The cap is already enough to be paying 4 forwards that much money. There is enough money to fill out the rest of the roster with proper management. There is enough money to have good balance, like we have in past years. It certainly would have been easier if the cap behaved in the way that it always had, and in the way that was unanimously projected prior to the sudden global pandemic causing a billion dollar player debt that stagnated the cap. Those 4 would currently be at a normal percentage. But you do the best you can with the hand you're dealt, and we did. With good GMing, we built one of the best teams in the league, through a period of stagnant cap and rebuilding our prospect pool. Now, we finally have the cap rising and plenty of internal help, and yet some are eager to destroy everything, based on their faulty perception of prior barriers that aren't even barriers moving forward. We have had good support players over the years, and cups are not won on the back of buying high priced mid-tier support players. The support systems of cup teams are often built with cap-efficient pieces that outperform their contracts. Kinda like we used to do. What critical player from a cup team do you think we were prevented from acquiring due to cap?
I'm not really sure where this optimism is coming from. Pelley said a whole bunch of things we've heard before; only with a whole bunch more "chemistry and unity" corporate buzzwords. His history doesn't inspire confidence, and not only did he keep Shanahan, he said that he'd be largely hands off. That means Shanahan is still in charge. Shanahan was just a mess in that conference. Seems to have abandoned his entire belief system out of fear, while completely clueless about an actual effective alternate plan forward. He kept Treliving after a bigger self-inflicted failure than the previous results you've rallied against. Treliving also doesn't have a great history as a GM. He shared the same plan for the core (that you dislike) as the previous guy, and while he may be open to changing it now as more time passes and information and pressure gets added, his history of dealing with elite players or trading elite players is horrible. He lost Gaudreau in UFA. The Tkachuk trade damaged his team and gave them one of the biggest anchors in the league. And surprise surprise, Tkachuk, one of the biggest perceived playoff underperformers in the league went on to become everybody's favourite playoff hero. You blame the core contracts for everything, and yet you support Treliving, who has signed the two worst core contracts in the Matthews era?
Marner is worth his contract. Full stop. He has not "consistently disappeared in the playoffs", he goes to the dirty areas, and he is no more of a perimeter player than any other playmaker. Some don't like to hear it, but the perimeter of the offensive zone is also in fact a useful area of the ice. Especially when you're using it to open up space and make passes to the inside slot and net. If we trade Marner, this fanbase will regret it. It will be wasted on players like Bertuzzi and Domi, and he will continue on to a successful playoff career. We have heard about the mid-tier players we moved on from for good reasons for years. We will hear about moving on from an elite player for bad reasons for decades, especially if the most likely scenario happens and this team's cup potential is shattered.
No team or GM is perfect. If you want to believe that the only options are "bad luck" or horrible GMing, that's your choice, but you seemed to have a different position when it came to Treliving.
I could have bolded this whole thing, Dekes. Wow! Where do I begin?
Let’s start with your feeble attempt to support Shanahan for giving the core those outrageous contracts. You say they are worth every penny, yet in 8 consecutive playoffs they have won one measly round, and even then, they went out in relatively quick fashion (5 games, with some no shows in there as well) in the next round! After every lost playoff round NOT ONCE did we hear any of this core put the blame on their shoulders! Also, why did he give them the amount he did on those contracts? This is mind-blowing:
Matthews inked a five-year, $58.17-million US agreement with Toronto just after the all-star break, setting a bar for his generation of players coming out of their entry-level deals with regard to both dollars and term thanks to a deal that will walk him into unrestricted free agency at age 26. Then they did the same for Marner!
And Shanahan has just done the same thing again with Matthews!
And you may be right about being able to pay 4 core players almost 50% of the cap and still being a legitimate Cup contender, but it won't be by paying it to 4
forwards. You might stand a chance by paying it to
two elite forwards, one of which would have to be
a center. The other two players would need to be a
stud #1 dman and a
bonafide #1 goalie. An exception to this rule would be Vegas whose goalies were not #1s, but they had a stacked group of dmen to counter that.
I have no clue as to why you think Shanahan is still in charge! It was very clear that Tre will be the one calling the shots now, and having brought in Berube to be the coach solidifies the change in how this team needs to be constructed. Shanahan will be the one reporting to Pelley and the board, but it will be what Tre recommends, not him.
I blame the core contracts for this pathetic/historic run of playoff ineptitude, but those exorbitant contracts are on Shanahan and the board!
I find it amusing how, in one instance you are condemning Tre for what he has done, and then later you say no GM is perfect. Well, which one is it? When he came in last year his hands were tied with regards to getting Matthews and Nylander signed to new contracts. Shanahan had already told the core they were coming back, so I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't have also decided how much they would get. As I said earlier, this is the second straight time that Matthews got exactly what he wanted.
Signing Klingberg was the exact type of dman they needed, someone who could run a PP, who would be a threat to shoot from the point thus forcing the PKers to respect him, thus creating more space for the rest of the core. It is unfortunate how he sufferd what could be a career ending injury, but Tre had no idea that would happen. Bertuzzi was overpaid, no doubt about it, but at least he would make an impact in games, especially in the playoffs. And Domi was able to live up to his contract a bit more once he was put on Matthews' wing. Also, both players brought the snot into the lineup that the Leafs had been lacking. The Reaves' signing was also not very good, but his play did improve towards the end of the season and into the playoffs.
As for Marner, it is laughable what you said! He isn't even worth his contract if you only take the regular season into account. And please find me a video clip of Marner going to the dirty areas of the ice during any of his playoffs. Good luck with that! Also, if being a perimeter player does all of the things you mentioned, don't you find it strange at their inability to score enough goals in the playoffs? And yes, that is not all on Marner, it is on this overpaid core!
And it is so ironic how you mention about losing in the playoffs not being about bad luck (among other things), when for all the past playoff failures, that is one of the things you would always mention as to why they were "unable to win" those series.
There is only so much that Tre can do in one offseason, and thanks to Shanny and the board for giving all those NMCs, it will be a difficult if not impossible thing to move Marner, or any of the core for that matter! But at least he has hired a coach who wants the same kind of team as he does, and who also has won a Cup! Not to mention who will hold ALL his players accountable! Gone will be the days of "entitlement"!
