Re-tooling For One More Run With This Core

[All Mod Cons]

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.

Regular season.

 

[saffronleaf]

Yikes, looks like quite the challenge to fill out that roster if you have any aspirations of winning a cup.

or even a round

 

[ULF_55]

Yikes, looks like quite the challenge to fill out that roster if you have any aspirations of winning a cup.

Pretty much the same roster as this year.

Cap doesn't improve, but it really isn't any worse.

It is finding the correct fits going forward.

An example, Bunting. He was / is cheap! He filled a need.

Here is where Dubas has to earn his money.

Get a $2.8mm player who can be the glue on the Nylander-Tavares pairing.
Perhaps this is a player coming off injury, or who was shut-out of opportunities on his old team.
They don't need a highly skilled player for this, could even be a Ritchie who can skate.

 

[The Masters]

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.



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.


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.

you addressed nothing lol.
no need to be confrontational ... everyone knows Dubas is chasing and is handcuffed because of JT, anyone with a brain right now can clearly see that. Our bottom 6 is suffering because of it. Guess why we lost vs tampa? Their bottom 6 was better than ours.

 

[ToneDog]

Pretty much the same roster as this year.

Cap doesn't improve, but it really isn't any worse.

It is finding the correct fits going forward.

An example, Bunting. He was / is cheap! He filled a need.

Here is where Dubas has to earn his money.

Get a $2.8mm player who can be the glue on the Nylander-Tavares pairing.
Perhaps this is a player coming off injury, or who was shut-out of opportunities on his old team.
They don't need a highly skilled player for this, could even be a Ritchie who can skate.

For every Bunting and kampf there is a Ritchie and Mrazek but I get it. Dubas is the Billy Beane of the NHL. Hopefully Brad Pitt can play him in the movie.

 

[ULF_55]

you addressed nothing lol.
no need to be confrontational ... everyone knows Dubas is chasing and is handcuffed because of JT, anyone with a brain right now can clearly see that. Our bottom 6 is suffering because of it. Guess why we lost vs tampa? Their bottom 6 was better than ours.

Yep, that is the challenge for Dubas:

Tampa's bottom 6 Cap Hit: 8.5

Hagel, Brandon		LW, RW	NHL	Trade	23	1.8	$1,500,000	$1,500,000	$1,500,000	RFA
Colton, Ross		LW, C	NHL	Draft	25	1.4	$1,125,000	$1,125,000	RFA
Perry, Corey	35+NTC	RW	NHL	Signed	37	1.2	$1,000,000	$1,000,000	UFA
Bellemare, Pierre-Édouard	35+	C, LW	NHL	Signed	37	1.2	$1,000,000	$1,000,000	UFA
Maroon, Patrick	M-NTC	LW, RW	NHL	Signed	34	1.1	$900,000	$1,000,000	$1,000,000	UFA
Nash, Riley		C, RW	NHL	Trade	33	0.9	$750,000	UFA
Paul, Nicholas	RS	C, LW	NHL	Trade	27	0.9	$749,250	UFA

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

For every Bunting and kampf there is a Ritchie and Mrazek but I get it. Dubas is the Billy Beane of the NHL. Hopefully Brad Pitt can play him in the movie.

I remember the Jimmy Vesey's and the Par Lindholm's along with Calle Rosen etc. This past UFA crop was the only time he hit on more than 1 at a time. I am having a hard time thinking of a single player besides Mikeyhev that he stole before this past year....and even he is not that great.

 

[killer1980]

The coach isn’t out there on the ice with them making or not making plays. They were mostly deployed how they should have been, and didn’t capitalize.
Dude scored a bunch this year and went Casper the ghost vs Tampa

And Marner & Matthews were a combined -6 for the last 5 games. Guess we should dump them too.

 

[The Masters]

For every Bunting and kampf there is a Ritchie and Mrazek but I get it. Dubas is the Billy Beane of the NHL. Hopefully Brad Pitt can play him in the movie.

its a dangerous game when u go into it every year trying to hit. Seems our bottom 6 a revolving door which is a problem cuz they can decide a series for you as we just saw. What sucks is that no one knocking on the door for Marlies to step in either. At least then we would have young players that could be that next wave. I just dont see them right now, at least for next season. Hope im wrong.

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

its a dangerous game when u go into it every year trying to hit. Seems our bottom 6 a revolving door which is a problem cuz they can decide a series for you as we just saw. What sucks is that no one knocking on the door for Marlies to step in either. At least then we would have young players that could be that next wave. I just dont see them right now, at least for next season. Hope im wrong.

I don't think we have anyone on the Marlies that would be a Nick Paul type player because we are constantly enamored with under sized skill players. The problem with that is if they don't pan out as skill guys they are abject useless to play on the 3rd and 4th lines. So, if you occasionally draft a bigger guy with less skill and he flops as a scorer...you might have the chance to move him down the lineup. This is the problem with getting undersized players if they don't pan out. Also, we keep drafting the same type of player....5'9-5'11 170-190lbs....like almost always.

 

[fahad203]

I remember the Jimmy Vesey's and the Par Lindholm's along with Calle Rosen etc. This past UFA crop was the only time he hit on more than 1 at a time. I am having a hard time thinking of a single player besides Mikeyhev that he stole before this past year....and even he is not that great.

Probably Spezza
As for Bunting, he only hit home run because Arizona didn't want him for some reason
Happens to be from Scarborough and wanted to play for his hometown

Others:

Wayne Simmonds
Alex Galeynchuck
Joe Thortonton
Stefen Noesen
Mike Amadeo

Just absolute garbage in every sense of the word. What's concerning, it's not that he's signing garbage players, it's how much these garbage players actually played. They played a lot

 

[Nylanderthal]

And Marner & Matthews were a combined -6 for the last 5 games. Guess we should dump them too.

Matthews and Marner scored 9 & 8 points each while having harder matchups and are the spine of the organization, Ilya mikheyev is this generations Marty grabner with less finish. He’s also an expiring FA who you can replace with a different look rather easily

 

[Stephen]

I actually think MLSE could keep running this back indefinitely. Won't satisfy the desire to have a blockbuster trade on the draft floor or big time shopping sprees on July 1, but when they talk about losing a series and how if you ran it back 100 times, etc. I think they might actually be in the business of re-playing it over and over as much as possible.

For historical comparison, the Pittsburgh Penguins were playoff duds for most of the time between their 2009 run and when they won back to back in 2016 and 2017. They just kept the band together, hit on a few internally grown replacement star players and went back at it. Now they're back to losing in the first round 4 years in a row again and just running it into the ground.

 

[ULF_55]

they need a couple drafted forwards to work out.

I don't think expecting that is asking for a miracle.

If they can't put a a prospect into the line up they have to fire the entire scouting staff.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

My Leafs plan:

- Trade Kase and Engvall for whatever picks you can get, and let Mikheyev, Lyubushkin, and Campbell walk.
- Take a flyer on a UFA goalie with upside like Comrie for ~$1.25M
- if Giordano is willing to stay on a 1 year deal at $3M or less, keep him. Otherwise he can walk too.
- Keep Mrazek and hope he bounces back. If he doesn't, package a first + whatever else it takes to move him at the 2023 trade deadline.
- Resolve to play Tavares on the wing and look to trade Nylander to free up cap space/address the C/RD positions. Something like Nylander for Kupari+Durzi might be doable.
- At this point there's still something like $4-5M in cap space to try and add a few gritty forwards (Keegan Kolesar, Nico Sturm, guys like that).

 

[Dreakmur]

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

Skating is probably the most important hockey skill. Hockey IQ is not a skill, it's an intangible.

 

[Cap'n Flavour]

Why are so many of you obsessed with re-signing Giordano for 2-3M? There's no room for him with Rielly-Muzzin-Sandin on the left side, and that money is needed elsewhere. Yeah, Muzzin's bound to miss some time but that's a role for a ~1M 7D to fill.

 

[Gary Nylund]

you addressed nothing lol.
no need to be confrontational ... everyone knows Dubas is chasing and is handcuffed because of JT, anyone with a brain right now can clearly see that. Our bottom 6 is suffering because of it. Guess why we lost vs tampa? Their bottom 6 was better than ours.

You keep repeating JT and yes I did address it. Go back and reread the posts that you quoted, it's all there in plain sight. Or keep making yourself look silly, up to you.

 

[Stephen]

they need a couple drafted forwards to work out.

I don't think expecting that is asking for a miracle.

If they can't put a a prospect into the line up they have to fire the entire scouting staff.

If Knies can turn into our Guentzel equivalent that will breathe new life into the cup contending window over the next 2 years. Does Amirov still have the ability to resume his career? Then the real hurdle is trying to stickhandle re-signing Matthews, Nylander and Marner and letting time run out on Tavares' deal. With a wildly inflating cap.

 

[Menzinger]

Why are so many of you obsessed with re-signing Giordano for 2-3M? There's no room for him with Rielly-Muzzin-Sandin on the left side, and that money is needed elsewhere. Yeah, Muzzin's bound to miss some time but that's a role for a ~1M 7D to fill.

I think the idea is it would allow the team to move out Muzzin to save a couple million to spend elsewhere.

A move with pros/cons. Muzzin at his best is obviously the better D man, though he did have a down season for the most part.

 

[Nylanderthal]

Regular season.

Only 16/32 make the post season, so while regular season success isn’t anywhere near the main objective or anything to rest laurels on, it’s absolutely imperative to be at least really good in the regular season to position yourself in the post season

 

[Gary Nylund]

Why are so many of you obsessed with re-signing Giordano for 2-3M? There's no room for him with Rielly-Muzzin-Sandin on the left side, and that money is needed elsewhere. Yeah, Muzzin's bound to miss some time but that's a role for a ~1M 7D to fill.

I don't know about obsessed but for 2M, Gio seems like a useful player to have around.

 

[Menzinger]

they need a couple drafted forwards to work out.

I don't think expecting that is asking for a miracle.

If they can't put a a prospect into the line up they have to fire the entire scouting staff.

The #1 problem/constraint for the Leafs rebuild has been an inability to find impact players (especially at forward) outside of the 1st round of the draft (and more so the top 10).

The Leafs could really use a couple top 9 forwards from the 2-7th rounds sometime soon over the next couple seasons. Ideally Robertson and Knies fill that

 

[Cap'n Flavour]

I think the idea is it would allow the team to move out Muzzin to save a couple million to spend elsewhere.

A move with pros/cons. Muzzin at his best is obviously the better D man, though he did have a down season for the most part.

If Muzzin goes based on his regular season struggles (he was much better in the playoffs), I want his replacement to be speedy and defensively sound for PK#1, and not a gamble on a declining 39 year-old whose main strengths are pretty much already covered by Sandin.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Only 16/32 make the post season, so while regular season success isn’t anywhere near the main objective or anything to rest laurels on, it’s absolutely imperative to be at least really good in the regular season to position yourself in the post season

Yes it's been crucial to our playoff runs