Do you like this team?

[NewEraGM]

Weirdest bottom 6 in the league

 

[kb]

Weirdest bottom 6 in the league

Weird? It's got a ton of options.

 

[Leafsfan74]

Weirdest bottom 6 in the league

The problem with your assertion, we don't even know who are bottom six are.

I'd like to see at least one young big body get an opportunity and see some in and out of the lineup until something clicks. It's not even about points, it's about compete and stifling the other teams and creating havok.

That's what I like to see in a 4th and even 3rd line.

 

[X66]

Not until the goaltending changes.

Also our bottom six contains a lot of risk, as well as our 3-6 dmen. But no team is perfect, hopefully with the competition for those spots something useful will come of it.

Goaltending has me nervous as well. I’m a huge fan of Andersen but his playoffs performances have turned me on him.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Kerfoot Matthews Marner
Mikheyev Tavares Nylander
Robertson Thornton Hyman
Vesey Engvall Simmonds
Spezza

 

[X66]

The leafs didnt make the playoffs when Ottawa was making its runs in the second half of the 2000's what are you talking about?

Too be fair he’s right with the exception of Heatley, he was never on those teams and the Leafs did not make the playoffs during the Heatley Ottawa era.

They did beat all those other guys at least two times, and Spezza once.

 

[NewEraGM]

Weird? It's got a ton of options.

I can be an option too! Put me in coach...vesey, Anderson, engvall, spezza, barabanov are all complete plugs. Quantity over quality...

it was determined the leafs lack of depth in the playoffs was their problem. If the big boys were not scoring, no one was....proceed to trade the 2 decent secondary scoring players they had for a bunch of spare parts at 700k. I’m willing to bet it won’t work..lines 3-4 will get steamrolled imo

 

[nuck]

Ask me when the puck drops. This team was frustrating to say the least last season. Hopefully they can play with more consistency this year and have more fight to them.

This is still last years core. TJ is better than Barrie for sure but he is not a star and he is the only real upgrade. I like the lineup more but their success still requires ten players are better than they were last season. It seems like the club is one deal light tbh as I don't feel you can just remove AJ and Kap and call the club better.

 

[stickty111]

I can be an option too! Put me in coach...vesey, Anderson, engvall, spezza, barabanov are all complete plugs. Quantity over quality...

it was determined the leafs lack of depth in the playoffs was their problem. If the big boys were not scoring, no one was....proceed to trade the 2 decent secondary scoring players they had for a bunch of spare parts at 700k. I’m willing to bet it won’t work..lines 3-4 will get steamrolled imo

There goes your credibility. Thats just wrong.
Did Kapanen show up in the playoffs? How about Johnsson?
Thats cool. Maybe save the negativity for the main boards?

 

[Thornbury]

I'm very excited about the roster now. I don't think it's much of a debate that we're an overall better roster than we were last year. Single biggest problem was no backup goaltender for most of the year. That cost us a lot of games. Now we have excellent depth at the position.

Our D-core is worst case on par with last year, but with the potential to be much, much better depending on how Lehtonen works out and the young guys progress. People like to harp on the fact we don't have an elite top pairing RHD, but neither do a lot of teams. Look around the league at other rosters; our D-core is very solid in comparison and definitely not below average. We also addressed our depth issues so we'll hopefully not be seeing Marincin again. Losing Muzzin really hurt us last year because we didn't have NHL caliber replacements at times.

From the forward group we still have without a doubt one of the very best top 6's in the entire league. You can count the number of teams on one hand (and have a few fingers left to spare) that can match our elite talent. The big concern with having all our money locked into the big 4 was we'd have no room for depth players anymore. With the magic Dubas has pulled this offseason, so much for that theory. We're still as deep as any team in the league at forward and didn't lose any core players.

Our team toughness is also much improved since last year which was clearly a concern. The only thing we've gotten worse at compared to last year's roster is team speed. Hopefully that doesn't cause any issues, but I'm not the least bit worried about it. Yes it'll cost us some goals throughout the year and people will do what they always do and overreact. But the positives guys like Thornton will add will vastly outweigh their lack of speed.

I didn't think there was anyway we'd be going into next season with a better roster than last year and I was fine with that because on paper our core is good enough to compete for a cup. But Dubas had an excellent off season and somehow improved our team in every area of need which I honestly didn't think was doable with the cap. Now we just need the season to actually happen!

And he also improved our prospect quality and depth in the process. Very impressive.

 

[HarryLime]

Dubas did good this offseason

Really the only thing that could backfire to me is Brodie pulling a Beachemin

 

[Joedoggy]

Weirdest bottom 6 in the league

Winner winner "chicken dinner"

 

[Notsince67]

I can be an option too! Put me in coach...vesey, Anderson, engvall, spezza, barabanov are all complete plugs. Quantity over quality...

it was determined the leafs lack of depth in the playoffs was their problem. If the big boys were not scoring, no one was....proceed to trade the 2 decent secondary scoring players they had for a bunch of spare parts at 700k. I’m willing to bet it won’t work..lines 3-4 will get steamrolled imo

Lines 3 to 4 did get steamrolled. They generated no net scoring chances and gave their opposition a chance to stay in the game mentally. If you miss that part of the team then you werent cheering for the leafs.

 

[Nylander88]

Kerfoot Matthews Marner
Mikheyev Tavares Nylander
Robertson Thornton Hyman
Vesey Engvall Simmonds
Spezza

Don't hate your lines, but Spezza is gonna play. I think his benching was a big step in Babcock being fired. Dubas knows they need to rely on guys like Spezza & Thornton coming in year after year with how much our young core makes. You start benching those guys, suddenly a guy like Thornton doesn't come here.

 

[Joedoggy]

Don't hate your lines, but Spezza is gonna play. I think his benching was a big step in Babcock being fired. Dubas knows they need to rely on guys like Spezza & Thornton coming in year after year with how much our young core makes. You start benching those guys, suddenly a guy like Thornton doesn't come here.

Buttock was fired because he was a pompous head case....no one wanted to play for him....He had trouble coaching this squad yet decided he knew more than the Gm and management...His salary saved him longer than it should have....no player gave the team a contract break thanks to Mikey...the Leafs now live in Cap hell.."Thanks Mikey".

Ask yourself if he was such a great coach why on many occasions on a goal against did the camera pan on he and asst. coach with Mike asking "what happened"?

His Euro style of play did not suit play against any team with backbone...his Toi dispersal was pitiful on his best day....it was easier to throw out the same few lines and say they didn't get it done than to actually apply the hammer against teams that played the tough game.

He loved the speed aspect of certain players yet couldn't realize they were perimeter players that skated well outside where it doesn't matter.......No Grit Mikey loved to sit his big hammers on the team so to keep the tweeters inline....Tough love from a guy no one loved.

If year 2 he applied his team properly they would have been off and running....instead his insults/benchings/dressing room drama...did nothing but deflate the balloon.....

Mikey is where he should be ...scouting from home for some college.

 

[Nylander88]

Buttock was fired because he was a pompous head case....no one wanted to play for him....He had trouble coaching this squad yet decided he knew more than the Gm and management...His salary saved him longer than it should have....no player gave the team a contract break thanks to Mikey...the Leafs now live in Cap hell.."Thanks Mikey".

Ask yourself if he was such a great coach why on many occasions on a goal against did the camera pan on he and asst. coach with Mike asking "what happened"?

His Euro style of play did not suit play against any team with backbone...his Toi dispersal was pitiful on his best day....it was easier to throw out the same few lines and say they didn't get it done than to actually apply the hammer against teams that played the tough game.

He loved the speed aspect of certain players yet couldn't realize they were perimeter players that skated well outside where it doesn't matter.......No Grit Mikey loved to sit his big hammers on the team so to keep the tweeters inline....Tough love from a guy no one loved.

If year 2 he applied his team properly they would have been off and running....instead his insults/benchings/dressing room drama...did nothing but deflate the balloon.....

Mikey is where he should be ...scouting from home for some college.

Where did I say anything about liking Mikey hahahaha this is the craziest thing I've read lately. I'm happy he's gone. All I said was Spezza won't be a scratch, and "Mikey" as you call him, thinking he knew more than management as you say or being a pompous head case as you also say...would have lead to him thinking he knew best and scratched Spezza in the opener.... no? That attitude that you describe is what got him canned. We aren't going to year after year, as Kyle has stated, try and get guys like Spezza and Thornton on board for league minimum, and then bench them. He said that after signing Spezza last year, then "Mikey" benched him. The vets came here to play and Spezza won't be a healthy scratch is all I said. Sorry that sent you on a Babcock tangent haha I don't like him either...but that is one unhealthy relationship you have there to pull something out of thin air to talk about your friend "Mikey" haha

 

[Cappuccino]

I really like the roster. Especially considering the fact Dubas won't likely deal one of the top 4, this is as good as it can get.

Even if we totally miss the playoffs we have tons of expiring contracts to trade at the deadline

 

[justashadowof]

No. But it'll be interesting and exciting to see what happens. I'm not sure what Dubas' end game is at this point. Every summer a massive turnover of personnel? My emotional investment into the personnel has shrunken to a new low. Most of my favourite support players are gone, only Hyman remains as a favourite player.

 

[ToneDog]

Like the mix Dubas has created. He's had a good off season given his cap constraints but I am not sure how much more this group of forwards will be harder to play against than the team that lost to CBJ. Hindsight is 20/20 but I think we would have been better off if they circled back and signed Cliffy for $1+x2 instead of Vesey (assumming it was possible and Leafs were OK giving up a 2nd instead of a 3rd which I believe they were).

 

[LeafGrief]

I dunno, I'm with the guy who says the bottom six is weird. Sure, there's lots of options those options are all massively different. Old and slow vets. Some young speedsters. A giraffe. Some outcasts and imports. Maybe our top prospect with star upside. All of this isn't to say that it can't be an effective bottom six, but it's a real jumble of different player types and it will be very interesting to see who slots in where and what kind of identity forms.

 

[613Leafer]

Dubas did good this offseason

Really the only thing that could backfire to me is Brodie pulling a Beachemin

Beauchemin was taken from a top defensive team playing alongside Pronger/Niedermayer, to a bottom 5 defensive team playing alongside Kaberle, Phaneuf, etc (not bad players, but not studs defensively).

Giordano is a better defensive D partner than Rielly, but otherwise Toronto isn't particularly worse than Calgary defensively. Brodie should be stepping into a similarish situation to what he's already been in.

 

[Dreakmur]

I dunno, I'm with the guy who says the bottom six is weird. Sure, there's lots of options those options are all massively different. Old and slow vets. Some young speedsters. A giraffe. Some outcasts and imports. Maybe our top prospect with star upside. All of this isn't to say that it can't be an effective bottom six, but it's a real jumble of different player types and it will be very interesting to see who slots in where and what kind of identity forms.

I think we still need an elite PKer who is excellent on draws. If Engvall makes the team, that gives us maybe 4 competent PKers in Mikheyev, Hyman, Kerfoot, and Engvall, but not one of them is even average in the dot.

 

[Sypher04]

I think we still need an elite PKer who is excellent on draws. If Engvall makes the team, that gives us maybe 4 competent PKers in Mikheyev, Hyman, Kerfoot, and Engvall, but not one of them is even average in the dot.

At worst hopefully Malhotra can coach them on faceoffs

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Kerfoot Matthews Marner
Mikheyev Tavares Nylander
Robertson Thornton Hyman
Vesey Engvall Simmonds
Spezza

Why do you keep putting Spezza as the 13th forward when you know that's not happening

 

[weems]