Confirmed with Link: Leafs go 4-4-1 in expansion, Dermott, Kerfoot, McCann, exposed

[The CyNick]

It's one player, McCann, Kerfoot or Dermott. I hope we keep McCann but if we lose him, we paid very little to do so. Kerfoot wasn't really a problem last year.

I'm hoping they claim Price for the hilarity.

That may help division rival Montreal in the long run. Montreal has sneakily built a really solid foundation of players. Now, would I rather go to war in the playoffs with Carey Price instead of Jake Allen? I would. But do I think Montreal can make themselves even more dangerous with an extra $10M to spend? I do.

 

[ToneDog]

Tampa Bay is also in Cap Hell just like the Leafs, but that is something you would expect from a 2 X time Stanley Cup championship team and forced to cut roster players thereafter.

Cup winners often lose good players the following year even when there isn't an expansion draft, simply can't keep winning team talent together. Winning comes at a cost.

Tampa Bay actually needs Seattle to take one of their $5 mil forwards off their hands in Killorn, Palat, Gourde, Johnsson etc to become cap compliant so they're using the expansion draft to their advantage here as some of those forwards would need to go regardless. There is no shortage of talent at forward in TB behind their 4 they protected Kucherov, Stamkos, Point etc that they couldn't or wouldn't want to have gone 7-3-1.

If our Leafs had Killorn, Palat and Gourde would they be exposing all of them to protect Justin Holl? LOL.. Leafs have only McCann and Kerfoot and that required a trade to get to even 6 forwards to worth protecting so that only left 4-4-1 option.

Context is always important and in the Salary Cap world just follow the money $$ and you will find what is driving roster decisions.

Willing to give up your 5th best forward (Pittsburg's 8th best forward) rather than your 4th best dman says alot about our depth up front and our depth on D. Credit to Kyle who has pretty much added nothing up front in 3 years after the 4 haves of which he inherited 3.

After 3 years he managed to upgrade our D at the expense of our forwards. Our goaltending is questionable as well. But hey, Kyle gets to keep his job and try again because in these days, it is effort than counts, Who cares about results when you can print money ?

 

[ToneDog]

That may help division rival Montreal in the long run. Montreal has sneakily built a really solid foundation of players. Now, would I rather go to war in the playoffs with Carey Price instead of Jake Allen? I would. But do I think Montreal can make themselves even more dangerous with an extra $10M to spend? I do.

Seattle taking Price would be a Godsend for the Habs. Price has 4/5 more years at 10.5m. If he retires before that, Habs will be screwed like we were for Marleau. Imagine what a good GM could do with an extra 10.5m in cap space in 10 days.

 

[4thline]

Willing to give up your 5th best forward (Pittsburg's 8th best forward) rather than your 4th best dman says alot about our depth up front and our depth on D. Credit to Kyle who has pretty much added nothing up front in 3 years after the 4 haves of which he inherited 3. #Sad.

That our 4th best D is more valuable than our 5th best forward, and that we have the depth to absorb the loss of our 5th best forward.

 

[The CyNick]

Seattle taking Price would be a Godsend for the Habs. Price has 4/5 more years at 10.5m. If he retires before that, Habs will be screwed like we were for Marleau. Imagine what a good GM could do with an extra 10.5m in cap space in 10 days.

Yeah plus they will have Weber LTIR money to spend. Landeskog would look good for them.

 

[ToneDog]

That our 4th best D is more valuable than our 5th best forward, and that we have the depth to absorb the loss of our 5th best forward.

I see it more that we have very little behind our top 4. With Bogo leaving if you lose Holl, you are virtually f***ed ... again.

 

[The CyNick]

Seattle: "We're in a pickle with Toronto. It's like choosing between diarrhea or vomit. A #6 D who was healthy scratched numerous times last year. Or a 3.5 cap hit who paced for 11 goals/30 points last year. Good god. Can we just 'pass' on this one?"

Dubas: "Jeez, guys, I feel really bad about all of this. Give me 5 minutes."

Dubas: "Back. Alright guys. I just made a trade an will now expose a CHEAPER forward who paced for 26 goals and 60 points last year. Does that tickle your fancy?"

Seattle: "Aw shucks, thanks so much Dubas. You're always so willing to help out any team not named the Toronto Maple Leafs."

Dubas was voted by NHL agents as best GM to get a deal from, so this actually makes sense.

 

[4thline]

I see it more that we have very little behind our top 4. With Bogo leaving if you lose Holl, you are virtually f***ed ... again.

So our 4th D is more important and harder to replace than our 5th forward. A statement that holds true if you look at available UFA RHD capable of logging 20 minutes.

We could have 6 Jared McCann's signed for 1 million each and we'd be protecting Holl.
We could have traded Kerfoot away, not gotten McCann, and we'd be protecting Holl.

 

[ToneDog]

So our 4th D is more important and harder to replace than our 5th forward. A statement that holds true if you look at available UFA RHD capable of logging 20 minutes.

We could have 6 Jared McCann's signed for 1 million each and we'd be protecting Holl.
We could have traded Kerfoot away, not gotten McCann, and we'd be protecting Holl.

You make sense but would you protect Holl if the ED was last year and your 5th forward was Hyman ??

 

[Leaf Rocket]

Someone wanna explain me about Holl ( i neither for him or against him, genuinely curious)

 

[The CyNick]

So our 4th D is more important and harder to replace than our 5th forward. A statement that holds true if you look at available UFA RHD capable of logging 20 minutes.

We could have 6 Jared McCann's signed for 1 million each and we'd be protecting Holl.
We could have traded Kerfoot away, not gotten McCann, and we'd be protecting Holl.

I think it's also sad who the 4th D is the Leafs are protecting. I saw someone mentioned "well Tampa did it and they are the champs", well yeah but look at the quality of players they are protecting on D vs Leafs. And on forward they will lose someone good, whereas we're talking about losing bottom half forwards like McCann or Kerfoot. It's sad to see where the depth has gone thanks to Dubas' inability to negotiate good deals.

 

[The CyNick]

Someone wanna explain me about Holl ( i neither for him or against him, genuinely curious)

A lot of people really like him here. I see him as a 5-6 on an average team. Ideally he's your 6-7. But he's not making a ton, so this team has to slot him as a top 4.

 

[Mess]

Willing to give up your 5th best forward (Pittsburg's 8th best forward) rather than your 4th best dman says alot about our depth up front and our depth on D. Credit to Kyle who has pretty much added nothing up front in 3 years after the 4 haves of which he inherited 3. #Sad.

Tampa Bay has core of Kucherov, Stamkos, Point, Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy and could still afford 5 X $5 mil forwards in Killorn, Palat, Gourde, Cirelli and Johnsson..

Toronto has a core of Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Nylander = 1/2 their cap and a pair of $3 -$3.5 mil forwards as forwards #5 and #6 in McCann (now post trade) and Kerfoot, with one of them likely out the door.

Some Leafs fans are actually hoping Seattle takes Kerfoot as they even want his $3.5 mil cap back to reinvest elsewhere because Leafs $$$ are so limited, and or are relieved we already have his replacement McCann now as our 5th best forward replacement going forward so our forward depth isn't diminished even more. Where Hyman walking away as UFA and Kerfoot lost to expansion would have nothing but the core 4 and and bunch of bargain basement filler players making <$1 mil for cap reasons, none of which are worth protecting or wanted by even an expansion team.

 

[ToneDog]

Someone wanna explain me about Holl ( i neither for him or against him, genuinely curious)

What's to explain. Leafs protecting Holl because they do not have anybody else who can take his 20 minutes per game. The fact that he is worse playing with anybody other than Muzzin is irrelevant.

 

[4thline]

You make sense but would you protect Holl if the ED was last year and your 5th forward was Hyman ??

With his contract status that would be a tough call. It would also be a tougher call if Kerfoot was a 6'3 right handed, physical shutdown C and faceoff ace with the same level of offense.

But that's not a barometer of our depth, it's a discrete decision based on a comparison of the value/replacement difficulty of two players

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

Someone wanna explain me about Holl ( i neither for him or against him, genuinely curious)

He's on a very affordable deal, and seems to work with with Muzzin.

 

[deprw]

Given how well of a fit McCann would have been on LW in Toronto and how useless Kerfoot is to Toronto. That would leave me pretty bitter. This was an easy situation to deal with coming in. Let them take Kerfoot and gain 3.5M in cap space for the next 2 years. Dermott wasn't close enough in talent to Kerfoot and Seattle needs a center. When the dust settles, now move that cap to fill in the roster with pieces like McCann.

Who was it that said there was no side deal? I think I saw an Athletic article or the start of it with James Mirtle or someone like him, but I think that may have been his own speculation.

How useless Kerfoot was for us in playoffs? This is stupid comment. He isn't useless and is easily tradeable if we want to get rid of his cap hit.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

If they take Mccann, it's essentially like them taking option 1. We would have lost nothing, other than Hallander and a 7th.

So if the Leafs had acquired MacKinnon for Hallander and a 7th, you’d be ok with him being left exposed by Dubas because “it’s essentially like them taking option #1”?

 

[4thline]

I found it ironic that some Dubasites ripped Lou for protecting Martin and Clutterbuck over Eberle and Bailey. Clearly Lou is trying to dump a $5 AAV while Dubas and many Leaf fans hope to dump Kerfoot's 3.5m AAV. The pot calling the kettle black ??

With rumours of Lou looking to go big game hunting on Aug 1 any team with need of a LW or G should be waiting in the weeds to pounce on Sorokin/Beauvillier. He's made the moves to give himself space to keep a good young group together, but I'm getting a Devils June 2013 vibe from this offseason

 

[Racer88]

Tampa Bay has core of Kucherov, Stamkos, Point, Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy and could still afford 5 X $5 mil forwards in Killorn, Palat, Gourde, Cirelli and Johnsson..

Toronto has a core of Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Nylander = 1/2 their cap and a pair of $3 -$3.5 mil forwards as forwards #5 and #6 in McCann (now post trade) and Kerfoot, with one of them likely out the door.

Some Leafs fans are actually hoping Seattle takes Kerfoot as they even want his $3.5 mil cap back to reinvest elsewhere because Leafs $$$ are so limited, and or are relieved we already have his replacement McCann now as our 5th best forward replacement going forward so our forward depth isn't even diminished even more. Where Hyman walking away as UFA and Kerfoot lost to expansion would have nothing but the core 4 and and bunch of bargain basement filler players making <$1 mil for cap reasons, none of which are worth protecting or wanted by even an expansion team.

This is the model that Dubas and Shanny have chosen. When one of the 4 gets hurt, 2 of the 4 play like crap and only 1 earns his money………you choke and go golfing

 

[leafsfan2point0]

Kraken fans are under the impression the leafs have a deal with them to take Kerfoot

 

[Magic Man]

How useless Kerfoot was for us in playoffs? This is stupid comment. He isn't useless and is easily tradeable if we want to get rid of his cap hit.

If they want to move him, now would be the time to do it. They wouldn't guard against it. He is expensive at 3.5M for his production. He is very poor at faceoffs for a center making him better suited to the wing. He is also undersized and soft. I think he should have trade value, but minimal. But, if he is left after the draft, they just made a move that insures he doesn't get moved, so he'll be here this October.

 

[deprw]

If they want to move him, now would be the time to do it. They wouldn't guard against it. He is expensive at 3.5M for his production. He is very poor at faceoffs for a center making him better suited to the wing. He is also undersized and soft. I think he should have trade value, but minimal. But, if he is left after the draft, they just made a move that insures he doesn't get moved, so he'll be here this October.

We just value him differently. He was pretty good for us in the playoffs and that has been pretty much the mark if player is worth his contract here or not. If you look FA lists there isn't that much more intriguing centers on the list that can be had cheaper and usually those command high value on trades too. Therefore picking McCann for Hallander was good move and insured that we had 3rd line C in place before FA. It's even thinner on RHD which is reason why we protected Holl. There are few RHD that can easily replace Holl but for under 2mil there isn't that much choice.

I don't lose my sleep over expansion draft. We're in better shape now than we were before after adding McCann.

 

[4thline]

Defense finally in good shape after more than a decade
"Hey guyths, why didn't dumbdumb completely ignore our defense to focus on depth our forwards"

 

[Nylanderthal]

No, it isn't.

The acquisition of McCann cost Hallander and a 7th. Transaction over.

Now comes the Expansion Draft. Completely separate, not tied to the previous one.

But then how will mess be able make make Dubas look bad here?