incredible right-handed stud who solidifies the defense and makes the team better forever. If you don't like Nylander, maybe you really want to do that. I'm sure other teams will let the Leafs know if they want to do that.
- For all the talk of a big #1 horse as a necessity, it's hard to overstate how bad the right-side of Toronto's defense was this year. Nikita Zaitsev is a talented athlete, but he was banged up all year and couldn't do anything right. Ron Hainsey is 100 years old. Connor Carrick is a gas station scratch ticket, and Roman Polak would be a nice piece to have if his lack of puck skill didn't magnify the biggest problem the team already had. Literally anyone who's even average at skating or passing the puck over the line would be an improvement here.
- I honestly don't believe in coaches just "losing touch with the modern game". You see maligned guys like Tortorella or Carlyle constantly land on their feet after getting turfed out of some embarassing situation, and the strategies that are popular in hockey are extremely cyclical. I mean, there was Mike Keenan, but he was more crazy than old-fashioned.
- Frederik Andersen is an average NHL starting goalie or a little above. Next.
- It's going to be a hell of a lot of fun. Buckle in, and don't read Facebook.