Our top guys make too much money so we can't afford a quality bottom 6. Matthews 13M, Nylander 11M, Marner 11M, JT 11M. We're top heavy as shit. When you're that top heavy the people on the top have to produce. Period. If they can't then trade them so we can have a more balanced team. Two $6M forwards give you more playoff goals then Matthews over the last 15 playoff games.
Another excuse for the bottom half of the forwards group. They're getting off the hook far to easily year in and year out... Not expecting them to carry the team, but they need to be supporting the core in some way.
Robertson had 15g this year (poor play away from puck has cost him being in the lineup)
McMann had 20g this year
Laughton had 13g this year.
^ These players should be able to contribute offensively in some way come playoff time, they did it in the regular season.
Domi makes 3.8m (He's been ass this entire year & playoffs)
Jarnkork 2.2m (1g in 22games as a Leaf come playoffs)
Kampf 2.4m (Fairly expensive scratch).
^ These players aren't making chump change on the lower end of the lineup, they should provide something come playoffs.. Telling me it's too much to ask of all the players listed above to get 1 goal per series?
If every player in our bottom 6 scored 1g or even .5 of a goal, thats either 6 goals in the series or an extra 3.. You don't think that's a difference in the series? That's a win in game 4 or 5. But again with this iteration with the Leafs team, they are expected to score almost every goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Not disagreeing they need to carry come close out games, but god dam, give me a goal from our bottom 6 at somepoint)..