Speculation: Loyalty

[TonsofPuppies]

With Mitch Marner's time as a Leaf quickly coming to an end, the concept of loyalty has been at the forefront of my mind. It was the downfall of Shanahan - being too loyal to his stars, even undermining his own GM(s) at times to do so. It's quite funny how Mitch has no such loyalty to this team even after they gave him everything he ever wanted (and far more than he ever deserved).

This situation is exactly why I've always been against this idea of loyalty in sports. Pro sports is a business, just like any other. You have to be ruthless to climb to the top. Being overly loyal to your guys will just make them entitled and disloyal in return. The organization needs to run like the Golden Knights. Cutthroat. Merciless. Hopefully some hard lessons were learned from this saga and the Leafs have a new mindset going forward in future contract negotiations, starting with Matthew Knies.

 

[The Shadow]

I don’t think it needs to be cut throat

I like what Tampa did with Stamkos. They were firm on their offer and he left town. They got a younger, better player with that money

Be firm but don’t have a bad reputation that turns guys off. Vegas us known to do that stuff now and some guys will wonder if they will be next before they sign

 

[NVious]

I get being loyal to winners, but being loyal to losers is a recipe for disaster, you earn loyalty, it's not just "given."

Shanahan thought Matthews was Yzerman (he wasn't) but forgot Yzerman needed him and Lidstrom to take off, we don't have anybody even remotely close to Lidstrom and none of the other powder puffs are close to the sort of player he was in his prime as a power forward.

 

[Drew4u]

I don’t think it needs to be cut throat

I like what Tampa did with Stamkos. They were firm on their offer and he left town. They got a younger, better player with that money

Be firm but don’t have a bad reputation that turns guys off. Vegas us known to do that stuff now and some guys will wonder if they will be next before they sign

Did Guentzel have a better season than Stamkos did last year. No. What did replacing Stamkos do for Tampa, they still lost in round 1.

 

[VanW27]

Did Guentzel have a better season than Stamkos did last year. No. What did replacing Stamkos do for Tampa, they still lost in round 1.

Crazy to ask yourself a question and then answer it so wrong.

Guentzel had 41G and 80 points

Stammer had 27G and 53 points

 

[MCR74]

To hell with it. Marner made his own bed.

 

[Eternal Leaf]

Loyalty should come after the player has earned it.

The Leafs made a mistake by giving everything to their core players and then blindly defending them despite the mediocre results.

This is not loyalty; it has been a continuous display of stubbornness and stupidity from Shanny.

 

[colchar]

With Mitch Marner's time as a Leaf quickly coming to an end, the concept of loyalty has been at the forefront of my mind. It was the downfall of Shanahan - being too loyal to his stars, even undermining his own GM(s) at times to do so. It's quite funny how Mitch has no such loyalty to this team even after they gave him everything he ever wanted (and far more than he ever deserved).

This situation is exactly why I've always been against this idea of loyalty in sports. Pro sports is a business, just like any other. You have to be ruthless to climb to the top. Being overly loyal to your guys will just make them entitled and disloyal in return. The organization needs to run like the Golden Knights. Cutthroat. Merciless. Hopefully some hard lessons were learned from this saga and the Leafs have a new mindset going forward in future contract negotiations, starting with Matthew Knies.

Don't generalize based on one situation.

 

[MCR74]

Loyalty should come after the player has earned it.

The Leafs made a mistake by giving everything to their core players and then blindly defending them despite the mediocre results.

This is not loyalty; it has been a continuous display of stubbornness and stupidity from Shanny.

Bingo. If one threatens to sit out, then sit out.

 

[The Shadow]

Crazy to ask yourself a question and then answer it so wrong.

Guentzel had 41G and 80 points

Stammer had 27G and 53 points

thank you for saving me the need to reply to him lol. my ignore list is expanding

 

[BallardEra]

Loyalty?

That's long gone in sports and businesses alike for ages now.

 

[MarMarSab3]

Loyalty?

That's long gone in sports and businesses alike for ages now.

Which is why I would do everything possible to push Reilly out the door

 

[Stephen]

I feel like there’s actually a deficit in loyalty coming from the players side.

Even reports of John Tavares, not someone you automatically want back but maybe at a discount, suddenly he’s upping the price to align with the Nelson side and not the Duchene discount. Even shining young gun Knies; loves to be here but far apart.

We’ve just built too much of a mercenary, bet on yourself mentality from the Shanny Dubas days and I’m not impressed.

 

[HockeyVirus]

I feel like there’s actually a deficit in loyalty coming from the players side.

Even reports of John Tavares, not someone you automatically want back but maybe at a discount, suddenly he’s upping the price to align with the Nelson side and not the Duchene discount. Even shining young gun Knies; loves to be here but far apart.

We’ve just built too much of a mercenary, bet on yourself mentality from the Shanny Dubas days and I’m not impressed.

A large part of this teams issue with the fans is the players are so damn unlikeable from doing this. If we're on our 2nd cup no one cares but our last 10 years history combined with demanding every cent is rough to sell

 

[Stephen]

A large part of this teams issue with the fans is the players are so damn unlikeable from doing this. If we're on our 2nd cup no one cares but our last 10 years history combined with demanding every cent is rough to sell

Yeah. The no success, no fun, no personality, no loyalty gang.

 

[Americanadian]

I don’t think it needs to be cut throat

I like what Tampa did with Stamkos. They were firm on their offer and he left town. They got a younger, better player with that money

Be firm but don’t have a bad reputation that turns guys off. Vegas us known to do that stuff now and some guys will wonder if they will be next before they sign

Tampa also kicked out McDonagh. They also traded Sergachev a week before his trade protection kicked in.

 

[Americanadian]

Crazy to ask yourself a question and then answer it so wrong.

Guentzel had 41G and 80 points

Stammer had 27G and 53 points

This doesn’t even touch on the fact that Guentzel lead them in postseason goals and points.

 

[Trapper]

Tampa also kicked out McDonagh. They also traded Sergachev a week before his trade protection kicked in.

The Leafs have always been a day late, dollar short management organization.

 

[Buds17]

I don't believe Shanahan was overly loyal to the star players as much as he thought they - and the team - could either improve or generally maintain a level of consistency (ex. not missing the playoffs altogether even if they couldn't ever advance far enough in said playoffs).

Loyalty isn't really much of a thing in pro sports though when teams have the ability to trade away players, or players have a say in what team they end up playing on.

 

[Cap'n Flavour]

You don't have to be as ruthless as Vegas to win. The Bruins, for example, are and were reasonably loyal to their players and got them to sign sweetheart deals. The Leafs have put similar levels of faith in their players but have almost nothing to show for it so far, besides maybe Matthews deciding to re-sign (at no discount whatsoever) instead of walk as soon as he could.

 

[-DeMo-]

Crazy to ask yourself a question and then answer it so wrong.

Guentzel had 41G and 80 points

Stammer had 27G and 53 points

actually imo you mis-read the question that poster asked.

Did Guentzel have a better season than Stamkos did last year. No. What did replacing Stamkos do for Tampa, they still lost in round 1.

see the last year part? meaning 23-24 season. he's comparing Stamkos 23-24 season to Guentzel's 24-25 season and saying that Guentzel wasn't an improvement. nor did he take them anywhere in the playoffs.

 

[MCR74]

There is no loyalty. These guys want to bleed you for every cent, and TO stupidly offered the moon early on.

 

[Larcos_Unal]

Knies needs to be made an example of, it's time for the tides to change.
Nothing personal, he's just the guy who's up to bat

 

[MCR74]

Knies needs to be made an example of, it's time for the tides to change.
Nothing personal, he's just the guy who's up to bat

If Knies wants to play hard ball, turn the screws.

 

[Mess]

Which is why I would do everything possible to push Reilly out the door

The Leafs really do need to convince him to move on and waive his NMC as they need to replace him with a different style player and one that can QB the PP like an Aaron Ekblad as a UFA for example.