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We've heard this same story for a few years now - cap hell, we're screwed. Then Dubas goes to work and we somehow manage to have a pretty good season.
Because he's been very careful with how he's allocated his cap space. Which they should continue to do.
 
People think its easy to find Buntings and Kampf's... it's not. Those value deals are hard to find. The whole league is trying to find those players - it's a hard cap league and covid has put an emphasis on it

i hope dubas can do it again because he needs to but its not automatic.

not to mention we had good year with injuries

JT's contract is a problem and puts pressure on rest of the roster.
 
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After another game 7 round 1 playoff loss, I think there needs to be some kind of major change. If it’s not going to be the teams president, general manager or coach, it has to be a core player.

Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Rielly aren’t going anywhere which leaves Nylander as the odd man out. This isn’t a knock on Nylander either as he’s been one of our best playoff preforms these past few years. There just needs to be a change and a strong message sent across the three other players making 11+ million dollars a year that time is running out before another big change happens.

Someone in another thread mentioned a deal around Nylander for Necas. One for one, that would be terrible for the Leafs but if you can make a package around Nylander + Holl for Necas + Pesce, that could be interesting.

Necas seems like a perfect candidate for one of those overpay currently but lock them up long term type deals. Maybe something along 5 years at 4 million per would work? The salaries from that trade would also give us just over 900k in cap savings.

Sign Harrington to be your 7th defenceman.

Rielly - Pesce
Sandin - Brodie
Muzzin - Liljegren
Harrington
 
I don't really think they can (or should, barring an exceptional goalie being available) allocate more than $5M to the goaltending position.


Yes, that's definitely a consideration. How many teams want Mrazek in the lineup though? Arizona? They could throw anyone in goal for $750k. They don't really need (or want) Mrazek at all.

Teams are always interested in goalies if Arizona wants to meet the cap floor, they're going to need to spend more on goal than just a couple league minimum guys, and will have difficulty attracting free agents given their facilities issues. Edmonton could be another team looking for a 1b to give added support to Smith.
 
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Teams are always interested in goalies if Arizona wants to meet the cap floor, they're going to need to spend more on goal than just a couple league minimum guys, and will have difficulty attracting free agents given their facilities issues. Edmonton could be another team looking for a 1b to give added support to Smith.
I do not see Edmonton being interested. They already hate Koskinen and are also going to have to be careful with their cap dollars.

There are tons of teams looking to dump contracts. Arizona will have zero trouble hitting the cap floor. There's no reason they'd need to acquire a player with more cash owed than his AAV, just out of desperation to reach the cap floor.
 
I don't really think they can (or should, barring an exceptional goalie being available) allocate more than $5M to the goaltending position.


Yes, that's definitely a consideration. How many teams want Mrazek in the lineup though? Arizona? They could throw anyone in goal for $750k. They don't really need (or want) Mrazek at all.
You said "a price the Leafs can pay".

That sounded like some sort of limit on what we can pay and now it sounds like you're saying 5 million ... unless someone worth more is available, then they can pay more.

That now sounds like you're saying basically we can pay any price. If that's it then I agree, we should be willing to allocate whatever for the right guy and I don't think there's any kind of limit here at all. I mean we're not trading for Price (at least not without retention) but 5 million, 8 million, who cares? If the right goalie becomes available then we should allocate whatever cap we need to to make it happen, no way are we looking at a 5 million limit here.
 
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Because he's been very careful with how he's allocated his cap space. Which they should continue to do.
Everyone should always be careful, that's not news.

People think its easy to find Buntings and Kampf's... it's not. Those value deals are hard to find. The whole league is trying to find those players - it's a hard cap league and covid has put an emphasis on it

i hope dubas can do it again because he needs to but its not automatic.

not to mention we had good year with injuries

JT's contract is a problem and puts pressure on rest of the roster.
Of course it's not easy to find those guys, nobody said it would be easy. Every year Dubas goes to work and does a pretty good job is all I'm saying. He hits on some, misses on others like any other GM but overall, the off-season work he's done has been solid so I'm not that worried about him doing a decent job filling out our bottom 6. Plus there's always the TDL, we've done a good job retaining our top picks and top prospects so we can always spend a bit at the TDL if need be and you don't have to even pay much to get bottom 6 guys, I don't see this as an issue.

The only big challenge is finding a #1 goalie, that's a HUGE challenge but the rest of it, I'm not worried about that all. Same goes for the "problem" of JT, most teams have worse problems than that to deal with so we're in pretty good shape in that regard.
 
I hope he costs less to get rid of than that. But he's coming off perhaps the absolute worse-case scenario that could've happened with Toronto: He was terrible and had major injury issues. He'll also be harder to pawn off on cap floor/cash poor teams because his actual salary is higher than his cap hit. No signing bonus that the Leafs can eat on July 1st either.

Marleau cost a 1st to get rid of. It was 1 year at $6.25M, but the actual cash was only $4.25 million. Mrazek's actual cash owed is about double that amount. The cash-conscious teams (Arizona) with cap space will be more reluctant to eat that. Plus the first I added was further in the future, so teams will discount the value as they typically do with future picks. So I figure another additional asset will be needed to pay them off.

Maybe don't tell people to "put down the pipe" until you've actually considered all the factors in play, which you clearly have not. This scenario really isn't that unreasonable.

I don't think anyone really want to come back with Campbell/Kallgren, but I legitimately don't see any realistic means of improving the goaltending without taking on even larger cap investments, that they frankly can't afford. If Campbell is just average next season, and Kallgren (or Woll) can pitch in .900 goaltending for 20-25 games, that'll be enough for the Leafs to finish top-five again.
Well said. People really under estimate how much you have to pay to get rid of a bad contract.
 
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You said "a price the Leafs can pay".

That sounded like some sort of limit on what we can pay and now it sounds like you're saying 5 million ... unless someone worth more is available, then they can pay more.

That now sounds like you're saying basically we can pay any price. If that's it then I agree, we should be willing to allocate whatever for the right guy and I don't think there's any kind of limit here at all. I mean we're not trading for Price (at least not without retention) but 5 million, 8 million, who cares? If the right goalie becomes available then we should allocate whatever cap we need to to make it happen, no way are we looking at a 5 million limit here.
Our opinion of the right goalie drastically differs though. Of course, we'd acquire any number of "right" players if the price was ridiculously low.

At this point, I don't view Gibson any more favourably (in terms of talent/ability) than any other number of 1A/1B guys. And my (yes, arbitrary, but the Leafs do have cap concerns) limit on goaltenders of that calibre would cap out at around $5 million combined. $5M vs $8M is not at all an insignificant difference. That's 2 or 3 depth players, or 1 middle-of-the-lineup piece.

If there were truly an elite goalie available, then yes, I would be more comfortable with allocating more space to the position, and allocating less to other positions. But as I said, I don't really think a player like that is realistically available.
 
They were more skilled??? Where???

Campbell more skilled than vasilevskiy? No

Rielly brodie muzzin gio more skilled than hedman mcdonaugh cernak and sergachev? No

Matthews marner more skilled than point/ kucherov: this one yes probably

Jt nylander kerfoot bunting, kampf mikheyev engval spezza blackwell more skilled than stamkos palat, killorn, colton, hagel, paul, perry? No

So no toronto was not more skilled team, they was faster than tampa its different.

Speed is one of many skills.
 
Offseason moves:
...

Nylander - Matthews - Puljujarvi
Bunting - Tavares - Marner
Engvall - Kerfoot - Holmberg
Blackwell - Kampf - Spezza

Rielly - Liljegren
Muzzin - Brodie
Giordano - Subban
Sandin

Campbell
Kallgren
... so we trade Robertson and a 1st just to wind up with a worse roster than last season? If Dubas & co.'s plan is anything like this, we're in deep shit.

Giordano and Subban would have been great 5-6 years ago. Subban is good for nothing but slewfoots now. You might as well pencil in Marleau-Thornton-Hossa as the 5th line.
 
... so we trade Robertson and a 1st just to wind up with a worse roster than last season? If Dubas & co.'s plan is anything like this, we're in deep shit.

Giordano and Subban would have been great 5-6 years ago. Subban is good for nothing but slewfoots now. You might as well pencil in Marleau-Thornton-Hossa as the 5th line.
The roster is going to look worse regardless, because they already have a ton of cap space committed and they have to give raises to a bunch of RFAs. It is impossible for them to bring everyone back.

At minimum, Dubas will have to pay someone to disappear Mrazek just to ice a cap-compliant team. Sure, it would be nice to add a bunch of top free agents, but in reality there is a salary cap.

Giordano still contributed as top-four defenseman. Subban is there as basically a 6th/7th guy. Swap him for whatever cheap 7D you prefer.

But you might want to actually put some thought into your response first.
 
And again, I'm just not super high on Robertson anymore (I used to be). If the price to move Mrazek only ends up being Robertson + mid-round pick, that is a big win.
Count me in on the Robertson is not going to amount to what most think he will. He is too tiny and has no balance which gets him injured all the time. He takes way too long to get his shot off because of his size (doesn't seem to bother Caulfield for some reason) and is pretty slow for a small guy. He looks like another Petan who scored like a maniac in junior or AHL but just can't do it in the NHL. I am 99% sure Knies will be a much better player than Robby. Sell now before everyone else figures out your holding a crappy hand.
 
Everyone should always be careful, that's not news.


Of course it's not easy to find those guys, nobody said it would be easy. Every year Dubas goes to work and does a pretty good job is all I'm saying. He hits on some, misses on others like any other GM but overall, the off-season work he's done has been solid so I'm not that worried about him doing a decent job filling out our bottom 6. Plus there's always the TDL, we've done a good job retaining our top picks and top prospects so we can always spend a bit at the TDL if need be and you don't have to even pay much to get bottom 6 guys, I don't see this as an issue.

The only big challenge is finding a #1 goalie, that's a HUGE challenge but the rest of it, I'm not worried about that all. Same goes for the "problem" of JT, most teams have worse problems than that to deal with so we're in pretty good shape in that regard.
I'm just calling it like it is. Dubas is handcuffed cuz of the cap and is now chasing. the problem is because of JT's contract, you put too much pressure finding those gems since you are spread so thin. Not to mention he has to maneuver the mrzaek mistake as well this off-season. We don't have any marlies knocking on the door, that's another issue. Robertson is still an unknown. Steeves and Douglas? not sure you can count those guys in to impact. Knies would have been nice to add to 2/3rd line this season but hes not coming.

The only guys I like from bottom 6 are Kampf and Blackwell. Everyone else can go. Nick Paul would be a nice pick up for 4th line.
 
Forwards:
1s.t line: 23.5 Bunting-Matthews-marner
2nd line: 20.8 bestfit-Tavares-Nylander
3rd. line: 6.0 Engvall-Kampf-someone
4th. line: 2.5 Cheap1-Cheap2-Cheap3

Defense:
1st. 12.5 Rielly-Brodie
2nd. 7.0 Muzzin-Liljegren
3rd. 4.2 Giordano-Sandin
Spare: 1 Cheap1

Goalie:
#1: 4 Earn-It
#2: 1 One of dozens available
 
Our opinion of the right goalie drastically differs though. Of course, we'd acquire any number of "right" players if the price was ridiculously low.
That's interesting because I don't recall stating an opinion on who the right goalie might be. But go ahead and tell me what my opinion of "the right goalie" is. Before you do though, consider this: you've used the phrase "But you might want to actually put some thought into your response first" a few times, perhaps you should heed your own advice. :)

The roster is going to look worse regardless, because they already have a ton of cap space committed and they have to give raises to a bunch of RFAs. It is impossible for them to bring everyone back.

At minimum, Dubas will have to pay someone to disappear Mrazek just to ice a cap-compliant team. Sure, it would be nice to add a bunch of top free agents, but in reality there is a salary cap.

Giordano still contributed as top-four defenseman. Subban is there as basically a 6th/7th guy. Swap him for whatever cheap 7D you prefer.

But you might want to actually put some thought into your response first.

So they have to give raises to some RFA's, so what? Sandin and Liljegren are both likely to improve way beyond what their salary increases are, that's something you might want to consider before deciding how our roster will look.

Even if we do have to pay to dump Mrazek, the price will likely be picks which has no impact on our roster.

But you might want to actually put some thought into your response first. :)

I'm just calling it like it is. Dubas is handcuffed cuz of the cap and is now chasing. the problem is because of JT's contract, you put too much pressure finding those gems since you are spread so thin. Not to mention he has to maneuver the mrzaek mistake as well this off-season. We don't have any marlies knocking on the door, that's another issue. Robertson is still an unknown. Steeves and Douglas? not sure you can count those guys in to impact. Knies would have been nice to add to 2/3rd line this season but hes not coming.

The only guys I like from bottom 6 are Kampf and Blackwell. Everyone else can go. Nick Paul would be a nice pick up for 4th line.
Like I already said, we've heard the same thing for years now and every year by the time the season starts, our roster looks pretty good. And I addressed JT already, do you enjoy going around in circles?

It's like you think we're the only team that spends to the cap every year and has a player who's overpaid a couple of million, sheesh.
 
And Mitch had just about his worst season.

We are at the point where we have to not mess up other players just to try to get Tavares going.

Keep him away from players like Marner, Matthews, Nylander, and Mikheyev. He should be on the third line, preferably as a winger who takes faceoffs.
But he is a shooting threat now and I don’t want Marner on my team if he can’t succeed away from Matthews and vice versa
 
We've heard this same story for a few years now - cap hell, we're screwed. Then Dubas goes to work and we somehow manage to have a pretty good season.
To me cap hell implies you have anchors on your cap that would prohibit your team from making any moves. I don’t think that the case here, it’s more so cap committed.
They could clear out any and every dollar on the books in individual deals and not have to entice a team with assets to make the deal happen. Yes, that includes Mrazek muzzin Holl Tavares or whatever whipping boy people (not you, Gary 😂) want to point at as being the perceived problem.
 
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Forwards:
1s.t line: 23.5 Bunting-Matthews-marner
2nd line: 20.8 bestfit-Tavares-Nylander
3rd. line: 6.0 Engvall-Kampf-someone
4th. line: 2.5 Cheap1-Cheap2-Cheap3

Defense:
1st. 12.5 Rielly-Brodie
2nd. 7.0 Muzzin-Liljegren
3rd. 4.2 Giordano-Sandin
Spare: 1 Cheap1

Goalie:
#1: 4 Earn-It
#2: 1 One of dozens available

Yikes, looks like quite the challenge to fill out that roster if you have any aspirations of winning a cup.
 
The roster is going to look worse regardless, because they already have a ton of cap space committed and they have to give raises to a bunch of RFAs. It is impossible for them to bring everyone back.

At minimum, Dubas will have to pay someone to disappear Mrazek just to ice a cap-compliant team. Sure, it would be nice to add a bunch of top free agents, but in reality there is a salary cap.

Giordano still contributed as top-four defenseman. Subban is there as basically a 6th/7th guy. Swap him for whatever cheap 7D you prefer.

But you might want to actually put some thought into your response first.
The roster doesn't have to look worse. That's what the GM is for. If he's wasting a 1st + decent prospect in Robertson to dump Mrazek, I want that money spent on something useful.

Giordano, Lyubushkin and Blackwell aren't needed. Even doing absolutely nothing, Rielly-Muzzin-Sandin and Brodie-Liljegren-Holl is tolerable as a top 6 (Holl is fine as a 3rd pair penaltykiller; that Keefe insists on playing him higher than that is an obvious issue that Dubas doesn't seem interested in fixing). Of course I want improvements, but goal is a higher priority. #3C option and D upgrades come next. If Kampf is still on a shutdown line then I want someone better than Spezza/Blackwell as the #3/4C. Kerfoot has been tried at C before and is no good at it at all, sorry to say.

As for who Dubas should target, meh. The Leafs have a half-dozen pro scouts, they can and will do the work. There's just no way I'm going to be excited if the answers are Puljujarvi and Holmberg.
 
Stickhandling is a physical ability. You absolutely need mechanical skill to be a great skater.

Its not an HOCKEY skill.. if you consider skating as a skill strenght should be one too...

When we talk about HOCKEY skill, its about puckhandling, passing ability, shooting ability, hockey QI
 

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