Confirmed with Link: Nick Ritchie to Toronto (2x2.5M AAV)

[Dekes For Days]

are you saying Boston feared an arbitrator would have given him more?

Yes. A lot of teams have been scared of arbitration awards within this flat cap environment.

 

[Mess]

Yes. A lot of teams have been scared of arbitration awards within this flat cap environment.

If Ritchie was a Leaf coming off last season with a contract of $1.5 mil and 15 goals personal best and age 25 would you have suggested Leafs cut him loose because he had arbitration rights?

Teams can always walk away from arbitration awards they don't like making the player a UFA, but were talking walking away here from a player just because he has them?

You could still trade a pending RFA with arbitration rights that happens from time to time when teams don't see eye to eye.

 

[kb]

Teams have RFA players all the time that have arbitration rights, is that a good reason to toss a young asset away for nothing?

This seems more like the exception here than the norm.

Ritchie was making $1.5 mil, his qualifying offer was $2 mil and he signed with the Leafs for $2.5 mil, so are you saying Boston feared an arbitrator would have given him more?

Yes, they had to toss a good young asset.

He would have been their 4th line LW before they signed Foligno. No matter what the amount (unless it tripled his previous salary), the Bruins couldn't walk away from the arbitration award, nor were they permitted to trade him after that.

Top3 LW were:

Marchand
Hall
DeBrusk
and now they signed Foligno.

So yes, their hands were tied. No one was going to give the Bruins an asset for a player who had arbitration rights - which means the acquiring team had no way of knowing what the award might be - which impacts how much that team could spend in UFA.

 

[Its not your fault]

Nick Ritchie takes a lot of needless and lazy penalties that David Kampf is going to counted on to help kill off. I can already see Leaf Nation lighting up and singling out Ritchie when those excess penalties result in goals against and potential losses.

This might be one of the reason Boston let a 25 year old RFA player making $1.5 mil coming off a career best year with 15 goals walk away without qualifying him.. Its surprising that they didn't try and trade him and get a return as in pick or prospect or even move up in the draft etc as he is an RFA not UFA. Maybe they tried and had no interest from anyone.

As far as asset management goes I can just imagine if Ritchie were a Leaf and pending RFA at age 25 and Leafs decided not interested and didn't qualify him and just let him walk out the door for nothing but cap space recovery the outrage that would followed (myself included). So there must be something here that Boston knows and why they cut him loose that we're still missing here from this full picture as in attitude, conditioning, etc.

Our Leafs however were not only interest at the $1.5 mil original price point by swooping in and turned his former $1.5 mil into a new $2.5 mil X 2 year deal, and now he is being pegged to replace Hyman who use to make $2.25 mil making the cap usage hit similar.

Nick Ritchie 2020-2021 Regular Season Fight Card

15 for 3 fights. plus a tripping so there's 17 of the 37 minutes. 20 minutes of bad penalties is alot? I'm not going to watch tap on those 10 times over 50 games but I know your not going to either. So it's safe to assume your talking about Richies career in total but maturity goes along way if those infact were all bad penalties.

 

[Clark4Ever]

If Ritchie was a Leaf coming off last season with a contract of $1.5 mil and 15 goals personal best and age 25 would you have suggested Leafs cut him loose because he had arbitration rights?

Teams can always walk away from arbitration awards they don't like making the player a UFA, but were talking walking away here from a player just because he has them?

You could still trade a pending RFA with arbitration rights that happens from time to time when teams don't see eye to eye.

For whatever reason, they decided to pay 3.8 million to a 33 year old damaged goods Nick Foligno instead. They also decided to allocate most of their available cap space before confirming that Krejci was coming back to the NHL.

Why are we basing the rationale of signing Ritchie on the decisions of Boston management? It certainly wouldn't be the first time that a perceived castoff flourished with another organization.

We'll see how thing work out for them and for us, but at the moment, I'm content with the decision we made.

 

[Menzinger]

Leafs are paying him $2.5 mil which is more than his qualifying offer would have been. So obviously contract price is not the issue.

So even if the Bruins would have qualified him at $2 mil our Leafs would or should still have been interested in acquiring him as they were willing to sign him for even more than his QO.

Did the Bruins just cut him without first trying to trade him and get something in return, that doesn't seem logical? They could have qualified him and then taken their time trading him all summer for another asset, and teams that missed out in free agency might have circled back to acquire him in trade.

Something is missing from this puzzle to make this story and outcome make sense, as this is not what usually happens with younger players coming off a career best goals at age 25 with upside and potential.

I think something that happens too often is the general presumption that a front office is always making a fully rational decision on these things.

Could be they needed to pinch pennies to save for others in free agency (their owner is a known cheapskate), could be they didn't like the way he combed his hair for all we know

 

[Gallagbi]

I think something that happens too often is the general presumption that a front office is always making a fully rational decision on these things.

Could be they needed to pinch pennies to save for others in free agency (their owner is a known cheapskate), could be they didn't like the way he combed his hair for all we know

Funny how many can consider all of this teams moves to be wrong and misguided, while assuming every other GM makes perfect decisions.

The arbitration risk seems like the logical assumption, especially with a shorter offseason that looks to have led to more QO issues than normal.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Nick Ritchie takes a lot of needless and lazy penalties that David Kampf is going to counted on to help kill off. I can already see Leaf Nation lighting up and singling out Ritchie when those excess penalties result in goals against and potential losses.

This might be one of the reason Boston let a 25 year old RFA player making $1.5 mil coming off a career best year with 15 goals walk away without qualifying him.. Its surprising that they didn't try and trade him and get a return as in pick or prospect or even move up in the draft etc as he is an RFA not UFA. Maybe they tried and had no interest from anyone.

As far as asset management goes I can just imagine if Ritchie were a Leaf and pending RFA at age 25 and Leafs decided not interested and didn't qualify him and just let him walk out the door for nothing but cap space recovery the outrage that would followed (myself included). So there must be something here that Boston knows and why they cut him loose that we're still missing here from this full picture as in attitude, conditioning, etc.

Our Leafs however were not only interest at the $1.5 mil original price point by swooping in and turned his former $1.5 mil into a new $2.5 mil X 2 year deal, and now he is being pegged to replace Hyman who use to make $2.25 mil making the cap usage hit similar.

They kept all the players with more penalties than him. He didn’t have very many minutes. To say they are lazy penalties is funny because thats all our players ever take. We know they aren’t for being tough. Dumb lazy penalties is a issue before he landed here. The narrative is backed by nothing. Where are his lazy penalties? I don’t mind him punching soneone in the face for going after one of our top players. I’ll suck up the odd instigator penalties no problem.
Point being all our current players ever get is tripping,holding,interference etc. I hate them penalties and Hyman since you are comparing, took lots of bad penalties.

 

[Stephen]

I think something that happens too often is the general presumption that a front office is always making a fully rational decision on these things.

Could be they needed to pinch pennies to save for others in free agency (their owner is a known cheapskate), could be they didn't like the way he combed his hair for all we know

The Bruins are also known to pull the plug on seemingly pretty good hockey players because they don't like the price tag for whatever reason. Just look at how they've simply not qualified guys like Dmitri Khristich, or at various points traded guys like Jason Allison or Phil Kessel due to contract and budget problems, and most recently Torey Krug.

I kind of admire how cut throat and gangster they can be in this regard.

 

[Maple Leaf]

The Bruins are also known to pull the plug on seemingly pretty good hockey players because they don't like the price tag for whatever reason. Just look at how they've simply not qualified guys like Dmitri Khristich, or at various points traded guys like Jason Allison or Phil Kessel due to contract and budget problems, and most recently Torey Krug.

what about trading my boi segion for what

 

[Stephen]

what about trading my boi segion for what

And Thornton and Hamilton. They're ruthless.

 

[Leaf Fans]

He hasn't changed his view in Ritchie

 

[Dekes For Days]

Teams can always walk away from arbitration awards they don't like making the player a UFA

That's not true. They could only walk away if it was a 1 year settlement over 4.5m.

 

[kb]

That's not true. They could only walk away if it was a 1 year settlement over 4.5m.

Yeah, I think we can add that to 'that' ever growing pile....

They couldn't afford to be stuck with his arbitration award when he was 4th on the LW depth chart.

 

[Racer88]

Yeah, I think we can add that to 'that' ever growing pile....

They couldn't afford to be stuck with his arbitraion award when he was 4th on the LW depth chart.

Where do you see him playing on our team

 

[kb]

Where do you see him playing on our team

I'd like to see him riding LW shotgun on a Tavares - Marner line.

 

[Racer88]

I'd like to see him riding LW shotgun on a Tavares - Marner line.

That would be an interesting line, partly because I think they have to split up Matthews and Marner.
I am looking forward to seeing Richie play but I do have some reservations about where Boston’s 4th best Left Winger fits in

 

[saltming]

That would be an interesting line, partly because I think they have to split up Matthews and Marner.
I am looking forward to seeing Richie play but I do have some reservations about where Boston’s 4th best Left Winger fits in

I don't think it matter that he was Boston's 4th best winger. I think he will have a role to play and I think he will fill the role well.
At the beginning of his career according to a lot of posters Hyman was our 3rd best winger but he filled a need and excelled in the top 6.
Ritchie has a toolbox and enough hockey sense to fill that role too

 

[Gary Nylund]

That would be an interesting line, partly because I think they have to split up Matthews and Marner.
I am looking forward to seeing Richie play but I do have some reservations about where Boston’s 4th best Left Winger fits in

I agree we need to split up that line and what we might need the most, is to get another Matt Martin type look after Marner as I suspect it's not a co-incidence that ever since Martin left town, Marner has played like a scared little boy in the playoffs. Not sure Richie is the best choice for that role considering his laziness and the fact that he's relatively young but who knows.

 

[kb]

That would be an interesting line, partly because I think they have to split up Matthews and Marner.
I am looking forward to seeing Richie play but I do have some reservations about where Boston’s 4th best Left Winger fits in

In all fairness, the top 2 LW's have been the NHL first team allstar LW in 3 of the last 5 years. DeBrusk is debatable, but he is homegrown and already signed.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Ritchie was fourth in goals last year. Marchand was the Left winger that out scored him. Pasta and Bergeron were the other two. I’d take him over Hall every day.
He had second line minutes and played 2nd powerplay. It was his breakout year of sorts. Played every game too. I hope he comes to camp in best shape of his career. If he does its going to be interesting to see if he out scores Hall,Foligno etc. I think we got a good deal.
Hyman was good but Ritchie is more what we need coming them directly. Ritchie,Bunting,Kase,Gabriel,Kampf for $6,900,000. Great cap management for $1,400,000 more than Hyman cost alone. No roomies being rushed. All good

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Hopefully we’re catching Ritchie right before he breaks out, coming off a career high in goals in a shortened season. Would turn this into a great value signing.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Matthews and Marner disappeared. Top two choked. Completely disappointing choke job. The effort in game 5 was so disgusting. Not on Keefe. Matthews scored in game 1 and Marner hasn’t scored in 15 straight playoff games. Garbage

But if you look at the stats he should have scored

 

[ShaneFalco]

But if you look at the stats he should have scored

In fact he didn't score against the team that went to the cup finals. So there's that

 

[Wafflewhipper]

But if you look at the stats he should have scored

You can actually see the stress and flustered almost anxiety on Matthews face in playoffs. It looks like someone who already lost after a series. Pretty crazy and if you watch for it you see it creep right on to his face in playoffs. He’s mentally weak in playoffs. He allows the pressure to choke him out. Marner too. Impossible to articulate in words, you just see it.