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Nick Ritchie discussion - clears waivers

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He hasn’t panned out and my excitement for him just adjusting is wearing off quite a bit, that being said they need to find a useful spot for him on the roster. A cap strapped team can’t afford a 2.5 mill scratched player
 
I dunno...I still feel promising about Ritchie, especially in our lineup. PP2 looks good when he's planked in front of the net too.

All the fancy stats are against me so this is solely my inner Lou Lam hunch based detector. He needs another chance before we pull the plug.
 
Guy has points in 6 of his last 10 games after a slow start production wise. He does need to start burying it a bit more but he's still getting many chances and I doubt he continues having a 2.3 shooting percentage all season. Same people were saying the same stuff about Simmonds last year and even said we shouldn't even think about bringing him back even if it was for cheap.
 
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Here's my feelings on Ritchie. The Leafs the past few years had way too many of the same type of player. Dubas addressed this in the offseason by getting a pest (Bunting), Defensive shut down center (Kampf) and a big body power forward (Ritchie). The point of having Ritchie is that we now formed more of a swiss army knife type team to adjust and compete with any team we go up against. And have another (different type of) tool to throw on the ice if the game dictates it. It was never going to be about Ritchie scoring big points, it was always about a big body we could throw on the ice to either stand in front of the goalie or for his forecheck and ability to get to the net without much disruption. We've tried many, many times to run it back with the same type of players on all 4 lines which hasn't worked and now we have addressed it with trying different players who can provide different aspects to the game for when it is required.
 
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Stephen23 said:
Here's my feelings on Ritchie. The Leafs the past few years had way too many of the same type of player. Dubas addressed this in the offseason by getting a pest (Bunting), Defensive shut down center (Kampf) and a big body power forward (Ritchie). The point of having Ritchie is that we now formed more of a swiss army knife type team to adjust and compete with any team we go up against. And have another (different type of) tool to throw on the ice if the game dictates it. It was never going to be about Ritchie scoring big points, it was always about a big body we could throw on the ice to either stand in front of the goalie or for his forecheck and ability to get to the net without much disruption. We've tried many, many times to run it back with the same type of players on all 4 lines which hasn't worked and now we have addressed it with trying different players who can provide different aspects to the game for when it is required.
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I feel the same. Too many people were talking about how many goals Ritchie would score playing with M&M and predicted a career year for him and now that this isn't happening, they want him traded for someone with better fancy stats. People are so obsessed with all kinds of numbers, expected this and expected that that they've forgotten that this is a team game, there are many things that the numbers don't show and the only numbers that really matter are wins and losses. We're 3rd overall, Ritchie has been playing his best hockey of the year as of late and instead of being happy that the team is looking very good, they peruse their spreadsheets until they find one set of numbers that doesn't look good and get all worked up over it and start demanding changes, never mind that the qualities that this "weak spot" brings to the team, are most important in the playoffs and the playoffs are where all our highly paid fancy numbers producing multi millionaires have fallen apart over the last few years. Smh.
 
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ottomaddox said:
You don't even have the guts to admit it.
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Have you recently bumped your head?

Here's a recap. You post a captain obvious statement from Kypreios which many found silly. You then said many disagree with what he says and when politely asked to show who could possibly disagree with something so obvious, you act like a child and say that you're disliked which is even weirder than your initial posts.

Why don't you just drop the whole thing instead of this continual doubling down on this nonsense?
 
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Agree he could be a sleeper in the playoffs but when Mikheyev doubles Ritche's 1 goal in his first game, pretty much tells you Ritchie has barely had a pulse this season. Very sad for a player who has a reputation of being lazy.
 
The debate should be about, instead of waisting $2.5 mil on Ritchie and $3.8 mil on Mrazek, the Leafs could simply have re-signed Hyman and had a top 6 winger with 20-30 goal potential and secured a cost effective reliable backup goalie capable of giving the Leafs 15-20 games in relief. IMO
 
Mess said:
The debate should be about, instead of waisting $2.5 mil on Ritchie and $3.8 mil on Mrazek, the Leafs could simply have re-signed Hyman and had a top 6 winger with 20-30 goal potential and secured a cost effective reliable backup goalie capable of giving the Leafs 15-20 games in relief. IMO
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I believe the issue with Hyman was not this year or next but the long term contract with NMC he wanted.
 
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Mess said:
The debate should be about, instead of waisting $2.5 mil on Ritchie and $3.8 mil on Mrazek, the Leafs could simply have re-signed Hyman and had a top 6 winger with 20-30 goal potential and secured a cost effective reliable backup goalie capable of giving the Leafs 15-20 games in relief. IMO
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Woll as backup with an unproven Campbell sounds like a good idea to me.
 
ACC1224 said:
Have you recently bumped your head?

Here's a recap. You post a captain obvious statement from Kypreios which many found silly. You then said many disagree with what he says and when politely asked to show who could possibly disagree with something so obvious, you act like a child and say that you're disliked which is even weirder than your initial posts.

Why don't you just drop the whole thing instead of this continual doubling down on this nonsense?
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No. Don't tell me what to do.

You're spending all your time expressing why I annoy you. You have a subtle style of acting like you have questions/clarification, but you don't even care for the answer. You don't want to hear my opinion. You don't want me to post my opinion. "What does that have to do with..." is your subtle way of trolling.
 
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ACC1224 said:
I believe the issue with Hyman was not this year or next but the long term contract with NMC he wanted.
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I guess that is the gist of the debate waisting similar cap annually on shorter term mistakes like Ritchie and Marzek in an attempt to avoid potential longer term mistakes down the road.
 
Stonehands1990 said:
Don’t evaluate Ritchie until after the playoffs. His style of game is suited for playoff hockey
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I don't understand why he should get a regular season pass. Are they going to say "we didn't need to make any moves at the deadline because we have "Playoff Ritchie" in the press box. He doesn't like to play in the regular season but he'll be a difference maker when the playoffs start." He'll be this year's own rental.
 
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Mess said:
The debate should be about, instead of waisting $2.5 mil on Ritchie and $3.8 mil on Mrazek, the Leafs could simply have re-signed Hyman and had a top 6 winger with 20-30 goal potential and secured a cost effective reliable backup goalie capable of giving the Leafs 15-20 games in relief. IMO
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Sure, and he was useless in the playoffs too, and Edmonton is suddenly struggling. Changes needed to be made and I'm OK with how we're doing so far.

We'll see for sure come playoffs.
 
Mess said:
I guess that is the gist of the debate waisting similar cap annually on shorter term mistakes like Ritchie and Marzek in an attempt to avoid potential longer term mistakes down the road.
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Not everything works out but it hasn't been an issue yet.
 
notbias said:
Woll as backup with an unproven Campbell sounds like a good idea to me.
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It's not ideal. But then again, something's going to have to give if we're to keep Campbell for next season and it's hard to see that happening without Mrazek being moved. Doing that in the summer would be ideal but waiting until then is quite risky so if there's a chance to move him now, it might be a good idea. And it doesn't have to be Woll, we could always find another backup thought it probably doesn't matter much, if we're going anywhere in the playoffs it will be with Campbell.

Griffin76 said:
I don't understand why he should get a regular season pass. Are they going to say "we didn't need to make any moves at the deadline because we have "Playoff Ritchie" in the press box. He doesn't like to play in the regular season but he'll be a difference maker when the playoffs start." He'll be this year's own rental.
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Nobody should get a pass, period. At the same time, it's fair to point out that the toughness Ritchie brings is much more valuable in the playoffs than it is in the regular season. He has also played pretty well lately so if he keeps is up, not sure why we would want to move him anyway? Team looks pretty good to me, no big weaknesses to address anywhere really so why are people so anxious to fix what isn't broken?
 
Gary Nylund said:
It's not ideal. But then again, something's going to have to give if we're to keep Campbell for next season and it's hard to see that happening without Mrazek being moved. Doing that in the summer would be ideal but waiting until then is quite risky so if there's a chance to move him now, it might be a good idea. And it doesn't have to be Woll, we could always find another backup thought it probably doesn't matter much, if we're going anywhere in the playoffs it will be with Campbell.



Nobody should get a pass, period. At the same time, it's fair to point out that the toughness Ritchie brings is much more valuable in the playoffs than it is in the regular season. He has also played pretty well lately so if he keeps is up, not sure why we would want to move him anyway? Team looks pretty good to me, no big weaknesses to address anywhere really so why are people so anxious to fix what isn't broken?
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Absolutely he has looked much better. I'd like to keep him. Always been a fan. But he can't have the attitude of not needing to do much during the regular season because his style is more suited for the playoffs. He should be looking to get in that mode now or there may not be any playoffs for him. If he can't maintain this level of play then he should be waived or traded.
 
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Griffin76 said:
Absolutely he has looked much better. I'd like to keep him. Always been a fan. But he can't have the attitude of not needing to do much during the regular season because his style is more suited for the playoffs. He should be looking to get in that mode now or there may not be any playoffs for him. If he can't maintain this level of play then he should be waived or traded.
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Agreed. For the moment I will say the glass if half full when it comes to Ritchie - sometimes it takes a while to adjust to a new team and some guys just need time to get going in general, especially slow guys like Ritchie. ;)

I'm not sold on him by any means but I am encouraged that he has been good lately and I'm definitely hoping he keeps it up because if he can do it, I want him on our side when the real season starts. I'm so sick of the way we keep folding in the playoffs and maybe having Ritchie helps the rest of our guys play with a bit of fearlessness which we've definitely been lacking in previous years. In those series deciding games, this team has been less than the sum of it's parts so I'm hoping that Ritchie, despite perhaps being a "lesser part" makes us a better team in the end.
 
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Gary Nylund said:
Agreed. For the moment I will say the glass if half full when it comes to Ritchie - sometimes it takes a while to adjust to a new team and some guys just need time to get going in general, especially slow guys like Ritchie. ;)

I'm not sold on him by any means but I am encouraged that he has been good lately and I'm definitely hoping he keeps it up because if he can do it, I want him on our side when the real season starts. I'm so sick of the way we keep folding in the playoffs and maybe having Ritchie helps the rest of our guys play with a bit of fearlessness which we've definitely been lacking in previous years. In those series deciding games, this team has been less than the sum of it's parts so I'm hoping that Ritchie, despite perhaps being a "lesser part" makes us a better team in the end.
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IMO there are two major questions when it comes to Ritchie
A. Is he worth 2.5m to be a slightly tougher Simmonds?
B. Does the 4th line work with two players so similar (primarily net front and board play guys, limited transition and defensive value), and if not, is there somewhere else he works in the lineup?

Because as much as I've given Zeke a hard time for overstating his badness, he really is low on the list both of overall forwards and specifically LW's. Thought that says more about how awesome our F depth chart is than anything.
 
4thline said:
IMO there are two major questions when it comes to Ritchie
A. Is he worth 2.5m to be a slightly tougher Simmonds?
B. Does the 4th line work with two players so similar (primarily net front and board play guys, limited transition and defensive value), and if not, is there somewhere else he works in the lineup?

Because as much as I've given Zeke a hard time for overstating his badness, he really is low on the list both of overall forwards and specifically LW's. Thought that says more about how awesome our F depth chart is than anything.
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I stopped reading when I got to "Zeke". :laugh::laugh:

Just kidding, IMO those are valid questions. My first thoughts regarding point A are that I'm more worried about getting bang for the buck as a team then I am about getting bang for the buck for every individual player. So it the team is rolling, it's all good for me. We also don't have a major weakness to address anywhere so I don't feel any urgency to make changes. But maybe the biggest issue is, what if we move Ritchie and Simmonds gets hurt? I'd rather not see what happens then, I'm a little bit afraid of what we might see.

Regarding point B - that's a tougher question. I guess I'll have to think about that one a bit, or maybe I'll just give the cop out answer and say that it's up to Keefe to figure it out. :DD But yeah, good question.
 
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