I thought last off-season was concerning. Tre ended up salvaging it when Bertuzzi and Domi fell in his lap after Day 1. Reaves and Klingberg were awful signings (and I am OK with Reaves as a player)
This off-season has been very strong.
Yes, Matthews and Nylander could take a step back. Marner could be healthy and playing for a raise all year. Knies and McMann could take a next step. Domi could be second half Domi all year.
I'd disagree
I think klingberg was a case of right idea, wrong player. We needed a secondary offensive piece and a puck mover who could play pp1/2. Had he stayed healthy if he was capable of giving us 45-55 points that would've been good. I remember he had it in him to play somewhat tough as well when we played boston the first time and he gave marchand a dirty af crosscheck to the back.
Whether bertuzzi and domi fell into tre's lap or not, I still give him credit for getting those. Bertuzzi was the bunting replacement and at the time a huge upgrade, and domi was finally the 3C we needed but ended up being a marner-lite for us. Benoit ended up being a very nice pickup who is a solid bottom pairer too
reaves was questionable, especially giving him term but at least the caphit was low enough that it wasn't that big of an issue.
This season, we are banking nylander continuing off a career year where he was playing like mcdavid for the first quarter of it, matthews to continue to score 60+. Moreover, marner was still pacing for what he usually does, I don't expect him to get better, and I for sure don't see him eclipsing his 2021=2022 season pace either. Knies sure I could see taking a step forward to fill bertuzzi's role, but who take's knies's role? Mcmann is too much of a wildcard to make a statement on right now, He was incredibly useful in the 50ish games he played, but I wouldn't say I am thrilled with him being penciled in as a contributer. Domi also had a ton of success paired with AM and Bert who is no longer here, so I wonder how that goes. Finally, Tavares is going to continue to decline, next year he might not even be playable in a top 6 role (not that he was really this season either).
The additions were good, but IMO we sacrificed offence for defence and we don't really struggle defensively in the playoffs, so I am a bit confused as to why we went this route
True, but this time we made it to game 7 OT against a healthy Boston team who was expected to beat us with Matthews and Nylander out half the series, then Woll only playing 2 games when he was clearly the better option than Samsanov. Realistically a healthy Leafs team either of these seasons should be able to win some rounds, but of course we say that every year.
I had Boston in 7 because we can't beat boston, but from a pure lineup comparison, we should've blown them the f*** out like florida. Not having Matthews and Nylander should've made this a 50/50 series as it was essentially Marner-Tavares-Rielly vs Pastrnak-Marchand-Macavoy, which should be a good matchup. They had f***ing pavel zacha as their 1C and he looked like dogshit. Woll injured himself on a meaningless play at the end of game 6, he has already shown injury concerns and I am cautious about those.
The games matthews missed we won both of...and I don't think a healthy Matthews is doing anything more in game 7. He probably had his second best game 7/elimination game of his career behind 2022. The sample is big enough to show that he isn't a guy who is going to go out there and win you the game 7, hell he hasn't shown he can even be a key contributor consistently.
Sure nylander wasn't healthy and wasn't up to speed until game 5/6, but he still had 3G in 4 games and Idk how much better he would've been, especially paired with the playoff 4C tavares.
I don't want to attack you, but it just seems incredibly foolish to even say "but this time we made it to game 7 OT"... this isn't 2016-17 and/or we aren't the washington capitals. Morale victories don't matter, excuses don't matter, Winning does. these guys are in their respective primes and we can't win a round, what happens when they get over 30?
Idk I just feel like we make this sort of laundry list of things every offseason and try to use it as justification as to what happened. Sometimes we just need to realize what we did and are doing is not enough and maybe rethink the plan
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