Do you think this team is better or worse going into next season?

[Mess]

The Salary Cap went up +$5 mil dollars from last season .

Minus

Matthews @$11.64 mil raise to $13.25 mil = +$1.61 mil & Nylander @ $7 mil raise up to $11.5 mil = +$4.5 mil = Totals raises = $6.11 mil combined

= - $1.11k Less cap space than last year for rest of team despite + $5 mil Cap max increase = less supporting help..

Leafs top line goes from Hyman (2021-22) --> Bunting (2022-23) ---> Bertuzzi (2023-24) ---> Nobody in (2024-25) as Bertuzzi walks and no cap space to replace him.

New top line XXXX --- Matthews -- Marner, where now missing and non-replaced player XXXX is required to supply secondary playoff scoring when core 4 chokes again next year.

Math for change Cap IN vs. Cap OUT
--------------------------------------------
Cap IN $$ ------- Chris Tanev ($4.5 mil) + OEL ($3.5 mil) + Anthony Stolarz ( $2.5 mil) + Hakanpaa ($1.5 mil ) + Domi re-sgned (+450K raise) + AM & WN raises (+1.1 mil) = $13.55 mil
Cap OUT $$ ----- Bertuzzi ($5.5 mil ) + Brodie ($5.0 mil) + Samsonov ($3.55 mil) + Giodando ($800k) = $14.85 mil

Leafs currently have enough free cap space to add a player making $955k to add to TOP LINE.

 

[BlueBaron]

I voted better because our blueline is better but if Woll is injured multiple times this year it will be grim.

 

[Evilhomer]

I voted better because our blueline is better but if Woll is injured multiple times this year it will be grim.

I suspect that he won't have the same injury issues the more he plays, but even if he does I doubt it will have any impact on the team in the regular season. There is so much talent on the team that it will win most regular season games no matter who is in net.

 

[Racer88]

The Salary Cap went up +$5 mil dollars from last season .

Minus

Matthews @$11.64 mil raise to $13.25 mil = +$1.61 mil & Nylander @ $7 mil raise up to $11.5 mil = +$4.5 mil = Totals raises = $6.11 mil combined

= - $1.11k Less cap space than last year for rest of team despite + $5 mil Cap max increase = less supporting help..

Leafs top line goes from Hyman (2021-22) --> Bunting (2022-23) ---> Bertuzzi (2023-24) ---> Nobody in (2024-25) as Bertuzzi walks and no cap space to replace him.

New top line XXXX --- Matthews -- Marner, where now missing and non-replaced player XXXX is required to supply secondary playoff scoring when core 4 chokes again next year.

Math for change Cap IN vs. Cap OUT
--------------------------------------------
Cap IN $$ ------- Chris Tanev ($4.5 mil) + OEL ($3.5 mil) + Anthony Stolarz ( $2.5 mil) + Hakanpaa ($1.5 mil ) + Domi re-sgned (+450K raise) + AM & WN raises (+1.1 mil) = $13.55 mil
Cap OUT $$ ----- Bertuzzi ($5.5 mil ) + Brodie ($5.0 mil) + Samsonov ($3.55 mil) + Giodando ($800k) = $14.85 mil

View attachment 895553

Leafs currently have enough free cap space to add a player making $955k to add to TOP LINE.

And some people still think our cap allocation isn’t hurting us

 

[tokyoite]

voted better because we have a good coach named craig berube.

 

[conFABulator]

And some people still think our cap allocation isn’t hurting us

Every contending team faces cap crunches and most take a step back because of them. The Athletic just rated the Leafs off-season as the eighth best and they made a point of saying it was better than Florida, Tampa and Boston.

The ledger you quotes shows that we replaced Giordano with Hakanpaa, Brodie won't OEL, Samsonov with Stolarz, and converted F strength to defensive doeth and strength with Tanev in for Bertuzzi.

Aren't we better with each on of those moves? We could have kept Bertuzzi with the Tanev + $955K. We chose to build the D.

We need to promote and improve from within. Knies takes Bertuzzi's role, McMann takes Knies, Cowan or Grebyonkin takes McMann's, Robertson and Holmberg continue to develop and improve.
.
Next is internal replacements for Kampf and Jarnkrok with Minten, Quillan, Tverberg and/or Hirvonen.

 

[Mess]

Every move away from Dubas is a move toward more anticipated success .

Swapping an OHL coach in Keefe for a recent Stanley Cup winner in Berube already makes the Leafs infinitely better. The number of times Keefe got outcoached and embarrassed Leaf Nation one has already lost count.. We're well beyond earning respect in a handshake line to make one feel goood from our coach.

As soon as Woll replaced Samsonov in the playoffs the Leafs chances of winning went up.. Brodie and grampa Gio sat in the pressbox during the playoffs and the Leafs were better..

Now Samsonov and his below <.900 sv% is gone,replaced by Stolarz and Tanev and OEL replace Brodie and Gio, so again massive improvement.

Lots of real possitive moves in the right direction..

However until this Core 4 is no more and we get out from a couple of these crippling $11 mil contracts to be able to add quality depth rounding out the team it will struggle because this Core 4 can't carry a playoff team to success.

 

[Da Mash]

Hard to say as we have no idea how are PK will be.
We won’t miss Bert IMHO but I don’t think Domi is a top 6 player.
Everyone looks good playing with AM.

Will Woll be healthy? Will Reilly defensive issues expose Tanev?
Is OEL a top 4 D? or will he go back to being his old self?

Hard to say if we will be better. I’m still not sure if Berube is the right coach or if he will be any better than Keefer. He hasn’t had this much talent before so we will find out early in the season.

Let’s hope Tanev can stay healthy and our goalies are more consistent.

Because if will be the same ole questions again….and it won’t matter how much Berube yells at the players

 

[weems]

If the roster stays similar to what it currently is, OEL and Liljegren will decide alot of this teams ceiling.
I can easily see a paring of Rielly - Tanev being very good and Benoit - McCabe worked well together last season. They don't currently make that much money so in theory you can see them as a third pairing and would potentially be one of the better third pairings.

That leaves OEL and Liljegren. There probably isn't a more polarizing player on the Leafs than Liljegren. I see both sides of this debate and that he has clear talent and a skillset to excel but has also has trouble finding consistency and has had some bad moments. The range of outcomes with Liljegren next season is very wide. You can almost make a similar argument on OEL in that he has clear skill, is a effective puck mover which our team needs but also has some questions and was last season somewhat or a turnaround or was it just playing on a great team with some favourable usage.

If these two play good, our defensive unit looks pretty strong 1-6 but if they dont, all the sudden things get murky and you might be relying too much on the Benoit-McCabe pairing to face top competition.

 

[Fogelhund]

If the roster stays similar to what it currently is, OEL and Liljegren will decide alot of this teams ceiling.
I can easily see a paring of Rielly - Tanev being very good and Benoit - McCabe worked well together last season. They don't currently make that much money so in theory you can see them as a third pairing and would potentially be one of the better third pairings.

That leaves OEL and Liljegren. There probably isn't a more polarizing player on the Leafs than Liljegren. I see both sides of this debate and that he has clear talent and a skillset to excel but has also has trouble finding consistency and has had some bad moments. The range of outcomes with Liljegren next season is very wide. You can almost make a similar argument on OEL in that he has clear skill, is a effective puck mover which our team needs but also has some questions and was last season somewhat or a turnaround or was it just playing on a great team with some favourable usage.

If these two play good, our defensive unit looks pretty strong 1-6 but if they dont, all the sudden things get murky and you might be relying too much on the Benoit-McCabe pairing to face top competition.

Agree that if our players play well, we should do ok, and if they don't, we won't. I wonder if the pairings will be a bit different, to have a physical/defensive guy on each pairing, and a puck moving guy.

Something more like

Mo- Tanev
McCabe - Lilly/OEL
Benoit - Lilly/OEL

I think some of our success will also depend on the emergence of the younger players... Knies, Robertson, Cowan, Minten, Grebyonkin and while not young he's still relatively new McMann

 

[weems]

Agree that if our players play well, we should do ok, and if they don't, we won't. I wonder if the pairings will be a bit different, to have a physical/defensive guy on each pairing, and a puck moving guy.

Something more like

Mo- Tanev
McCabe - Lilly/OEL
Benoit - Lilly/OEL

I think some of our success will also depend on the emergence of the younger players... Knies, Robertson, Cowan, Minten, Grebyonkin and while not young he's still relatively new McMann

Yep the pairings I posted might not end up but regardless I think we need both these defencemen to play well.
If they do, you're getting around solid 2nd pairing value but if they don't play well, you've got a decent amount of cap put towards those two bottom pairing type guys and our depth on defence comes into play.

On this site you'll see ratings on Lilly's game anywhere from willing to pay him around 5 million per to others thinking he's closer to a #7.

 

[thusk]

Hard to say as we have no idea how are PK will be.
We won’t miss Bert IMHO but I don’t think Domi is a top 6 player.
Everyone looks good playing with AM.

Will Woll be healthy? Will Reilly defensive issues expose Tanev?
Is OEL a top 4 D? or will he go back to being his old self?

Hard to say if we will be better. I’m still not sure if Berube is the right coach or if he will be any better than Keefer. He hasn’t had this much talent before so we will find out early in the season.

Let’s hope Tanev can stay healthy and our goalies are more consistent.

Because if will be the same ole questions again….and it won’t matter how much Berube yells at the players

Domi played just 15% of regular season with Matthews and Bertuzzi and he had same kind of production/60M playing with Robertson and Jarnkrok than on matthews line... and he still had 44 pts at 5v5, same number of marner who missed game and 1 less than nylander. If he's not a top 6 guy, i don't know what you really need...

Rielly had a lot of leafs along side Boosh, Schenn, Hainsey and those kind of D and Tanrv is easily the best of those guy, so dont know why he should not working ?!?!?!

Oel played in florida top 4 pratically half of last regular season with montour/ekblad injury... I don't know why he should not be able to do the same in Toronto as 4th?

If the roster stays similar to what it currently is, OEL and Liljegren will decide alot of this teams ceiling.
I can easily see a paring of Rielly - Tanev being very good and Benoit - McCabe worked well together last season. They don't currently make that much money so in theory you can see them as a third pairing and would potentially be one of the better third pairings.

That leaves OEL and Liljegren. There probably isn't a more polarizing player on the Leafs than Liljegren. I see both sides of this debate and that he has clear talent and a skillset to excel but has also has trouble finding consistency and has had some bad moments. The range of outcomes with Liljegren next season is very wide. You can almost make a similar argument on OEL in that he has clear skill, is a effective puck mover which our team needs but also has some questions and was last season somewhat or a turnaround or was it just playing on a great team with some favourable usage.

If these two play good, our defensive unit looks pretty strong 1-6 but if they dont, all the sudden things get murky and you might be relying too much on the Benoit-McCabe pairing to face top competition.

I dont think leafs will have a specific pair to play against top opposite matchup and i expect to see Oel staring on left side of Mccabe

 

[weems]

Domi played just 15% of regular season with Matthews and Bertuzzi and he had same kind of production/60M playing with Robertson and Jarnkrok than on matthews line... and he still had 44 pts at 5v5, same number of marner who missed game and 1 less than nylander. If he's not a top 6 guy, i don't know what you really need...

Rielly had a lot of leafs along side Boosh, Schenn, Hainsey and those kind of D and Tanrv is easily the best of those guy, so dont know why he should not working ?!?!?!

Oel played in florida top 4 pratically half of last regular season with montour/ekblad injury... I don't know why he should not be able to do the same in Toronto as 4th?



I dont think leafs will have a specific pair to play against top opposite matchup and i expect to see Oel staring on left side of Mccabe

I could see that happening also.
I really liked the Benoit-McCabe combo tho and thought Benoit played by far his best hockey alongside McCabe.
They just seemed to have good chemistry and read the play well.

 

[Punch Drunk Loov]

Likely have a better regular season as a whole. Same playoff result incoming however

 

[-DeMo-]

The Salary Cap went up +$5 mil dollars from last season .

Minus

Matthews @$11.64 mil raise to $13.25 mil = +$1.61 mil & Nylander @ $7 mil raise up to $11.5 mil = +$4.5 mil = Totals raises = $6.11 mil combined

= - $1.11k Less cap space than last year for rest of team despite + $5 mil Cap max increase = less supporting help..

Leafs top line goes from Hyman (2021-22) --> Bunting (2022-23) ---> Bertuzzi (2023-24) ---> Nobody in (2024-25) as Bertuzzi walks and no cap space to replace him.

New top line XXXX --- Matthews -- Marner, where now missing and non-replaced player XXXX is required to supply secondary playoff scoring when core 4 chokes again next year.

Math for change Cap IN vs. Cap OUT
--------------------------------------------
Cap IN $$ ------- Chris Tanev ($4.5 mil) + OEL ($3.5 mil) + Anthony Stolarz ( $2.5 mil) + Hakanpaa ($1.5 mil ) + Domi re-sgned (+450K raise) + AM & WN raises (+1.1 mil) = $13.55 mil
Cap OUT $$ ----- Bertuzzi ($5.5 mil ) + Brodie ($5.0 mil) + Samsonov ($3.55 mil) + Giodando ($800k) = $14.85 mil

View attachment 895553

Leafs currently have enough free cap space to add a player making $955k to add to TOP LINE.

Bertuzzi didn't even play on the top line until Marner got hurt. Knies spent the first 50-60 games up there.

 

[Fogelhund]

Bertuzzi didn't even play on the top line until Marner got hurt. Knies spent the first 50-60 games up there.

About a quarter of his TOI last season, 5v5 was with Matthews line.

Line Combinations - Frozen Tools

NHL line combinations, NHL lineups from dobberhockey.com

frozenpool.dobbersports.com

As you suggest, Knies was the most common linemate on the Left Side, for Matthews.

Line Combinations - Frozen Tools

NHL line combinations, NHL lineups from dobberhockey.com

frozenpool.dobbersports.com

 

[BlueBaron]

I suspect that he won't have the same injury issues the more he plays, but even if he does I doubt it will have any impact on the team in the regular season. There is so much talent on the team that it will win most regular season games no matter who is in net.

Well only the post season matters at this point. That is my concern. We are a great regular season team and would make the playoffs with any goalie probably.

Thing about Woll is he has the potential to be a solid starter if not a very good one. If he could stay healthy the position becomes a strength.

 

[thusk]

I could see that happening also.
I really liked the Benoit-McCabe combo tho and thought Benoit played by far his best hockey alongside McCabe.
They just seemed to have good chemistry and read the play well.

Benoit finishing with mccabe a little by default

Brodie was bad last year
Gio was done
Liljegren was a lot of up and down and pretty inconsistent to play on a top 4... So what was the real option left?

Benoit is a find and a great value on 3rd pair but you need a better option on your top 4

 

[Da Mash]

Domi played just 15% of regular season with Matthews and Bertuzzi and he had same kind of production/60M playing with Robertson and Jarnkrok than on matthews line... and he still had 44 pts at 5v5, same number of marner who missed game and 1 less than nylander. If he's not a top 6 guy, i don't know what you really need...

Rielly had a lot of leafs along side Boosh, Schenn, Hainsey and those kind of D and Tanrv is easily the best of those guy, so dont know why he should not working ?!?!?!

Oel played in florida top 4 pratically half of last regular season with montour/ekblad injury... I don't know why he should not be able to do the same in Toronto as 4th?



I dont think leafs will have a specific pair to play against top opposite matchup and i expect to see Oel staring on left side of Mccabe

I never mentioned that Tanev isn’t Reilly best partner. But with his age, injuries happpen and then we are scrambling again to find Reilly a partner.

I don’t care what Domi did last year. He has been on 7 teams in 9 yrs. If he is so good why don’t teams keep him? He is also a big liability defensively.

But us leaf fans sure like to hype our players especially when their old man is some sort of icon in leaf land.

OEL benefitted playing in Florida system. His track record before that wasn’t that great IMHO.

I hope you are right about these guys but I have a feeling they may both be the whipping boys during the season.

 

[Dough72]

Liljegren due for a big year. Leg injuries sometimes throw a guys timing off off for a full year. Good chance he starts ascending again.

 

[Da Cool Rula]

I'm really looking forward to the season. Mainly because Keefe is gone and Berube is in. I think thats going to be significant for some players. I can see more of the game 2 Matthews coming. Hope he plays with Domi again.

I'm intrigued by the defence & the potential of our goalies. Biggest concern ofcourse is the bottom 6. I don't see improvement there.... yet.

Would love to see one more physical forward added though.

Liljegren due for a big year. Leg injuries sometimes throw a guys timing off off for a full year. Good chance he starts ascending again.

Hes definitely on my radar too.

 

[thusk]

I never mentioned that Tanev isn’t Reilly best partner. But with his age, injuries happpen and then we are scrambling again to find Reilly a partner.

I don’t care what Domi did last year. He has been on 7 teams in 9 yrs. If he is so good why don’t teams keep him? He is also a big liability defensively.

But us leaf fans sure like to hype our players especially when their old man is some sort of icon in leaf land.

OEL benefitted playing in Florida system. His track record before that wasn’t that great IMHO.

I hope you are right about these guys but I have a feeling they may both be the whipping boys during the season.

Florida system from a team who was higher than 15 in D like twice in last 10-15 year and one of those season was the covid-19 season where they played all their game against the same team...

You know hainsey started to play with rielly 4 year older than tanev right now?

Domi no he's not the best guy and inconsistent in regular season wi5h his level of energy but he always been good in playoff

 

[Da Mash]

Florida system from a team who was higher than 15 in D like twice in last 10-15 year and one of those season was the covid-19 season where they played all their game against the same team...

You know hainsey started to play with rielly 4 year older than tanev right now?

Domi no he's not the best guy and inconsistent in regular season wi5h his level of energy but he always been good in playoff

Well we didn’t sign Hainsey to a 6 yr contract and rightfully so.

Domi is what he is I’m afraid. I do like how he played with AM but I have a feeling he won’t be in top 6 for very long. Hopefully Berube is good for him …and lights a fire under his butt to play better defensively….

 

[notbias]

That 34 year old was, as of the last game he played in 2024, arguably the best defensive defensemen in the league. There is no question that in 4 years he will degrade, but who cares. The same goes for the guy who was bought out and subsequently became a key player on a Cup winning team. What happens to this team in 4 years is irrelevant. It's all about the next two or three years. If they don't win the Cup during that stretch, this will transition to a rebuild.

He was not the best defensive D in the league.

The issue is, when does he start to fall off, and how quickly? TJ Brodie was considered a top defensive player and dropped off quickly (think it is more mental).

Does Tanev have any more good years of being a top defender? Most likely, yes. Does he have 6 years? Almost certainly no. So where does it land? Is it 1 more year? 2 years? 4 years?

 

[therealkoho]

Obviously much better, in fact I'm thinking that it's finally the year.

A much improved blueline and a few forwards who are about to blossom, and maybe finally hopefully some goaltending. Stay healthy Joe