Please Grade Dubas on today's Free Agent Pickups.

[Clark4Ever]

As more time passes in this free agency period, I think the contracts Dubas handed out are looking better and better.

 

[Eb]

Why is looking at salary added important?

Chart, model, call that picture what you like, I really don't care?

And honestly, who cares about Vancouver?

Because there is a salary cap.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Because there is a salary cap.

Go on, I'm listening.

 

[Eb]

Go on, I'm listening.

Teams can only spend up to a certain amount in $USD on player contracts.

 

[ULF_55]

I see Kampf as the center of a 4th line shutdown line, not 3rd. Personally.

I see him 3rd. 14 minutes a night like in Chicago, where he took the most face-offs.

Around the same age Zezel was when he joined the Leafs.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Teams can only spend up to a certain amount in $USD on player contracts.

The goal is to win the cup, not to be the "best" on some chart. A team could spend twice as much as we did, not get as much bang for the buck but so what? If they had the cap space to spend all that money, that was an asset that we didn't have, something that the chart doesn't show. It's basically meaningless crap, designed to entertain people.

Show me chart showing what our chances are at playoff success next season, that might be a bit more meaningful

 

[GoLeafsGo96]

He got Campbell a year later. During which time they didn’t have a serviceable second goalie and ended up overplaying their starter who then went on to have injury issues. Hmmm.

Hes made some very bad bets that can’t easily be corrected, and he’s running out of time with Auston Matthews. He either walks for nothing (NMC in final year) or signs another bar raising contract in 3 years.

Tick-tock.

Andersen played more the preceding years of Sparks than he did when Sparks was here leading to getting Campbell. Babcock refused to even play McBackup unless it was a back to back. I don't think the injury issues are at all related to Dubas' bet on Sparks.

He bet on Sparks and it didn't work - they had Hutcheson for a bit to hold them over but I don't think they ever looked at him as the future backup option - then they got Campbell.

Your "very bad bets that can't easily be corrected" is pretty hyperbole. Marner is overpaid by 1.5-2M max - and they struggled to find the right backup goalie (until they didn't). He fixed the defense (best D this organization has had in over 20 years).

I get that everyone is sad and down on the roster - they should be disappointed. Its still a very good team - I expect eventually Marner will figure it out - just like Nylander did this year in the playoffs.

 

[Racer88]

Teams can only spend up to a certain amount in $USD on player contracts.

I wish Dubas had of thought of that when he committed 50% of that cap to 4 of basically the same player

 

[Gary Nylund]

I wish Dubas had of thought of that when he committed 50% of that cap to 4 of basically the same player

Boom!!

 

[Racer88]

Boom!!

If he was going to tie up so much on 4 guys it should have been 2 forwards, 1 Dman and 1 goalie

 

[Eb]

I wish Dubas had of thought of that when he committed 50% of that cap to 4 of basically the same player

I, for one, like spending a lot of cap space on good players, instead of bad players.

 

[Eb]

The goal is to win the cup, not to be the "best" on some chart. A team could spend twice as much as we did, not get as much bang for the buck but so what? If they had the cap space to spend all that money, that was an asset that we didn't have, something that the chart doesn't show. It's basically meaningless crap, designed to entertain people.

Show me chart showing what our chances are at playoff success next season, that might be a bit more meaningful

If you believe in the bolded, in a league with finite cap space, I don't think we can agree here.

Anyways, this has gotten completely off topic of you calling a calculation of cap space added a model.

 

[Buds17]

Hypothetically, if Campbell outplays Mrazek and earns more money on his next contract, are they going to keep Mrazek as the backup at that salary?

Or does Campbell move on as a free agent and they sign a backup next year? I think he’ll likely want a raise on his $1.6M AAV.

That's one thing I found a bit odd about committing to Mrazek for three years. I thought two seasons might have been the better play but admittedly don't know if that would have been a deal-breaker for him. I obviously wouldn't prefer to have both goalies be out of contract concurrently.

I suppose the bet being made here is that of a true tandem (in the regular season at least). Campbell emerging as an outright #1 either probably becomes too valuable to let go or too expensive to retain (hopefully the latter wouldn't be the case).

 

[Gary Nylund]

If you believe in the bolded, in a league with finite cap space, I don't think we can agree here.

Anyways, this has gotten completely off topic of you calling a calculation of cap space added a model.

I meant for the purposes of that chart. Every team has a fixed amount to spend depending on how much cap space they have left, therefore some teams can spend more than others. We've spent a ton already so our room to improve is very limited.

That's why I said the chart is just entertainment as it doesn't matter who improves the most in the summer or in any time period, what matters is where the teams are at when they start playing. One thing missing from chart is how much cap space teams have left, it only shows a small piece of the puzzle which is why it's not very useful

 

[Racer88]

I, for one, like spending a lot of cap space on good players, instead of bad players.

I wouldn’t mind it if it was spread out among the critical positions

 

[zeke]

This whole chart is laughable, cmon. The leafs are way worse than they were last year, lost Hyman, bogosian, andersson, Galchenyuk, Thornton. Their biggest issue is keeping the puck out of their net and now they are going with two mediocre goalies.

Andersen was the single biggest weakness on the team last year.

 

[zeke]

Many leaf fans get excited with "new" and confuse "new" with good ... most people on here have No clue who Bunting, Kase or Ritchie are or what they are capable of, except for a few SC highlight reports. I absolutely have no clue who Bunting is, Kase I've heard of and seen him play but not enough to have formed an opinion and Ritchie I know because he was the guy we passed up to pick Willie.

We have a horrid left side, we have 4 players who are either fringe NHLer's, last chance NHLer's, soon to be last chance NHLer's or I'm only here because I have a low cap hit NHLer's. If Bunting can keep that 20%+ shooting from last year, he should be good, if Kase can stay healthy he should be good, if Sandin can take that next step he will be good, if Mrazek can stay healthy he should be good. Lot's of "if's" that need to be true for us to have a successful year.

You're probably just deceiving yourself by talking about "the left side", when we could easily flip Willy over there, and have quite often.

We have arguably the best 1-2 wingers in the league. We might have question marks in the 3/4 slots compared to some teams, but none of those teams has a 2C like ours, and we have a whole whack of wingers who are at least good 5/6 wingers with a decent chance of being productive 3/4 ones.

 

[zeke]

perhaps, but the GM’s overall track record with goalie evaluation has not been great.

Campbell has been one of the better goalie acquisitions in recent years imo.

 

[egd27]

Andersen was the single biggest weakness on the team last year.

Not when it mattered most.

 

[zeke]

Not when it mattered most.

True, but those models are projecting regular season points.

 

[egd27]

Campbell has been one of the better goalie acquisitions in recent years imo.

He has been good.

My point was he is not the only goalie Dubas has acquired/bet on.

I get you don't like using stats much, but when establishing what is referred to as a "track record" you can't just look at the successes, you have to look at the entire sample.

 

[zeke]

He has been good.

My point was he is not the only goalie Dubas has acquired/bet on.

I get you don't like using stats much, but when establishing what is referred to as a "track record" you can't just look at the successes, you have to look at the entire sample.

But picking up a good starter heavily outweighs even a bunch of failed backups.

That being said, his worst goalie decision was to believe in Fred even as he steadily collapsed over 2 and a half years.

 

[Havoc]

But picking up a good starter heavily outweighs even a bunch of failed backups.

That being said, his worst goalie decision was to believe in Fred even as he steadily collapsed over 2 and a half years.

.927 save % over his last 2 post seasons against tougher opponents is collapsing eh? Take that version of Fred over Campbell any day.

 

[KuleminFan41]

I wish Dubas had of thought of that when he committed 50% of that cap to 4 of basically the same player

The only reason the contracts look worse now is because the cap isn't increasing due to COVID. Those contracts were signed on the basis of the cap going up significantly. Had there been no COVID stoppage, the cap could have realistically reached over 90 million which ends up making the Marner cap hit easier to swallow. It is what it is, what can you do? No one could foresee the entire world coming to a complete stop last year.

 

[BertCorbeau]

I wouldn’t mind it if it was spread out among the critical positions

But they've spent spread it out on the top two centres, two top 6 wing positions, and 3 defense positions?