Waived: Nick Ritchie on Waivers (Cleared)

[Cotton]

i don’t understand why it’s hard to grasp that the leafs are right against the cap so when people include Ritchie in deals it’s because they need to move money out. He’s never been the center piece in a deal

Unfortunately, not everybody lives in the same school district.

 

[Deadly Dogma]

i don’t understand why it’s hard to grasp that the leafs are right against the cap so when people include Ritchie in deals it’s because they need to move money out. He’s never been the center piece in a deal

exactly Ritche's cap hit was directly related to any player I targeted. However with double retention and Ritche going the other way, that should mean the Leafs hypothetically could target a 10m player as long as they are UFA

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

absolutely. having to waive your high profile $2.5m two year signing from this summer after less than 40 games is a no lose situation.

way to not lose.

In no way is a 2.5 million dollar player a high profile signing

 

[Bevans]

As I expected.

Yes you got the response your little fit deserved.

You don't just get to tack a cap dump onto a trade. You pay for the privilege to escape your mistakes. See Patrick Marleau.

 

[Nizdizzle]

Yes you got the response your little fit deserved.

You don't just get to tack a cap dump onto a trade. You pay for the privilege to escape your mistakes. See Patrick Marleau.

This entire chain of replies is because you don't know what the phrase "centerpiece" means when you defended the use of it in the original comment. Just doubling down with more dumb comments.

 

[bossram]

It didn’t work out, but a missing on 2 year/2.5 signing isn’t shocking and it’s not a devastating anchor contract. They can’t all be winners, you just need to avoid to crushing larger bad deals.

You can only find so many nifty bargains in an off-season, other guys will prove that they ended up available cheap for a good reason.

It's not a "devastating" signing or a massive mistake, but it certainly is a mistake and was an entirely predictable one.

Ritchie has never been a particularly useful player. Last season he popped some goals shooting above his career average shooting %. The "analytics GM" probably should've been able to recognize this (like many of us already had) and not determined that Ritchie might finally be a decent top-nine player. He's just the same as he always was: poor play-driver, poor defensively, takes a lot of penalties.

They should never have pursued him and just kept the cap flexibility. A guy like Brooks, who ended up being waived at the expense of keeping Ritchie for an extra month, would've been more useful to the club and clocked in at a league minimum cap hit.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

we're absolutely screaming for it here. Tippett gets circles coached around him every night. Hell Jeremy Colliton handed him his ass in the play in round and Chicago canned him for being useless. I'd kill for useless compared to Tippett.

Not going to lie it was pretty bad last night

 

[Guttersniped]

absolutely. having to waive your high profile $2.5m two year signing from this summer after less than 40 games is a no lose situation.

way to not lose.

High profile? Only in Toronto lol. They tried to replace Hyman with a cheap cast-off and it didn’t work.

As a neutral fan, Bunting + keeping Spezza + Kase actually staying healthy = a wildly successful forward bargain hunting off-season.

They have several other cheap guys contributing as well and some nice depth pieces in the AHL (Joey Anderson is a 4th liner for instance).

Bunting is making 950k next year too. Kase isn’t and I don’t know if I would trust him to stay health long term but this has been pretty impressive the is season and I’ve poked fun of Dubas in the past because he’s easy to make fun of.

 

[inthe6ix]

we're absolutely screaming for it here. Tippett gets circles coached around him every night. Hell Jeremy Colliton handed him his ass in the play in round and Chicago canned him for being useless. I'd kill for useless compared to Tippett.

When he threw Kassian out there as the extra man late in the game, I was like wtf lol

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Not going to lie it was pretty bad last night

thats been our life since we started 9-1. Our worst enemy is ourselves.

 

[Deadly Dogma]

I am a Toronto guy, and was never happy with the signing. He is just not good.

If I go dig up some pre season posts I always put him on the 3rd line,
Mikheyev-Matthews-Marner
Bunting-Tavares-Nylander
Ritche-Kerfoot-Kase
Kampf-Speeza-Simmonds
Engvall
was my preferred line up, I remember catching heat that Ritche wasn't the 1lw. In my mind the thought of Ritche as the 1LW was extremely unfavorable

 

[Bevans]

This entire chain of replies is because you don't know what the phrase "centerpiece" means when you defended the use of it in the original comment. Just doubling down with more dumb comments.

When multiple users make the exact same joke it may be time for introspection.

Or not.

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

Eh, if he clears it will be nice to have him for the taxi squad. If he doesn't free cap space, not really seeing a downside here.

 

[axlrose87]

Don't say we ( Bruins) fans didn't warn you, unfortunately Ritchie just dosen't have the passion/intensity required to play in the NHL.

Ya but you guys got foligno for double the price lol

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

thats been our life since we started 9-1. Our worst enemy is ourselves.

I know, I live in Alberta, when I'm not watching the Leafs I'm watching the Oilers because Mcdavid is must see TV.

At least he was.

The Oilers make me sad now.

 

[grapes55]

let him get some games with the Marlies and hopefully find his game a little bit and give him another chance when injuries happen. Or hopefully he's claimed and you get the cap space and a contract spot, win win!

 

[shaner8989]

Good riddance

Horrible signing

 

[TheGroceryStick]

Ya but you guys got foligno for double the price lol

Love Bruins fans are chiming in; yet thought back aches was gunna be any better.. hahah

 

[Breakers]

I wish Coaches Corner was still around this Saturday to see a Don Cherry Meltdown about this decision.

 

[34]

If I go dig up some pre season posts I always put him on the 3rd line,
Mikheyev-Matthews-Marner
Bunting-Tavares-Nylander
Ritche-Kerfoot-Kase
Kampf-Speeza-Simmonds
Engvall
was my preferred line up, I remember catching heat that Ritche wasn't the 1lw. In my mind the thought of Ritche as the 1LW was extremely unfavorable

Yeah, surprisingly it took this long for Dubas to cut ties with him. Good that he is out now.

 

[Golden_Jet]

I wouldn't be shocked if he was claimed or traded after he cleared but if he ends up on the taxi squad that's OK too.

Having Nick Ritchie has a depth forward in case of injury means you have a deep forward group if he's on your taxi squad

If he clears, no one is trading for him, when you could have him for free, unless Leaf’s throw in a pick or prospect.

 

[Guttersniped]

It's not a "devastating" signing or a massive mistake, but it certainly is a mistake and was an entirely predictable one.

Ritchie has never been a particularly useful player. Last season he popped some goals shooting above his career average shooting %. The "analytics GM" probably should've been able to recognize this (like many of us already had) and not determined that Ritchie might finally be a decent top-nine player. He's just the same as he always was: poor play-driver, poor defensively, takes a lot of penalties.

They should never have pursued him and just kept the cap flexibility. A guy like Brooks, who ended up being waived at the expense of keeping Ritchie for an extra month, would've been more useful to the club and clocked in at a league minimum cap hit.

Richie was for size/truculence blah blah blah.

If they just added an analytics darling like Bunting (and a risky boom/bust in Kase) everyone would have bitched about how the soft weak Leafs were now even softer without Hyman. Ritchie was a net front presence for the PP. Not everyone is a play driver by the way, some just get dragged along and score goals.

I’m not suggesting Ritchie was promising to bring much of that with him, much less was a good idea at the time, but I assume that element was a selling point. It wasn’t that much money to risk either.

I’m only quibbling because it seems like a minor misstep in a successful off-season, and one made for typical and understandable reasons, yet it gets a lot of criticism. You’re main points aren’t wrong, we don’t have to drag this out.

I’m also sure it’s more annoying and may stick out more for Leaf fans because they actually had to watch the guy play in 30 games.

 

[krutovsdonut]

A high profile 2.5 million signing. You sir are stretching that term to its max.

well measured by the sportnet coverage, he was a big signing.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

If he clears, no one is trading for him, when you could have him for free, unless Leaf’s throw in a pick or prospect.

It's happened before.

Case in point Kyle Clifford, Calvin Picard

 

[McGarnagle]

Whoever said he wasn't good enough for top 6 and not energetic enough for the bottom 6 is spot on. He's a guy who's probably too good for the AHL but doesn't have a spot in the NHL.

Occasionally he provides some good hits, can fight, can score nice goals from time to time, and kind of found a niche in front of the net on the PP last year before the Hall trade displaced him from the first unit. Krejci dragged him to some goal scoring opportunities too.

I wouldn't line up to take him back, but I would say you could do a lot worse than him if your roster is thin or you need bodies due to injury. The real shame for Boston is they traded Danton Heinen for him, who's gone to Pittsburgh and on pace for a career year production-wise.