LaP
Registered User
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 just realized Seider and Raymond are not sigend yet. Is Yzerman lowballing them?
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.Ottawa did well in that trade.
They basically paid the price to dump Korpisalo and got Ullmark for free.
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.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.
From looking at their roster. I'm not sure who I'd pick, instead of Matthews.
Damn you LV lol I spewed coffee all over myself.
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".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.
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.
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.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.
The salary hurt for sure. They should’ve negotiated harder with him. Moreover they should’ve negotiated harder with their own players as well.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.
Tavares to habs E4Yeah... 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.
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 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.
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.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.
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.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.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.
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.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.