writing was on the wall with this one and will be interesting to see how he does but hope there isn't a NMC cause i'm still not buying what they are selling. To many years at this point. piling onto a faulty foundation imo
In order to be a middle of the pack team, leafs need all (if not most) of this to happen:
- Raddysh to be the player he was last year (not the one he's been the rest of his career)
- Tanev to be healthy and return to form
- Matthews to be health and return to form
- JT to maintain production
- Rely on a rookie to produce at a top 6 rate if not better
- One of three goalies who have never been able to be starters to be a starter
Optimistic take, not having your next 2 first makes it ok to be a treadmill team for a bit longer and maybe Matthews improves his value and trade him at deadline of 2027 / 28 season.