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

If this team once again fails to proceed very far in the playoffs, what would you want them to do?

  • Do nothing, run it back

    Votes: 16 10.3%
  • Make changes to the offense, top 6 forward, better bottom six, but keep the core

    Votes: 10 6.4%
  • Make changes to the offense, including moving core players

    Votes: 59 37.8%
  • Make changes to the defense

    Votes: 10 6.4%
  • Do a retool, including moving core players

    Votes: 75 48.1%
  • Ban the guy who keeps making jinx prediction posts.

    Votes: 20 12.8%

  • Total voters
    156
With J.T the top 9 should look something like this:

Knies – Matthews – Domi
McMann – ______ – Nylander
Laughton – Tavares – ______


If we bring back J.T., which is looking like more likely, then it seems our biggest needs in the forward group are 2C and 2/3RW.

Two guys I’d target:

  1. William Karlsson
  2. Mason Marchment
Both are solid veterans who have gone deep in the playoffs. They bring valuable experience.

Dallas will need to shed cap and could lose 2–3 players. If the Leafs could land Marchment, it would be a fantastic addition to the third line. He would look great alongside Tavares, who should transition to 3C.

Karlsson would be a strong fit with Nylander—he's a transition center with a reliable two-way game. If Vegas has any interest in Marner, they’ll need to cut cap. With Eichel and Hertl already holding down their top six at center, they could afford to go cheaper at 3C.

Then I'd try and sign Brandon Tanev and Lorentz for the 4th line to give me a solid 4th line. Pacioretty and Saad are also worth considering as alternatives for the 4th line.

Knies – Matthews – Domi
McMann – Karlsson – Nylander
Laughton – Tavares – Marchment
Lorentz - Holmberg - Tanev
 
Utah doesn’t seem to like McBain. They keep jamming him on the 4th line. Cooley and Hayton are their 1/2 at center. Then they used Stenlund, Kerfoot, and Bjugstad just as much as McBain after that.
This isn't true. They use him alot and he keeps improving. They aren't going to move him short of receiving the same player or same picks or better back. They paid a 2nd for him
 
With the KHL and most European leagues now over, and the World Championships almost over, I wonder if we start hearing about some players making the move to the AHL/NHL?

Atro Leppänen, Danil Aimurzin, Grigori Kuzmin and Maxim Shabanov all had some very good numbers in their respective leagues. The latter 3 are all under 24 years old, so potential there and I've seen a lot of interest for Shabanov. Leppanen is 26 but had a huge season. Late bloomer with great skating.

Oskar Steen is 27 years old but also had a pretty big year in the SHL after years in the Bruins org.
Aimurzin is a good one, but he's signed an extension. Teams will have to wait on him.

Shabanov is the big one, though. Sure, he's only like 5'9, but by most accounts, he has a good motor. Statistically, he's put up numbers comparable to Dadonov.

Playoff numbers are also very good.

Viktor Lodin of Farjestad is supposedly another some NHL teams have looked at

Next summer, you could have interesting players alongside Aimurzin, like Gutik and Atanasov, assuming they don't re-sign.
 
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I would re-sign Lorentz and Steeves to 2 year pacts worth 1M per season.
Lorentz will be signed; he likely wants to stay. Steeves is interesting, as a group 6 UFA, he's going to have options. I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up in the Pit.

There are a couple of group 6ers I'd be after, though. Notably, Blumej from Dallas.
 
I would re-sign Lorentz and Steeves to 2 year pacts worth 1M per season.

I like Steeves but don't think he's earned a 1M per season contract. At most, a 1-way league min deal is what's he's getting anywhere for maybe 1 or 2 years. I guess 1M isn't far off from league min in the grand scheme of things though.

Lorentz I'd be shocked if he wasn't back around that price. The guy was blushing about the team everytime he was infront of the mic. Only way he walks is if he's looking for term and/or money and gets it from another team.
 
Lorentz will be signed; he likely wants to stay. Steeves is interesting, as a group 6 UFA, he's going to have options. I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up in the Pit.

There are a couple of group 6ers I'd be after, though. Notably, Blumej from Dallas.
It would be a waste to let Steeves go, we assisted with his development. He's ready to break out. But, I don't feel overly optimistic about his return.

Bunting signed for 950K for 2 seasons in a similar situation to Steeves. Inflation.
 
I'm going to be a Debbie Downer with the Byfield trade ideas. If we ever trade Matthews, we 100% need a 1C back. 1Cs are near impossible to find! The 1C can be an up-and-comer with some risk attached (e.g., Carlsson) or a slightly worse 1C than Matthews but with other stuff attached (like Mess mentioned, Barzal and Dobson).

For those reasons, I'm out.

I'd settle for Celebrini.
Wennberg as a cap transfer.
 
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It would be a waste to let Steeves go, we assisted with his development. He's ready to break out. But, I don't feel overly optimistic about his return.
I don't know if it's a waste, it could either way, he could end up being decent like McMann, or he could end up in Switzerland in years time.

It's not as much in the teams control now because he could have few options as a UFA.
 
With J.T the top 9 should look something like this:

Knies – Matthews – Domi
McMann – ______ – Nylander
Laughton – Tavares – ______


If we bring back J.T., which is looking like more likely, then it seems our biggest needs in the forward group are 2C and 2/3RW.

Two guys I’d target:

  1. William Karlsson
  2. Mason Marchment
Both are solid veterans who have gone deep in the playoffs. They bring valuable experience.

Dallas will need to shed cap and could lose 2–3 players. If the Leafs could land Marchment, it would be a fantastic addition to the third line. He would look great alongside Tavares, who should transition to 3C.

Karlsson would be a strong fit with Nylander—he's a transition center with a reliable two-way game. If Vegas has any interest in Marner, they’ll need to cut cap. With Eichel and Hertl already holding down their top six at center, they could afford to go cheaper at 3C.

Then I'd try and sign Brandon Tanev and Lorentz for the 4th line to give me a solid 4th line. Pacioretty and Saad are also worth considering as alternatives for the 4th line.

Knies – Matthews – Domi
McMann – Karlsson – Nylander
Laughton – Tavares – Marchment
Lorentz - Holmberg - Tanev

Leading up to the deadline I continuously said pay the freight to get a 2nd. line center.

There were very few who were willing to pay the price.

Most are just expecting 31 other teams are going to feel sorry for the Leafs and take pennies on the dollar to help out the suffering fans in Toronto.

I'd say it is time to pay-up, but the Leafs bank balance doesn't look good now. Went cheap, and still emptied the account.
 
It's a team that should and probably will be very aggressive this summer. So maybe they flip a few players for cheaper depth and target expensive more prominent players. We'll see. I still think they can do better than what's given here. Obviously the Leafs should be entirely all over either or both if they are available. Toronto players that are a bit younger and a lot cheaper than any alternative.

If McBain and/or Crouse are traded this summer and it wasn't for a huge deal, I'll be pretty pissed off to say the least.
Or maybe Utah trade Crouse and McBain for MM and Kampf.

I am all for McBain and Crouse but unless we bring in a few guys like Bennett, Ekblad, Marchand, Marchessault to come and reset the culture, all these guys will end up playing more like Core 5 than grit, physical and tough.
 
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Or maybe Utah trade Crouse and McBain for MM and Kampf.

I am all for McBain and Crouse but unless we bring in a few guys like Bennett, Ekblad, Marchand, Marchessault to come and reset the culture, all these guys will end up playing more like Core 5 than grit, physical and tough.

Maybe. I think any sort of elite talent would be huge for them. For the Leafs it would be in part of upgrading the depth, change up the mid lines, but also obviously the Leafs would still need to keep finding other areas to improve, probably higher in the lineup. But I do think Crouse could be a very good buy low option and he's signed for a few more years. I think he fits exactly what Berube and Treliving want more of. No idea how available he is though, same for McBain... but since their ice time aren't really improving, I assume there's probably frustration for that team to do something to reach the next step.
 
Marchment sucks In the playoffs. Not sure why everyone wants him.

Yeah he plays a different style game but it would be really hypocritical of us to want our stars gone for underperforming just to bring this guy in. Same for Ehlers, although I guess for once he did have a good playoffs this year at least.
 
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Marchment sucks In the playoffs. Not sure why everyone wants him.

Yeah he plays a different style game but it would be really hypocritical of us to want our stars gone for underperforming just to bring this guy in. Same for Ehlers, although I guess for once he did have a good playoffs this year at least.

Last 3 playoffs….

Matthews 9 goals
Marchment 8 goals
Marner 6 goals
 
But I do think Crouse could be a very good buy low option and he's signed for a few more years. I think he fits exactly what Berube and Treliving want more of. No idea how available he is though, same for McBain... but since their ice time aren't really improving, I assume there's probably frustration for that team to do something to reach the next step.
They would be all over him. I would hope that they look at Maccelli as well, possibly even more so.

There's going to be a lot of assists out of the lineup with Marner gone, and he could put a fair few of them back.
 
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Leading up to the deadline I continuously said pay the freight to get a 2nd. line center.

There were very few who were willing to pay the price.

Most are just expecting 31 other teams are going to feel sorry for the Leafs and take pennies on the dollar to help out the suffering fans in Toronto.

I'd say it is time to pay-up, but the Leafs bank balance doesn't look good now. Went cheap, and still emptied the account.
The moves they made were expensive and didn't move the needle. Tried to fill two holes in the line-up with the assets that could have brought in 1 good piece. Look what Florida achieved by manipulating LTIR, Marchand and Jones definitely moved the needle for them.
On a positive note having Tavares as a 3C would definitely be a big plus for the Leafs.
 

Meanwhile, Mitch Marner continues to be a big question mark headed into the offseason, as the 28-year-old winger prepares to hit free agency on July 1st. Asked bluntly if Marner has played his last game as a Toronto Maple Leaf, Dreger said it’s clear there’s a sense that change is coming from both the team and player’s standpoint.

“It feels to me he has, for a lot of different reasons,” Dreger said. “I think we’ve all embraced the reality that change is needed … and when a player has earned his right to unrestricted free agency, why wouldn’t you look at what your possibilities are? As hard as Marner and company have tried to get over the hump in Toronto, it may never happen.”

With that in mind, speculation has run rampant on which teams may be interested, with some cynical Toronto fans still upset with Marner’s playoff woes and questioning how much he could get paid somewhere else. But regardless of his postseason problems, his value is still quite high, which will attract bidders from East to West this summer, alongside some other top UFAs.

“What we know is that the interest in Marner, in Sam Bennett, in Tavares if he gets there, is going to be vast,” Dreger said. “It’s going to be league-wide, regardless of what the dollar amount is.”

The growing sense seems to be that Tavares may re-sign in Toronto this summer, and while some fans want to see the Florida Panthers’ Bennett head north, Dreger said he’s not sure it’ll happen.

“I’m not convinced Sam Bennett wants to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs,” he said. “And that’s not because he looks at all the nonsense that goes around this market, I’m not saying that. It’s just this guy is gonna have the pick of the litter.”


On the matter of change, it seems for some Leafs fans almost no player is immune to a shakeup, including captain Auston Matthews, who had one of his more disappointing years, as he dealt with an undisclosed lingering injury. Dreger shut that one down as well, saying the only way he sees it happening is if Matthews himself were to ask for it, which does seem pretty unlikely.

“Come on, this guy is an absolute stud, he’s a superstar,” Dreger said. “I feel like for it to happen with Matthews at any point in the foreseeable future, that would be on him … I don’t believe that’s even remotely a possibility.”
 
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Leading up to the deadline I continuously said pay the freight to get a 2nd. line center.

There were very few who were willing to pay the price.

Most are just expecting 31 other teams are going to feel sorry for the Leafs and take pennies on the dollar to help out the suffering fans in Toronto.

I'd say it is time to pay-up, but the Leafs bank balance doesn't look good now. Went cheap, and still emptied the account.

They paid the price at the deadline to get a 2C, it just so happens that the 2C price was for a 4C.
 
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