HF Habs: Out Of Town Thread: 2024 Off-Season edition (Mod Warning #2635)

[LaP]

I just realized Seider and Raymond are not sigend yet. Is Yzerman lowballing them?

 

[Rapala]

I just realized Seider and Raymond are not sigend yet. Is Yzerman lowballing them?

Maybe Yzerman is trying to emulate Hughes but those guys want nothing to do with it not believing in his vision.
I mean after all he put together a squad that could not beat us to claim a playoff spot.
This coming on the heels of pulling up the pegs the previous season for a chance at a lottery ticket.

 

[The Great Weal]

Ottawa did well in that trade.

They basically paid the price to dump Korpisalo and got Ullmark for free.

It's a good trade for the Sens, but I'm willing to bet that Ullmark going from playing behind a top 3 of McAvoy/Lindholm/Carlo to Chabot/Sanderson/Zub will be a drastic change.

 

[MarkJ]

 

[The Great Weal]

Naming Matthews captain given how he underperforms in the postseason is a strange decision. Ideally, you'd want someone who battles their ass off when it matters the most rather than solely relying on skill.

 

[sampollock]

Naming Matthews captain given how he underperforms in the postseason is a strange decision. Ideally, you'd want someone who battles their ass off when it matters the most rather than solely relying on skill.

As captain
Perfect fig Land

 

[Habs10Habs]

Naming Matthews captain given how he underperforms in the postseason is a strange decision. Ideally, you'd want someone who battles their ass off when it matters the most rather than solely relying on skill.

I honestly thought they'd wait until Tavares contract came to an end. Some teams still do that. Most though are choosing their star player. From looking at their roster. I'm not sure who I'd pick, instead of Matthews.

 

[the valiant effort]

From looking at their roster. I'm not sure who I'd pick, instead of Matthews.

Truly a well built contender

 

[Nashy]

Yeah... embarassing Tavares....that should inspire the Leafs. Bush-league move.
Ah well, should be entertaining watching Leaf management spin this as positive for the upcoming season.

 

[LV426]

 

[Habs10Habs]

View attachment 900632

Damn you LV lol I spewed coffee all over myself.

 

[WeThreeKings]

View attachment 900632

f*** I was dropping this on my friends and came here to do the same

 

[morhilane]

I honestly thought they'd wait until Tavares contract came to an end. Some teams still do that. Most though are choosing their star player. From looking at their roster. I'm not sure who I'd pick, instead of Matthews.

Which is a stupid choice unless the star player has amazing work ethic, charisma and leadership abilities instead of being a big ego with prima donna "qualities".

 

[the]

Matthews will show some of those elite intangibles he's been hiding all these years to the whole world now.

 

[OldCraig71]

The Leafs are the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[ReHabs]

Was inevitable they'll triple-down on Matthews.

Tavares didn't have a transformative effect on the Leafs but they didn't need that from him, they needed him to help carry the load Matthews+Marner were meant to primarily carry.

I'll always defend the acquisition of Tavares as a UFA. He did everything expected from a UFA and the Leafs (or any other team) would be smart to make that signing 10 times out of 10. As an all-tools centreman he was just a notch under PPG for the Leafs with 419pts in 440gp (0.95ppg) which is slightly better than his PPG as an Islander player (0.92ppg) albeit in a higher-scoring era.

His playoff stats are not particularly good but it's not appropriate to singularly blame Tavares for what is clearly a systematic issue in Toronto, across the board, spanning years.

 

[JianYang]

I honestly thought they'd wait until Tavares contract came to an end. Some teams still do that. Most though are choosing their star player. From looking at their roster. I'm not sure who I'd pick, instead of Matthews.

He's going to go down as the greatest goal scorer in their franchise history. He's the face of the team, and like you said nobody else really stands out to be a contender for that C. I mean, the best alternative I can think of off the top of head besides matthews is Morgan reilly, and that seems like a pretty meh option to begin with.

 

[Lshap]

Was inevitable they'll triple-down on Matthews.

Tavares didn't have a transformative effect on the Leafs but they didn't need that from him, they needed him to help carry the load Matthews+Marner were meant to primarily carry.

I'll always defend the acquisition of Tavares as a UFA. He did everything expected from a UFA and the Leafs (or any other team) would be smart to make that signing 10 times out of 10. As an all-tools centreman he was just a notch under PPG for the Leafs with 419pts in 440gp (0.95ppg) which is slightly better than his PPG as an Islander player (0.92ppg) albeit in a higher-scoring era.

His playoff stats are not particularly good but it's not appropriate to singularly blame Tavares for what is clearly a systematic issue in Toronto, across the board, spanning years.

Agreed. Tavares was a high-end UFA who any team would've coveted, including us. The problem wasn't Tavares the player, it was Tavares the contract standard. His salary set the scale for their other star forwards, who realized they were better than their captain and demanded to be paid more. The Leafs have been crippled by a wildly unbalanced cap structure ever since.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Agreed. Tavares was a high-end UFA who any team would've coveted, including us. The problem wasn't Tavares the player, it was Tavares the contract standard. His salary set the scale for their other star forwards, who realized they were better than their captain and demanded to be paid more.

The salary hurt for sure. They should’ve negotiated harder with him. Moreover they should’ve negotiated harder with their own players as well.

All that being said, Tavares getting hurt wrecked the value of that move as well. He was never the same after that.

 

[hvac412]

Yeah... embarassing Tavares....that should inspire the Leafs. Bush-league move.
Ah well, should be entertaining watching Leaf management spin this as positive for the upcoming season.

Tavares to habs E4 surprised "habs fanatics" the premier garbage rumor site hasn't spun this yet.

 

[Lshap]

The salary hurt for sure. They should’ve negotiated harder with him. Moreover they should’ve negotiated harder with their own players as well.

All that being said, Tavares getting hurt wrecked the value of that move as well. He was never the same after that.

That's what worries me about UFAs. It's great to sign a top player, but then you have to deal with the domino effect on the rest of your roster. Dubas screwed his cap structure by allowing Tavares to become the yardstick for everyone else.

People are criticizing Hughes for not making any moves – we might look back and realize locking in his core players to longterm contracts was the smartest move a GM could make. Hughes can now pursue a UFA or trade for a star player without worrying about the next wave of contracts crippling his cap.

 

[ReHabs]

That's what worries me about UFAs. It's great to sign a top player, but then you have to deal with the domino effect on the rest of your roster. Dubas screwed his cap structure by allowing Tavares to become the yardstick for everyone else.

The cap being flat due to Covid and the (downright surprising) inability of the Leafs to convince their superstars to take eg 10 instead of 11 made it a much tougher situation than it should have been.

People are criticizing Hughes for not making any moves – we might look back and realize locking in his core players to longterm contracts was the smartest move a GM could make. Hughes can now pursue a UFA or trade for a star player without worrying about the next wave of contracts crippling his cap.

Okay they're locked up. We still need depth across the top6 and bottom6. Punting this might turn out to be one of the worst decisions Hughes has made. If the Habs stumble through the season with many injuries and no depth and finish bottom-tier yet again, which premium UFA will feel confident to entrust his remaining prime to the Habs when he doesn't even know if they can show up in a playoff series (and they can't even show up for a 82 game season...)? Hughes will have to overpay to convince UFAs that Montreal can be a winner... bringing us back to the JT problem.

Though maybe we'll see action before the season starts... so no criticism until then.

 

[Nashy]

Moving the C around is just re-arranging the deck chairs....same top heavy roster, same weak goaltending, same lack luster defense and same gutless management. Gotta think this season is Shanahan's last gasp.....but then again I remember Beregvin....hanging on and on....

 

[CDN24]

That's what worries me about UFAs. It's great to sign a top player, but then you have to deal with the domino effect on the rest of your roster. Dubas screwed his cap structure by allowing Tavares to become the yardstick for everyone else.

People are criticizing Hughes for not making any moves – we might look back and realize locking in his core players to longterm contracts was the smartest move a GM could make. Hughes can now pursue a UFA or trade for a star player without worrying about the next wave of contracts crippling his cap.

Tavares was the wrong guy at the wrong time. They did not really need another top centre (Matthews and 2x 30G man Kadri on a team friendly deal were enough) Dubas should have kept is powder dry until the big 3 were signed to extentions, and the Marleau contract expired. What he needed on the UFA market was a top pair D-man. Had he waited Pietrangelo became available. Had Toronto had any cap space there may have been others with the right PJs who would have tested the UFA market too.

Wrong guy at wrong time, I think other GMs in general and Hugo in particular have learned from what the Leafs did wrong.

 

[Lshap]

The cap being flat due to Covid and the (downright surprising) inability of the Leafs to convince their superstars to take eg 10 instead of 11 made it a much tougher situation than it should have been.

Okay they're locked up. We still need depth across the top6 and bottom6. Punting this might turn out to be one of the worst decisions Hughes has made. If the Habs stumble through the season with many injuries and no depth and finish bottom-tier yet again, which premium UFA will feel confident to entrust his remaining prime to the Habs when he doesn't even know if they can show up in a playoff series (and they can't even show up for a 82 game season...)? Hughes will have to overpay to convince UFAs that Montreal can be a winner... bringing us back to the JT problem.

Though maybe we'll see action before the season starts... so no criticism until then.

Hughes is taking a risk and gambling on this core. That's the kind of bold direction a GM has to take. If he's right, we'll see the team improve under our young players and, thanks to those contracts, we'll have the cap flexibility to make trades and/or add a UFA. If everything goes wrong, the rebuild was wasted and we have to start again from scratch. No guarantees, but I won't blame a GM for aggressively pursuing a vision.