Please Grade Dubas on today's Free Agent Pickups.

[BertCorbeau]

Point is worth 2.6 per year more than Marner if you ask me ... Money Mitch's deal in the context of his contemporaries is probably the worst contract in the league

The tax effect is real. Point takes home more than Marner after taxes. And I'm not saying Marner's contract is particularly fair.

I do think Marner's camp was pushing for his salary after the crap Babcock played. If it's true that they almost asked for a trade, no wondering they were so aggressive in their demands.

Anyway a solid B .. Nothing spectacular or surprising, but that was expected with the lack of cap space at this point.

The important thing is he did not sign any anchor contracts or pay out the rear end in the trade market.

I'll be disappointed if they don't add more.

 

[Stephen]

C

He showed up this morning and did a job. None are likely to have massive upside but it's a work in progress.

 

[saffronleaf]

No state income tax

Taxes are very complicated.

Until Trump imposed a cap on it, you could deduct much of your state & local taxes from your federal return. Don't recall exactly how it works, but it obviously helps a lot.

Then you have to take into account that your income is subject to the taxes of the jurisdiction you play in (so all away games pretty much will have diff tax applicable). Plus signing bonus and where you declare your tax residence could affect things.

There's a lot that high earning people can do to shelter their money from taxes, even in Canada.

 

[Buds17]

Low B/High C. Hope seems to be the order of the day here. Amadio, Gabriel and Biega look to represent decent depth. The hope is that the goaltending tandem is healthy enough overall for a full season. The hope is that Bunting can be effective enough for the prominent role he is about to receive. Not entirely certain where Kampf ultimately slots in. I will point out that I don't believe this is 100% the roster we will see come opening night though.

 

[Chief Berube]

I don't participate in online polls.

Write that down for future reference.

LOOL

 

[cyris]

I'm surprised by the people who don't like Mrazek. Of the contracts signed today for goalies - which do you guys prefer to Mrazek?

Pretty much any of the goalies that signed for less would have been better.
We will be stuck with a well below average backup cause no one is taking that contract after he cracks playing in this market.
He has a .905 save% over the last 5 years. And the last few years in Carolina have been behind an elite defence.
Reimer out performed him most of the last 5 years.
I think anyone would agree that giving Reimer 4m a season to be our backup would be a terrible move. Why are they happy to give nearly that to a guy who put up worse numbers.

 

[MakeTheIronSing]

I’ve never seen a GM treat Free Agency like the draft, and treat the draft like it’s optional before.

People should have questions, but instead we have apathy. Do something to change this roster already, it’s not good enough. Time to move on from this same group of chokers.

 

[NewEraGM]

A line of kerfoot - kampf - mikheyev might score 10 goals total this season. Zero depth in this lineup, and that’s the 3rd line lol

 

[Chungo2]

D if I’m being fair.

we regressed and I don’t think we make it to game 7 of the 1st round. Make the playoffs (4-5 spot dependent on conference set up). Probably out in game 5 or 6.

We need a culture and image overhaul.

 

[Man Bear Pig]

Dallas, Vegas, Nashville, Panthers, Seattle all have no state income tax. If it’s the huge advantage everyone makes it out to be then those should be the most competitive teams every season

It doesn't automatically a winner, but it's certainly an advantage. How is it not?

 

[Stonehands1990]

It doesn't automatically a winner, but it's certainly an advantage. How is it not?

It is but you figured being the 2nd richest team with the most endorsement opportunities would give us an advantage but here we are with the longest cup drought in the league

 

[Mess]

Incomplete

Still waiting for that #1LWer to replace Hyman, still waiting for that 2nd line LWer to replace Foligno to play with Tavares and Nylander, still waiting for the tough hard nosed Dman to replace Bogosian, and still wondering why he used day #1 of free agency to build up the Marlies, and saved the important positions to fill on the NHL team for another day, particular while everyone else is making their NHL teams better today.

 

[Stonehands1990]

Incomplete

Still waiting for that #1LWer to replace Hyman, still waiting for that 2nd line LWer to play with Tavares and Nylander, still waiting for the tough hard nosed Dman to replace Bogosian, and still wondering why he used day #1 of free agency to build up the Marlies, and saved the important positions to fill on the NHL team for another day, particular while everyone else is making their NHL teams better today.

We still have 3.2 in space with a 20 man roster and Kerfoot will be the 2LW as Kampf takes over the shutdown C roll

 

[jaric1862]

I will reserve my judgement until they sign this last forward.

They also need another defenceman.


I think that they could've gotten better use from the 1.5 on Kampf.

 

[Eternal Leaf]

The tax effect is real. Point takes home more than Marner after taxes. And I'm not saying Marner's contract is particularly fair.

I do think Marner's camp was pushing for his salary after the crap Babcock played. If it's true that they almost asked for a trade, no wondering they were so aggressive in their demands.

Anyway a solid B .. Nothing spectacular or surprising, but that was expected with the lack of cap space at this point.

The important thing is he did not sign any anchor contracts or pay out the rear end in the trade market.

I'll be disappointed if they don't add more.

The tax effect is there but it can't offset other factors.

1. Point gave up 7 UFA years to Marner's 2 UFA years
2. Point had a longer track record at the time of signing (Marner had one 90-point season with no playoff success).
3. Point is a proven winner (twice).

Unfortunately, Marner squeezed every last penny out of the Leafs whether it had to do with ego and/or selfishness.

 

[GoLeafsGo96]

Pretty much any of the goalies that signed for less would have been better.
We will be stuck with a well below average backup cause no one is taking that contract after he cracks playing in this market.
He has a .905 save% over the last 5 years. And the last few years in Carolina have been behind an elite defence.
Reimer out performed him most of the last 5 years.
I think anyone would agree that giving Reimer 4m a season to be our backup would be a terrible move. Why are they happy to give nearly that to a guy who put up worse numbers.

Mrazek is 4th in goals saved above expected in the last 3 seasons, which adjusts for quality of team defense in front of him.

As a comparison - Andersen - who got more money - is ranked 90th in the past 3 years.

Halak/Elliott/Jones? Yeah no thanks on any of those three.

Mrazek's deal worked out to be cheaper than the majority, and hes a better goaltender than Andersen. They upgraded their tandem and will pay them less than they paid their tandem last year, who, with Freddy's play - would be worse (he can rebound but hes been bad for the last two years).

 

[wingman75]

At the end of the day, the big boys are the ones who need to lead this team to playoff victories. We didn't lose because of our depth in this years playoffs, we lost because our best players were not our best players.
The big question here is Mrazek for me; do not mind the signing, but I don't believe a team backstopped by Campbell + Mrazek can do much damage in the playoffs irregardless of how our top dogs play (or don't as it were).

I think there is another more impactful addition on the wing to come. If not, I think we are a wildcard team at best that doesn't do any damage in the playoffs.

 

[htpwn]

D.

I really like the Bunting signing. It is unfortunate that some of the other targets, like a Pius Suter, got way more than expected.

I'm 50/50 on the Mrazek signing. Next to Kuemper, I think he was the best goalie out there, and the price that the Avs paid to get Kuemper was obviously far too high. But with our cap, the question becomes is whether having the better goalie in Mrazek is worth the extra ~$1.5-2M in cap space versus signing Reimer or Halak. I'm not certain that it is but nor am I certain that it isn't. Really depends on how all three of them perform.

Strongly dislike the Kampf signing. If the plan is to play him at #4C, then I disagree with the decision to spend an extra $700k of scarce cap room to get an upgrade for Brooks. If the plan is to play him at #3C, he needs to find a far better offensive game than he has shown to date.

In all, some may think the grade is a little harsh, and maybe on the signings alone that's true. But I just can't look over the fact that our top six left-wingers are currently Ilya Mikheyev and Michael Bunting. Aside from goaltending, that was our most pressing need with Hyman departing, and Dubas hasn't filled it.

 

[TMLAM34]

I will reserve my judgement until they sign this last forward.

They also need another defenceman.


I think that they could've gotten better use from the 1.5 on Kampf.

Kampf easily becomes our third best center (mind you that’s not saying very much lol). He’s got size, two-way ability, can kill penalties, and is very good in the face off circle. Both Kerfoot and Engvall were in the low 40% range meanwhile Kampf was almost at 53% while taking way more face offs per game. There isn’t many affordable third line centers we could have afforded with our cap situation. This was a low key solid signing.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Bunting seems to be on his way to legendary status. I've never seen so much excitement for a guy with a couple of dozen games under his belt.

The rest is meh. You could switch the names out and it wouldn't make a difference.

 

[81Leafs50]

5 years of failure with a bunch of chokers ha. Today wasn’t going to fix that

Only choker in this town is Mitch Marner. Everyone else is ok by me.

 

[jaric1862]

Kampf easily becomes our third best center (mind you that’s not saying very much lol). He’s got size, two-way ability, can kill penalties, and is very good in the face off circle. Both Kerfoot and Engvall were in the low 40% range meanwhile Kampf was almost at 53% while taking way more face offs per game. There isn’t many affordable third line centers we could have afforded with our cap situation. This was a low key solid signing.

Im definitely not discounting him as a player and for what his role is. I just think we could've found someone more suitable for that role, had we paid up a little bit (I'm thinking Haula or even Bonino).

I have a feeling that they're going to run an Engvall-Kampf-Mikheyev line as the "shutdown" line and I just wish there was a better center for that

 

[cyris]

Mrazek is 4th in goals saved above expected in the last 3 seasons, which adjusts for quality of team defense in front of him.

As a comparison - Andersen - who got more money - is ranked 90th in the past 3 years.

Halak/Elliott/Jones? Yeah no thanks on any of those three.

Mrazek's deal worked out to be cheaper than the majority, and hes a better goaltender than Andersen. They upgraded their tandem and will pay them less than they paid their tandem last year, who, with Freddy's play - would be worse (he can rebound but hes been bad for the last two years).

Why does everyone bring up Andersen.
Yeah he wasn’t good for 2 years now. We all know that. Being better than him isn’t a high bar to achieve. Just because Carolina made a bad signing it doesn’t make Mrazek a good signing.
All those other guys you mentioned weren’t great last year but at least they are one year deals.
No one is taking that contract from us without a massive sweetener after he goes on one of his many cold streaks and cracks in the media pressure that comes with this market

 

[cyris]

Only choker in this town is Mitch Marner. Everyone else is ok by me.

This team is 0-5 in the first round. Marner definitely deserves part of that criticism but 1 player alone can’t make that happen. This group might just be rotten through its core.

 

[Christ]

Whomever gave him a A needs an intervention. Or a stiff drink.

Maybe he already had one...