Run it back? Poll

[Superstar]

I get what Cherry is saying but you wanna see that bite, fight, nastiness, anger in your players so you know they are learning. I see that in Matthews and Willy.

Marner on the other hand his game doesn't translate to playoffs. If Matthews and Marner played nasty hockey than keeping marner is fine. We just have too many of the players that dont bring a mean streak. And by that I don't mean face punching but playing through the hits, laying bodies, going into the corners, hounding the puck and skate-skate-skate.

Marner may benefit from having pissed of nasty players on his line unfortunately thats not happening here given his cap hit and Tavares' albatross of a contract


P.S. ask Grapes to stop watching fast and furious movies. Too much family talk

The franchise ran it back with the 10th installment...coming to a theatre near you, with popcorn...

 

[PROUD PAPA]

I will roast this team like TWS all year long if they run it back with the same core.

No need to go to that extreme. That would be like opting out of temporarily wearing a dunce cap in favour of shaving your head and having one permanently tattooed on your dome.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

A bunch of changes should be expected but I’m leaning towards seeing the 3 come back.

That’ll yield the same result.

And it probably will happen.

Teams are about the players and not about cups.

 

[rumman]

I know I sound like a broken record, but having half you cap going to 4 players will never work. So why trust the genius who thought it would work with the future of the team?

Why trust the guy who hired the said genius with this idea with the future of the team?

Why think that this group of players can overcome their collective inability to get the job done going forward?

Sadly, nothing but a full on blow up will help. The team needs a new voice and direction, better cap allocation, players with more compete, and better coaching.

ownership needs to hire a new President to hire a new GM to hire a new coach and gut the roster to better bring a more balanced approach to cap management.

That’s a tall order so I don’t expect much change, but with that is I don’t expect any different results. Maybe ownership is happy being a perennial president trophy contender and screw aiming for the cup?

 

[thewave]

Why Pridham?

Smart guy. Doesn't follow Dubas philosophy on hockey and is AGM. He has good relationship with the players and is a cap specialist. He could be made interim GM and start the process of getting the guys that want to commit signed prior to the NMCs kicking in. Also he is fully aware of all the draft work that has been put together so that should go seamless as well.

It's the safest way to navigate the current situation with little to no negatives.

 

[Trapper]

I get what Cherry is saying but you wanna see that bite, fight, nastiness, anger in your players so you know they are learning. I see that in Matthews and Willy.

Marner on the other hand his game doesn't translate to playoffs. If Matthews and Marner played nasty hockey than keeping marner is fine. We just have too many of the players that dont bring a mean streak. And by that I don't mean face punching but playing through the hits, laying bodies, going into the corners, hounding the puck and skate-skate-skate.

Marner may benefit from having pissed of nasty players on his line unfortunately thats not happening here given his cap hit and Tavares' albatross of a contract


P.S. ask Grapes to stop watching fast and furious movies. Too much family talk

Basically he said he’d give them 1 more try before he broke them up.
That’s like 8 kicks at the can. I think they’ve had enough kicks as a group.

 

[thewave]

No to running it back.
No to blowing it up but there must be change.
We need a different style of core player.
We need to rebuild our D and support Samsonov/Woll from the net out.
We need to get harder to play against in the playoffs.
We need more speed off the rush and more heavy when we need to manufacture goals the dirty way.

How do you run back something that didn't even win in the first place. Usually you run back a team that lost the Championship or was so close that you just need to do a few tweaks. This has been years of failure.

I don't get this place

 

[ShaneFalco]

You have AM, MM, WN, and JT taking up masssive minutes
None of them play a physical game
Maurice said a few times, the Bruins were a much more physical opponent
ROR said they didn't play a physical game enough
Muzzin has said it for years

Dubas is getting it just now

 

[thewave]

WARMINGTON: Grapes says now's not the time to 'blow up' Maple Leafs

While he loved the Toronto Sun's “Blow it up” and “De-Marner” front pages, he does not think this is the right time to do it.

torontosun.com

Blow up to me = Extend AM and WN. Trade Marner. Fire Dubas Shanny and Keefe. Promote Pridham

That's my blow up, it's less to do with blowing up the players than shifting money and dropping management.

 

[Nineteen67]

Smart guy. Doesn't follow Dubas philosophy on hockey and is AGM. He has good relationship with the players and is a cap specialist. He could be made interim GM and start the process of getting the guys that want to commit signed prior to the NMCs kicking in. Also he is fully aware of all the draft work that has been put together so that should go seamless as well.

It's the safest way to navigate the current situation with little to no negatives.

How do you know he has a good relationship with the players? There are millions of people on this planet that could plug in the cap formula and manage the NHL cap. Most of us have pretty good idea how to do it and we haven’t even studied the CBA.

Hopefully they’re done with on the job training for coaches and managers.

 

[thewave]

How do you know he has a good relationship with the players? There are millions of people on this planet that could plug in the cap formula and manage the NHL cap. Most of us have pretty good idea how to do it and we haven’t even studied the CBA.

Hopefully they’re done with on the job training for coaches and managers.

How do I know? He is still employed as an AGM of the team that panders to the stars. That's pretty solid evidence he has a good relationship with them. Would you prefer I just said satisfactory working relationship with the players and their agents? If you feel it's a hostile relationship though, I am not really sure. I don't find it plausible.

 

[Hoverhand]

Keefe has gotta go, everything beyond that I can be negotiated into.

The only one that would make me downright furious is trading Nylander and nobody else. Even you oldheads that have never liked him have to agree that he's only one who shows up in the playoffs with any goddamn consistency.

 

[Blanka]

Meh. I'm not tied to any player. To hell with that emotional bs. I only care about the team. Do whatever you have to do to win.

 

[Alexanderthe89]

I'm trying not to take for granted the fact that this team, despite it's playoff failures, is a virtual lock to dominate the regular season. We went through a long, dark stretch where just sneaking into the playoffs seemed like a longshot at best from game 1. Matt Stajan centered our top line. Accumulating this level of talent, all more or less in their prime, is rare and it makes me think we want to run it back one more time.

Best of luck to Holl, Kerfoot and Bunting with your new teams.

Bring back Schenn and Acciari. Critical and sorely needed levels of physicality.

Knies is a huge X factor. He's our 4th best forward, right now, full stop. I was prepared to be under-whelmed with his debut, just hoping that he wouldn't be noticeably out of his depth. If that was him adjusting to the league then with a full training camp he's going to be a problem. A problem on an ELC.

Small sample size but I'm in on Woll. If we can dump Murray's contract, a Woll/Samsonov tandem gives me more confidence going into a season than I can remember having in a long time.

Having said that, fire Keefe. I don't like the system and before we blow up the roster I think we deserve to see what a different coach would bring.

 

[A1LeafNation]

It's time for a reset. New coach and new second line.

Knies Matthews Nylander
_______ _________ ________
Bunting O'Reilly Jarnkrok
Lafferty Kampf Acciari
Holmberg

Reilly Liljegren
Brodie Schenn
McCabe Timmins
Giordano

Samsonov
Woll

Needs to be a big and dominant 2nd line. Not sure if you can do that with Tavares Marner or Robertson.

 

[ShaneFalco]

I'm trying not to take for granted the fact that this team, despite it's playoff failures, is a virtual lock to dominate the regular season. We went through a long, dark stretch where just sneaking into the playoffs seemed like a longshot at best from game 1. Matt Stajan centered our top line. Accumulating this level of talent, all more or less in their prime, is rare and it makes me think we want to run it back one more time.

Best of luck to Holl, Kerfoot and Bunting with your new teams.

Bring back Schenn and Acciari. Critical and sorely needed levels of physicality.

Knies is a huge X factor. He's our 4th best forward, right now, full stop. I was prepared to be under-whelmed with his debut, just hoping that he wouldn't be noticeably out of his depth. If that was him adjusting to the league then with a full training camp he's going to be a problem. A problem on an ELC.

Small sample size but I'm in on Woll. If we can dump Murray's contract, a Woll/Samsonov tandem gives me more confidence going into a season than I can remember having in a long time.

Having said that, fire Keefe. I don't like the system and before we blow up the roster I think we deserve to see what a different coach would bring.

Sample size with Woll but Knies is our 4th best forward already
And because the team was garbage for so long, run it back!? wow

 

[Burnie97]

I think minimum Keefe has to go and one of the core four.

They need a more well rounded roster. They'd have alot more space if they trade one of the core 4. I've seen enough of that. They haven't got it done.

Round out the bottom 6 and maybe if possible get another top pairing guy or solid top 4 guy. Knies will help a lot next season... and hopefully a healthy Robertson can finally do something. Let Lillly play way more. If Mo can be playoff Mo that would help a lot too.

As for goaltending I think Sammy and Woll could be a good tandem. Bye bye Murray.

If you don't believe in Sammy and want to go real crazy... Hellebuyck... but I don't think goaltending was our down fall at all. It was getting no clutch goals.. so back to rounding out the roster.

 

[crowsnestmcgee]

keefe gone - shitty coach

marner gone - distraction and could improve the rest of the team with his salary freed up

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Ray Ferraro was on Overdrive yesterday. Said some things many fans already expressed. He says it so deliberate and articulate though. Best line was: "Toronto keeps losing for the same reason over and over again". That TOR has three important things to work on:

1. Sign Dubas
2. Work on Matthews (and likely sign him)
3. Trade either Marner or Nylander (Tavares too difficult but not impossible)

 

[mjd1001]

I'm between 2 choices. I'm less than 'going nuclear' but more than trading one guy.

Put me down for keeping the coaching staff/GM, but if possible trade 2 of the core.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Ray Ferraro was on Overdrive yesterday. Said some things many fans already expressed. He says it so deliberate and articulate though. Best line was: "Toronto keeps losing for the same reason over and over again". That TOR has three important things to work on:

1. Sign Dubas
2. Work on Matthews (and likely sign him)
3. Trade either Marner or Nylander (Tavares too difficult but not impossible)

That's my conclusion.

I'm 100% trading Marner for his asshole contract.
His NMC kicks in before contract negotiations.

Bye Mitch.

Ideally Matthews signs, but otherwise I'm trading him without a contract before July 1, 2023.

Hopefully Nylander wants to be a 1C and wants to stay.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

That's my conclusion.

I'm 100% trading Marner for his asshole contract.
His NMC kicks in before contract negotiations.

Bye Mitch.

Ideally Matthews signs, but otherwise I'm trading him without a contract before July 1, 2023.

Hopefully Nylander wants to be a 1C and wants to stay.

He's not much of a C. Certainly a very good winger.

 

[ShaneFalco]

Ray Ferraro was on Overdrive yesterday. Said some things many fans already expressed. He says it so deliberate and articulate though. Best line was: "Toronto keeps losing for the same reason over and over again". That TOR has three important things to work on:

1. Sign Dubas
2. Work on Matthews (and likely sign him)
3. Trade either Marner or Nylander (Tavares too difficult but not impossible)

Why #1 if they keep losing for the same reason!?

 

[All Mod Cons]

I'm so back and forth on this. I can't imagine any scenario where we trade any of the core 4 and win that trade. Also seeing mitch raise a cup with another team would just be awful.

We should keep him forever to make sure he doesn't lift a Cup.

 

[ULF_55]

Change Coach.

See if one of the double digits is interested in leaving.

Leave the middle tier players who are under contract, i.e. Rielly and Nylander, and see if they can get O'Reilly to sign around $5mm.

Many UFA's are gone anyway, so there are changes happening like it or not.