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It's time to have the conversation.

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Puckstuff said:
I’ll take another Hyman then

Ideally we can get someone with size and scoring for the 2nd/3rd line

A Manson/Savard type would be nice as well although I’ve been pretty happy with Bogosian but an upgrade wouldn’t hurt.

This could be the year... we need to put in the chips and go for it

I’m confident we’re better then 90 % of the league but Tampa looks fiercely good right now and they don’t even have Kucherov. We must beef up the bottom 6 and tighten up the defence even more to oust a team like that
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An interesting note on avoiding Tampa - after the first 2 divisional rounds, there’s a full re-seeding for the final 4 teams. Best record plays worst record, and the middle two match up. We have a chance to put up a really good record in the North division - Presidents trophy is a possibility. Obviously this is getting WAY ahead of ourselves, we might not even make it out of the North division, but ... if we finish with the best regular season record in the league, and make it to the conference finals, we’d play the worst record making it to that stage, maybe avoid Tampa.

Although, every division has scary teams. Central has Tampa/Dallas/Carolina, East has Boston/Philly/Washington, West has Colorado/Vegas/St. Louis. Any of those teams would be a tough matchup.
 
I'm all in favor of upgrades, but more than ever, this year I'm in favor of depth. A compressed schedule and Covid makes me think players who can replace injuries or illness without dragging down the line/position they take will be very important. At this point, I think our D looks competent/good and we've got enough of them to 'hold on' should someone get knocked out. I can see some concern with our offense, but there too, we've had some acceptable support from our 4th line folks and injuries have left us unable to evaluate or see the full potential of others. At F, imo the following could be moved: Barabanov, Engvall, Vesey, Petan, Brooks, with the smaller possibility of seeing guys like Mikheyev or Kerfoot traded to acquire more substantial replacements. Our prospects and draft picks round out our ammunition to acquire. I'd lean towards as much of an 'impact' player as possible, a solidly good 3C or a winger who can slot in with JT and Willy. I would not overpay for 'high upside' guys like Virtanen, Bennett, Mantha, but I'd take a flyer on one of them, but I'd do it early to let them be influenced by the locker room vibe that seems to exist here. If they cannot be swayed towards a committed buy-in when sitting beside the likes of Tavares, Spezza, Matthews, Muzzin, Thornton (when he returns), Bogo, etc., then they are lost causes. While Mantha might be the most enticing, his contract scares me. I can see one of Virtanen or Bennett because the commitment is much lower, though I'd probably lean towards Virtanen because I don't like Bennett's agent...biases and all that.
 
LEAFANFORLIFE23 said:
The fact the division is "weak" means nothing
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Please elaborate your position.
In my opinion if you are continually beating up on weaker teams gaining points you have not really tested yourselves against the tougher teams.
How do you think the Leafs would be doing if Boston and Tampa were in our division like a normal year?
We might do great but we might not and that’s my point. We just don’t know because we haven’t been tested against the best teams.
 
What this team needs most is to stay in a division like this. Win at least a round. Then face the Habs and see how good our Maple Leafs really are. No excuses.

Trading is nearly impossible. If the Leafs trade they will likely trade within the North. If Dubas is trading the sooner done the better. Get everyone healthy and figure it out.
 
ponder said:
We could use 1-2 more top 9 wingers. Marner and Nylander are stars, Hyman and Mikheyev are legit top 9 guys (Hyman fits well on lines 1-3, Mikheyev lines 2-3), but every other winger on the team is a 4th liner at best.
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Mmm not sure there. We have a bunch of guys down there who are or can be more than mere 4th liners imo.
 
Racer88 said:
Please elaborate your position.
In my opinion if you are continually beating up on weaker teams gaining points you have not really tested yourselves against the tougher teams.
How do you think the Leafs would be doing if Boston and Tampa were in our division like a normal year?
We might do great but we might not and that’s my point. We just don’t know because we haven’t been tested against the best teams.
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They can only play the teams on their schedule, it's not the Leafs fault covid happened, nor is it their fault they are in the division they are in, their job is to win games and so far they have done their job.
 
ponder said:
An interesting note on avoiding Tampa - after the first 2 divisional rounds, there’s a full re-seeding for the final 4 teams. Best record plays worst record, and the middle two match up. We have a chance to put up a really good record in the North division - Presidents trophy is a possibility. Obviously this is getting WAY ahead of ourselves, we might not even make it out of the North division, but ... if we finish with the best regular season record in the league, and make it to the conference finals, we’d play the worst record making it to that stage, maybe avoid Tampa.

Although, every division has scary teams. Central has Tampa/Dallas/Carolina, East has Boston/Philly/Washington, West has Colorado/Vegas/St. Louis. Any of those teams would be a tough matchup.
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Is that how it works (as opposed to north playing east) then Tampa, Boston, Toronto and Vegas would be reset based on points achieved????????????? If so I don't like either Bruins or Vegas matchup ... I'd rather have a high skill shooting matchup with tampa which we would have a shot at winning ... we don't do well against hard fast skilled grind it out teams
 
ponder said:
We could use 1-2 more top 9 wingers. Marner and Nylander are stars, Hyman and Mikheyev are legit top 9 guys (Hyman fits well on lines 1-3, Mikheyev lines 2-3), but every other winger on the team is a 4th liner at best.

Thornton and Vesey are not legit top 9 wingers, if we can get upgrades on 1 or 2 of them at the deadline, for a non-crazy cost, we should. Our division is the weakest it’ll be in some time, we’ve got a good chance to go to the conference finals, and then anything can happen. This is a pretty good year to go for it. And we’ll likely have a decent amount of cap space accumulated by the deadline, because injuries inevitably happen.

As for other upgrades ... I don’t really see it. Not sure we’ll find a significant upgrade in goal, Andersen/Campbell is a pretty good tandem. I like our D, and I’m happy with an Engvall/Spezza/Simmonds 4th line. Kerfoot is the only C who could maybe use a slight upgrade, but he’s pretty good, a significant upgrade (like Getzlaf) would be pricey. I’d rather focus on getting 1-2 more legit top 9 wingers.
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Agreed, there's a clear drop off after our top seven forwards where we get into the fringe NHL'ers that can only play 10-12 minutes (if that) in a compartmentalized role. Another couple wingers that can handle 13-16 minutes in various situations would really solidify our forward corps.

It's weird that we flipped from having forward depth to defensive depth in such short order.
 
ottomaddox said:
Speculation:

Because of the new hire in Pittsburgh do you think TOR could become a trade partner?
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They don't seem like the best of trading partners because both would be trying to compete now. Anything is possible though.
 
It's crazy how quickly the deadline will creep as well. If we want players coming up from the states we will need to act sooner than later!
 
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LEAFANFORLIFE23 said:
My guess is Rakell, because if it's a real top 6 winger it's likely going to be a significant price, a Dubas likes guys with term and Rakell does have another year.
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Term is a bit useless this year though with the expansion draft.

Foligno would be a nice add though.
 
zeke said:
Term is a bit useless this year though with the expansion draft.

Foligno would be a nice add though.
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He would but I'm not sure he qualifies as "top 6" and that's what Friedman said.

Floigno to me is more of a Simmonds replacement and he played just as much bottom 6 as top 6.

That's why I'm thinking Hall, Rakell etc.
 
LEAFANFORLIFE23 said:
He would but I'm not sure he qualifies as "top 6" and that's what Friedman said.

Floigno to me is more of a Simmonds replacement and he played just as much bottom 6 as top 6.

That's why I'm thinking Hall, Rakell etc.
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Nick foligno
 
zeke said:
Nick foligno
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I wonder how highly the Jackets GM values him? A few of their fans had crazy expectations on what they want back for him (Sandin+, Robertson+ lol). I would trade for him but max would pay is one of abramov/hallinder/hirvonen and a 2nd along with the cap balancing pieces engvall/dermott+vesey
 
LEAFANFORLIFE23 said:
I don't think there is a goalie issue, I think Freddy got off tp a slow start like he does every year and is now settling in.
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That inconsistencies is really an issue when you're on a contending team. It's ok to have a few bad nights through the season but to give up easy goals in any given game is not good for team moral.
 
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