How aggressive should the Leafs be at the deadline? New Poll Option Added

[Confucius]

Well we shouldn’t go overboard with the aggression at TDL, we still have to keep some of our good players, after all we need to ice an NHL calibre team next season but for the right price anybody can go.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

The leafs are 2-3 pieces away on forward (3rd line center and 2 middle 6 additions) and at least one dman away. (Top 4)You are not getting 4 pieces this deadline so stand pat.

What a lazy and cowardly way of thinking, and not even true.

If you bring in a 3rd line center you can boost your midd 6 wing depth by shifting Doim to the wing where he should be and should have been all season.

But they don't have the proper 3rd line center needed to do that right now.

But if you brought in a ROR or a Ryan Strome or a Yanni Groude, and yes I know Yanni Groude is hurt right now but he's scheduled to return in March.

If you brought in a quality 3C al lot of those forward issues are solved.

Knies Matthews Marner

Patches Tavares Nylander

Domi Groude Mcmann

Now you could swap Patches and Mcmann but that's not really important.

What's important is showing what adding a 3rd line center does.

It allows you to move Domi to the wing where he should be and by doing that your middle 6 wing issue is all but fixed.

What 2 sources?

 

[thusk]

What a lazy and cowardly way of thinking, and not even true.

If you bring in a 3rd line center you can boost your midd 6 wing depth by shifting Doim to the wing where he should be and should have been all season.

But they don't have the proper 3rd line center needed to do that right now.

But if you brought in a ROR or a Ryan Strome or a Yanni Groude, and yes I know Yanni Groude is hurt right now but he's scheduled to return in March.

If you brought in a quality 3C al lot of those forward issues are solved.

Knies Matthews Marner

Patches Tavares Nylander

Domi Groude Mcmann

Now you could swap Patches and Mcmann but that's not really important.

What's important is showing what adding a 3rd line center does.

It allows you to move Domi to the wing where he should be and by doing that your middle 6 wing issue is all but fixed.

What 2 sources?

I will add

adding a 3C will maybe allowing leafs to split marner/matthews and nylander. The best series nylander had was with kerfoot and galchenyuk, best playoff marner ever had was with plekanec/ marleau both 35+. If you've got those 3 guy driving their line and you having 3 pretty strong and balanced line

 

[ULF_55]

Farabee is a 5M player who had been outplayed at 5v5 by
-Konecny
-michkov
- Cates
- Couturier
-Laughton
- Foerster
-Brink
-Tippett
-hattaway
- Poehling

Philly are just happy to get rid of Farabee 5M and i really hope tre stay far away of 5M bottom 6 player

Probably a good thing the Flames only gave up a 2nd. round pick and scraps then. Although, Pelletier was a nice guy.

 

[Apex Predator]

What a lazy and cowardly way of thinking, and not even true.

If you bring in a 3rd line center you can boost your midd 6 wing depth by shifting Doim to the wing where he should be and should have been all season.

But they don't have the proper 3rd line center needed to do that right now.

But if you brought in a ROR or a Ryan Strome or a Yanni Groude, and yes I know Yanni Groude is hurt right now but he's scheduled to return in March.

If you brought in a quality 3C al lot of those forward issues are solved.

Knies Matthews Marner

Patches Tavares Nylander

Domi Groude Mcmann

Now you could swap Patches and Mcmann but that's not really important.

What's important is showing what adding a 3rd line center does.

It allows you to move Domi to the wing where he should be and by doing that your middle 6 wing issue is all but fixed.

What 2 sources?

Coward for an opinion on the leafs that has no affect on my life whether they win or lose? It’s sports don’t take it serious and let it affect your life.

 

[Stephen]

Yeah, that's completely fair. Contention window is now, the core guys aren't getting any younger. Tough position to be in, but there definitely has to be some kind of push to make this year a contending year.

I don’t agree with this all in now approach every year even when the star players aren’t doing anything to suggest they’re ready to take the next level. I don’t see the same kind of panic contention out of teams like Dallas or Vegas or even Colorado. They’re in it and they’re looking to add but it’s never a last ditch all in we need to mortgage the future now approach. Cap is going up, contracts coming up, structural change can happen. Just keep an eye for the medium term health of the program as a whole.

 

[Evilhomer]

I love reading these threads during a losing streak, and then coming back to them after the Leafs have won 4 or 5 in a row.

 

[Apex Predator]

I love reading these threads during a losing streak, and then coming back to them after the Leafs have won 4 or 5 in a row.

Right! Lots of stuff said during win streaks all of sudden get replies and vice versa. Love the passion leaf fans have and we deserve to see them win the Stanley cup.

 

[seanlinden]

There's a lot to like about where the Leafs are in the standings right now...hovering back and forth on 1st in the division... having battled lots of injuries... winning a ton of close games...

But, you look at the roster itself, and you can't help but feeling that they are probably 3 quality skaters and one of their goalies getting "hot" away from making a real run.

Their 1st line I don't think there's a ton to complain about.

Their 2nd line, of Pacioretty-Tavares-Nylander when healthy, not a ton to complain about, but I feel like Max Pacioretty is more of a "4th line winger that steps up" on a deep-running playoff team. A LW should probably be on the radar.

Their 3rd line (McMann-Domi-Robertson) is a bit of a tire-fire, to be honest. They don't produce anywhere near enough, and have to be substantially sheltered. I feel like if they can get a real 3rd line centre in place of Nick Robertson on the way out, then that would go a long way to giving them a bunch of depth and flexibility.

The 4th line, with the theoretical remaining pieces -- Dewar, Pacioretty, Kampf, Lorentz and Reaves -- all good.

On D, McCabe-Tanev is a pairing that you love to have... but ideally, you probably want a much better partner for Rielly than OEL, and let OEL play the 3rd pair alongside Benoit, Timmins or Myers.

Considering their current cap position, there doesn't seem to be a clear way to add 1 of these impact players, nevermind the 3 that they should probably be shopping for.

 

[Stephen]

There's a lot to like about where the Leafs are in the standings right now...hovering back and forth on 1st in the division... having battled lots of injuries... winning a ton of close games...

But, you look at the roster itself, and you can't help but feeling that they are probably 3 quality skaters and one of their goalies getting "hot" away from making a real run.

Their 1st line I don't think there's a ton to complain about.

Their 2nd line, of Pacioretty-Tavares-Nylander when healthy, not a ton to complain about, but I feel like Max Pacioretty is more of a "4th line winger that steps up" on a deep-running playoff team. A LW should probably be on the radar.

Their 3rd line (McMann-Domi-Robertson) is a bit of a tire-fire, to be honest. They don't produce anywhere near enough, and have to be substantially sheltered. I feel like if they can get a real 3rd line centre in place of Nick Robertson on the way out, then that would go a long way to giving them a bunch of depth and flexibility.

The 4th line, with the theoretical remaining pieces -- Dewar, Pacioretty, Kampf, Lorentz and Reaves -- all good.

On D, McCabe-Tanev is a pairing that you love to have... but ideally, you probably want a much better partner for Rielly than OEL, and let OEL play the 3rd pair alongside Benoit, Timmins or Myers.

Considering their current cap position, there doesn't seem to be a clear way to add 1 of these impact players, nevermind the 3 that they should probably be shopping for.

There’s too many holes to cover and we can ill afford throwing away futures that don’t have medium to long term positive impact on the team. You get a building block, outer core guy who can grow, that would be an acceptable add. You add a bandaid that walks in July, we suddenly have less assets for 2026 and beyond.

 

[ULF_55]

Don't sit on your crummy laurels

 

[kevsh]

There’s too many holes to cover and we can ill afford throwing away futures that don’t have medium to long term positive impact on the team.

That's been the problem every single Trade Deadline with this team, but at least last year Treliving realized it (or just realized he didn't have many assets to work with) and kept things modest.

I'm hoping he does so again this year. This team - still - isn't built for a Cup run. Maybe the huge cap increases over the next couple of years will help that out as Brad will $10s of millions in cap space to build out the bottom 6 and maybe even get a legit top-pairing guy to put alongside Tanev.

But until then, nothing more than maybe some forward depth or a bargain bin 3C who hopefully over-achieves to provide some bottom-6 scoring. Otherwise, let's wait and see how things play out (1st round exit or 2nd?) and make any major moves this Summer (Wave bye to Marner? And/or JT? Big game hunting?).

 

[thusk]

There’s too many holes to cover and we can ill afford throwing away futures that don’t have medium to long term positive impact on the team. You get a building block, outer core guy who can grow, that would be an acceptable add. You add a bandaid that walks in July, we suddenly have less assets for 2026 and beyond.

Every team having hole and will not been able to fix all those hole. A team without any hole just doesn't exist

 

[indigobuffalo]

Well we shouldn’t go overboard with the aggression at TDL, we still have to keep some of our good players, after all we need to ice an NHL calibre team next season but for the right price anybody can go.

With the cap jumping I would think we can be really aggressive in the free agent market in the summer to fill in gaps created by being aggressive at the trade deadline.

Even at the draft the Leafs can probably work out some magic with eating cap dumps or retaining to get replacement picks, if they felt they needed to restock the cupboard.

 

[ULF_55]

With the cap jumping I would think we can be really aggressive in the free agent market in the summer to fill in gaps created by being aggressive at the trade deadline.

Even at the draft the Leafs can probably work out some magic with eating cap dumps or retaining to get replacement picks, if they felt they needed to restock the cupboard.

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Some of their existing deals will look a lot better with the increases.

Realistically, Tavares and marner are UFA, Knies is RFA and the rest are depth players that should be easy to replace.

 

[Ports]

A #3 for sure and a partner for Morgan. Bring Luke back, they looked amazing together.
Tanev-McCabe and Rielly-Schenn would be awesome.

OEL- Schenn would be better.

 

[Ports]

There's a lot to like about where the Leafs are in the standings right now...hovering back and forth on 1st in the division... having battled lots of injuries... winning a ton of close games...

But, you look at the roster itself, and you can't help but feeling that they are probably 3 quality skaters and one of their goalies getting "hot" away from making a real run.

Their 1st line I don't think there's a ton to complain about.

Their 2nd line, of Pacioretty-Tavares-Nylander when healthy, not a ton to complain about, but I feel like Max Pacioretty is more of a "4th line winger that steps up" on a deep-running playoff team. A LW should probably be on the radar.

Their 3rd line (McMann-Domi-Robertson) is a bit of a tire-fire, to be honest. They don't produce anywhere near enough, and have to be substantially sheltered. I feel like if they can get a real 3rd line centre in place of Nick Robertson on the way out, then that would go a long way to giving them a bunch of depth and flexibility.

The 4th line, with the theoretical remaining pieces -- Dewar, Pacioretty, Kampf, Lorentz and Reaves -- all good.

On D, McCabe-Tanev is a pairing that you love to have... but ideally, you probably want a much better partner for Rielly than OEL, and let OEL play the 3rd pair alongside Benoit, Timmins or Myers.

Considering their current cap position, there doesn't seem to be a clear way to add 1 of these impact players, nevermind the 3 that they should probably be shopping for.

I have a slightly different take. Yes get a top four RD with term to play on the second pair but if Rielly doesn’t get his act together before the playoffs than he needs to play sheltered minutes on the bottom pair and Benoit can play in his place on the second pair. Can Max Domi play RW being a left hand shot ? If he can then he becomes Matthews RW with Knies on LW. Domi is incorrectly utilized as a centre and as a high end play maker will complement Matthews as he did last season when Marner was injured. Marner can play RW with Tavares and McMann and Nylander can drive a third line with a 3C brought in before the trade deadline and Robertson on LW. Fourth line is Kamp at centre with Patches or Dewar and Lorenz.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I have a slightly different take. Yes get a top four RD with term to play on the second pair but if Rielly doesn’t get his act together before the playoffs than he needs to play sheltered minutes on the bottom pair and Benoit can play in his place on the second pair. Can Max Domi play RW being a left hand shot ? If he can then he becomes Matthews RW with Knies on LW. Domi is incorrectly utilized as a centre and as a high end play maker will complement Matthews as he did last season when Marner was injured. Marner can play RW with Tavares and McMann and Nylander can drive a third line with a 3C brought in before the trade deadline and Robertson on LW. Fourth line is Kamp at centre with Patches or Dewar and Lorenz.

I'm not sure why you want our best, or at worst second-best, scorer to be on the third line with various leftovers.