Roster Building/Team Building/Future Trade/Drafting thread.

[Americanadian]

I can't shake the feeling of Marner ending up in Vegas and signing just above the Rantanen deal on a sign and trade. His agent will have Dreger tweeting that 12.5M in a no-tax state is the highest take home money in the league. Vegas can't help themselves anytime a star becomes available.

Marner signed to 12.5Mx8 to VGK for Karlsson makes sense. That's probably the best piece the Leafs could pull in a sign and trade for a UFA and Karlsson solves a short-term need for the Leafs. VGK would need to clear cap space which is why I think they'd move off Karlsson.

 

[WTFMAN99]

I can't shake the feeling of Marner ending up in Vegas and signing just above the Rantanen deal on a sign and trade. His agent will have Dreger tweeting that 12.5M in a no-tax state is the highest take home money in the league. Vegas can't help themselves anytime a star becomes available.

Marner signed to 12.5Mx8 to VGK for Karlsson makes sense. That's probably the best piece the Leafs could pull in a sign and trade for a UFA and Karlsson solves a short-term need for the Leafs. VGK would need to clear cap space which is why I think they'd move off Karlsson.

I'd be pretty excited about a 3rd round pick for his rights but if they actually pulled a useful roster piece, all the better.

 

[Tony Romo]

Obviously we will probably overpay if Sam Bennett gets to FA.

Would a Cowan - Bennett - Nylander line work?

 

[TMLAM34]

No, but getting a lot more offence out of the back end is another way to offset that.

It doesn't need to be done with one guy, and that goes for any departure.

Byram would be the guy I target this off-season for the backend.

To Toronto: Bowen Byram + Jack Quinn
To Buffalo: Joseph Woll + Easton Cowan

 

[Americanadian]

Byram would be the guy I target this off-season for the backend.

To Toronto: Bowen Byram + Jack Quinn
To Buffalo: Joseph Woll + Easton Cowan

Why more LHD?

 

[TMLAM34]

Why more LHD?

I would move out Rielly.

 

[Americanadian]

I'd be pretty excited about a 3rd round pick for his rights but if they actually pulled a useful roster piece, all the better.

If all he cares about is money it would be beneficial for a team to do a sign and trade to get him the 8th year if they think it will secure the contract. I'm holding out hope that that's the case. Even if it's the case - the Leafs won't return a prime asset.

 

[Americanadian]

I would move out Rielly.

Got it - I missed that.

I think 90% of the fans on this board would. The question is: what teams does he waive for? Of those teams - which would actually take his contract?

 

[WTFMAN99]

 

[Tony Romo]

Got it - I missed that.

I think 90% of the fans on this board would. The question is: what teams does he waive for? Of those teams - which would actually take his contract?

I think you could potentially make something work with Vancouver if Hughes is traded

 

[Fogelhund]

Knies - _______ - Nylander
_______ - _______ - _______
McMann - Tavares - _______
Lorentz - Laughton - _______

McCabe - Tanev
_______ - Carlo
Ekman Larsson - _______

Stolarz - _______

Funny enough, that's almost exactly what I posted in March... with names put in place.

Knies Granlund Nylander
Ehlers Byfield Boeser
McMann Tavares Cowan/Steeves/Greentree
Lorentz Laughton Sherwood
Holmberg

McCabe Tanev
Provorov Carlo
OEL Clarke
Benoit

 

[TMLAM34]

Got it - I missed that.

I think 90% of the fans on this board would. The question is: what teams does he waive for? Of those teams - which would actually take his contract?

I don’t think it’ll be that hard to find a team interested in Rielly. It’s more so, which team will Rielly waive to? I always circle back to Detroit, especially with his wife from Windsor.

 

[Tony Romo]

Honestly, I'm fine with trading McMann this offseason. When he's hot, he's very good but at this point just meh.

 

[SprDaVE]

They should have been so much more aggressive last 2 off-seasons about getting him to waive, or at least start that process. And now they are gonna let him walk for nothing and then thump their chest like it's something good.

 

[SprDaVE]

Honestly, I'm fine with trading McMann this offseason. When he's hot, he's very good but at this point just meh.

I don't know what people expect from these sub 2M players. McMann is probably one of our best cheap assets. 20 goals, fast, forechecks... These players are not going to pot a goal a game here and they will have stretches of meh play. I know these playoffs have been underwhelming, but he's hitting and getting some chances here and there.

The grass isn't always greener, especially for that kind of player.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

I have a lot of patience to keep building around Matthews, Nylander and Knies as the nucleous upfront. Matthews is on pace to break every Leaf record quite easily. Like you said, he's a franchise player through and through. JT neeeeeeds to take a team friendly deal for me to bring him back into his late 30s.

Treliving needs to get busy and aggressive to fill the blanks and improve the rest of the areas. He has to use the off-season properly this time and not just sign a bunch of players and hope it fits.

I trust Treliving…he did nice work last offseason with his cap space. Tanev alone brought the team to a new level.

 

[WTFMAN99]

They should have been so much more aggressive last 2 off-seasons about getting him to waive, or at least start that process. And now they are gonna let him walk for nothing and then thump their chest like it's something good.

The timeline is a bit tough, correct me if I am wrong...

Tree came in and basically had like 1 month before the NMC kicked in right? Most likely didn't want to look like a guy swinging his you know what just because he only arrived.

Last off-season? I had heard there was talk about it but it was shut down by Marner's side.

I don't love that it's working out this way but if they get anything for his rights...cool...we flip the page.

I think everyone would welcome a nice helping of crow if they won game 6 & 7 but I think we've all seen this show a few times now.

 

[4thline]

Kampf and Jarncrock traded, Marner, walks, 17m combined between Knies/JT/Lorentz/Holmberg

Knies-Matthews-xxx
xxx-xxx-Nylander
McMann-Tavares-Domi
Laughton-Quillan-Lorentz
Holmberg

& returning D + Stolarz and Woll

13.48 for the 3 forwards. If we can count on one ELC / 1m or less (either directly in the top 6 3 slots, or playing the LW's one slot higher each with another 13F, That's 12.5m split between two forwards.


Alternative look
Knies-Matthews-McMann
xxx-xxx-Nylander
Laughton-Tavares-Domi
Holmberg-Quillan-Lorentz
xxx

Hear me out with McMann at 1RW. Knies isn't a rookie 3rd wheel any more, he's a highly skill top 6 power forward in his own right. Both him and Matthews can pass the puck. McMann can score off the rush, give us a solid F1 forecheck option to both sides, and that line's cycle game would be absolute hell to play against. A decade of Mitch Marner has the NHL EA idea of the necessity of a pure playmaker burned into our brains- but I don't buy it.

 

[SprDaVE]

I trust Treliving…he did nice work last offseason with his cap space. Tanev alone brought the team to a new level.

He did well to sign good functional depth to fill holes for sure. Stolarz in particular was a big one. I did not like his zero trade off-season when it was clear they needed to clear cap space. He finally unloaded Liljegren, but that should have been done waaaay before. He can't sit on his hands this time again in regards to trades.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

There's a lot of not seeing the forest for the trees going on, because of how we lost games 4 and 5. There needs to be a re-tool, and it starts with Marner leaving

Imagine being a GM of the Leafs…you would be excited as hell at what you can do with Marner’s cap space to put the finishing touches on this team this offseason.

It’s a year too late but BT was so new that I find it hard to blame him.

 

[TMLAM34]

They should have been so much more aggressive last 2 off-seasons about getting him to waive, or at least start that process. And now they are gonna let him walk for nothing and then thump their chest like it's something good.

Poor asset management. Needed to trade him before his NMC kicked in.

 

[TMLAM34]

Imagine being a GM of the Leafs…you would be excited as hell at what you can do with Marner’s cap space to put the finishing touches on this team this offseason.

It’s a year too late but BT was so new that I find it hard to blame him.

Yea and no. The UFA group isn’t that great, not to mention a lot of the players probably don’t want to come here unless severely overpaid. We don’t have a whole lot of attractive assets to make trades and improve our roster. It’s really just a shitty situation to be in from all angles.

 

[Zero1]

There isn’t anyone worth signing long term in free agency imo.

Signing bloated 1-year deals might be the way to go. The Leafs should look towards the 2026 free agent class for more longer term pieces.

I would even give Marner his $13 mill AAV over 8 years IF the contract came with little trade protection. Something like a 15-team NTC. Treliving blew majority of the Leafs assets on Carlo and Laughton and they really need to recoup some of it.

Also the Leafs NEED to steal one of the guys in Vegas or Jim Nill in Dallas.

 

[SprDaVE]

There isn’t anyone worth signing long term in free agency imo.

Signing bloated 1-year deals might be the way to go. The Leafs should look towards the 2026 free agent class for more longer term pieces.

I would even give Marner his $13 mill AAV over 8 years IF the contract came with little trade protection. Something like a 15-team NTC. Treliving blew majority of the Leafs assets on Carlo and Laughton and they really need to recoup some of it.

Also the Leafs NEED to steal one of the guys in Vegas or Jim Nill in Dallas.

It's always dangerous to do that because the UFA class in 2026 will also be vastly different. Players re-sign with teams, they get traded and it becomes another similar situation. This time last year this UFA class seemed strong too. The cap going up means teams will keep having a little more money too.

Free agency is where a lot of teams kill their cap management and then their competitive window. So you always need to be cautious.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

He did well to sign good functional depth to fill holes for sure. Stolarz in particular was a big one. I did not like his zero trade off-season when it was clear they needed to clear cap space. He finally unloaded Liljegren, but that should have been done waaaay before. He can't sit on his hands this time again in regards to trades.

His greatest sin was not trading Marner, so I agree there. But it was his first season, that would’ve been extremely bold…I kind of want to give him a pass on that.