Seravalli: Tatar to the Leafs?

[GoLeafsGo96]

Sounds dumb and unlikely because Toronto's cap is currently 80M.

So whatever his contract is, you have to trade out that same value of someone else.
Don't think Tatar is signing for 1M

They're going to run a 21 man roster (1 extra) like they do every year. Remove one of the league min 750K guys for Tatar - you get pennies over 3M in space.

 

[japhi]

Loved Tuna in Montreal. Great team guy, even as a healthy scratch during the playoffs was a good teammate. He will put up points in the reg season for sure.

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

Tatar is not great playoff performer. He would be an awesome fit with Mathews & Marner

Tuna will make M&M look like Messier & Gretzky in comparison

The guy doesn’t do playoff hockey

 

[um]

Lol another first round exit incoming

Tatar took Habs all the way to the finals!

 

[LMFAO]

Soft as Charmin CHECK
Horrible playoff performer CHECK

Welcome to the 6 baby

 

[bossram]

The rhetoric on this guy is hilarious. He was a bus driver for one of the best lines in the league in Tatar-Danault-Gallagher. He'll be a nice facilitator for either Matthews or Tavares.

He's going to sign a cheap deal with the Leafs and score 50-60 points with competent two-way play. Hard to complain about.

 

[Just Linda]

Considering they've had significant injuries throughout Keefe's tenure and are on a 105pt pace under him, I am going to say you're wrong.

Off the top of my head, I think Marner, Matthews, Tavares, Hyman, Rielly, Muzzin, Holl, Andersen, and Campbell have all been injured for 5+ games, many overlapping games.

I think Dermott was their #1D at one point.

Bunting - Matthews - Marner
Robertson - Tavares - Nylander
Engvall - Kerfoot - Mikheyev
Simmons - Kampf - Spezza

A single injury turns that into a top line team. There's no depth of secondary scoring at all. Games essentially turn into the big 4 vs teams entire top 12. Two threat lines shutdown without a third option.

Essentially not a team that scares me unless they add more threats.

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

I like Tatar. He's a good player - I think he'll do well next season - wish him the best.

 

[notbias]

Bunting - Matthews - Marner
Robertson - Tavares - Nylander
Engvall - Kerfoot - Mikheyev
Simmons - Kampf - Spezza

A single injury turns that into a top line team. There's no depth of secondary scoring at all. Games essentially turn into the big 4 vs teams entire top 12. Two threat lines shutdown without a third option.

Essentially not a team that scares me unless they add more threats.

A single injury to who?
They have a winning record without Matthews, they proved they can provide secondary scoring without Tavares (the Matthews line underperformed there).

What happens if MacKinnon goes down? McDavid? Lots of teams become less deadly when a star player goes down.

They still have ~3 million to add to their team, so let's assume they add Tatar.

If they structured the lines like this you'd probably think they have depth:

Tatar - Matthews - Mikheyev
Bunting - Tavares - Marner
Nylander - Kerfoot - Simmonds
Engvall - Kampf - Spezza

It has more to do with how they structure their lines and less to do with the depth. I think they should spread out the talent, but clearly, they don't.

 

[CupcakeSprinkles]

Where did Seravalli say Tatar to the Leafs?

 

[Just Linda]

A single injury to who?
They have a winning record without Matthews, they proved they can provide secondary scoring without Tavares (the Matthews line underperformed there).

What happens if MacKinnon goes down? McDavid? Lots of teams become less deadly when a star player goes down.

They still have ~3 million to add to their team, so let's assume they add Tatar.

If they structured the lines like this you'd probably think they have depth:

Tatar - Matthews - Mikheyev
Bunting - Tavares - Marner
Nylander - Kerfoot - Simmonds
Engvall - Kampf - Spezza

It has more to do with how they structure their lines and less to do with the depth. I think they should spread out the talent, but clearly, they don't.

Adding Tatar would help them a lot for sure but adding Mikheyev to the top line doesn't improve the team at all. It just makes Matthews less effective and takes away a lot of his space on the ice.

 

[notbias]

Adding Tatar would help them a lot for sure but adding Mikheyev to the top line doesn't improve the team at all. It just makes Matthews less effective and takes away a lot of his space on the ice.

He scored 40 as a rookie with Brown and Hyman, I still think he would put up at least 40 (probably closer to 50) with those two, and maybe Tavares flirts with 50 again when Marner is on his wing.

All I am saying is the Leafs have decent depth, they just choose to load up the top two lines.

I am not necessarily a fan of how they have the lines set up because I think Matthews and Tavares are both capable of carrying a line themselves, but it is what it is.

You move Marner to the 3rd line and everything else stays the same and you now have 3 good scoring lines, the depth options are there, they just don't use them.

No one is going to be Tampa deep for a while, but I think the lack of depth for the Leafs is very overstated.

Anyway, entitled to your own opinion, I just disagree and think it has more to do with the structure of the lines and less to do with the depth at forward.

 

[Vukotal Recall]

A single injury to who?
They have a winning record without Matthews, they proved they can provide secondary scoring without Tavares (the Matthews line underperformed there).

What happens if MacKinnon goes down? McDavid? Lots of teams become less deadly when a star player goes down.

They still have ~3 million to add to their team, so let's assume they add Tatar.

If they structured the lines like this you'd probably think they have depth:

Tatar - Matthews - Mikheyev
Bunting - Tavares - Marner
Nylander - Kerfoot - Simmonds
Engvall - Kampf - Spezza

It has more to do with how they structure their lines and less to do with the depth. I think they should spread out the talent, but clearly, they don't.

Michael Bunting is a literal nobody who would be anonymous on any other team in the league. Tatar was a nice player for us, but he's second-tier, over 30, a playoff ghost and on the cusp of decline. Nylander is a good player, but streaky and in the doghouse half of every season. Kerfoot is a below-average offensive player who has had his tires pumped by Leafs fans... when you're not trying to trade him. Kampf is an offensive black hole, so is Engvall, Simmonds is washed and Spezza is four hundred years old and won't maintain his ridiculous pace.

 

[HOPE]

fit of heaven. Never liked Tatar. he's a good guy and all but has a hockey player Montreal made a mistake not trading him when he hit 58 points and still had 2 years of term.

 

[notbias]

Michael Bunting is a literal nobody who would be anonymous on any other team in the league. Tatar was a nice player for us, but he's second-tier, over 30, a playoff ghost and on the cusp of decline. Nylander is a good player, but streaky and in the doghouse half of every season. Kerfoot is a below-average offensive player who has had his tires pumped by Leafs fans... when you're not trying to trade him. Kampf is an offensive black hole, so is Engvall, Simmonds is washed and Spezza is four hundred years old and won't maintain his ridiculous pace.

The reason you made it to the finals is injured and Kerfoot would be your second-line center.

 

[admiralcadillac]

Tatar took Habs all the way to the finals!

From the stands

 

[Vukotal Recall]

The reason you made it to the finals is injured and Kerfoot would be your second-line center.

Yeah, no. But hey, if you're happy with your team, that's good (not being sarcastic).

 

[Rude Dog]

Michael Bunting is a literal nobody who would be anonymous on any other team in the league. Tatar was a nice player for us, but he's second-tier, over 30, a playoff ghost and on the cusp of decline. Nylander is a good player, but streaky and in the doghouse half of every season. Kerfoot is a below-average offensive player who has had his tires pumped by Leafs fans... when you're not trying to trade him. Kampf is an offensive black hole, so is Engvall, Simmonds is washed and Spezza is four hundred years old and won't maintain his ridiculous pace.

Is not knowing Bunting our issue or yours? He is exactly the type of player the Leafs needed to add. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being one of the better signings this off season.

 

[abo9]

Tatar is a great player to have on a bad team. He definitely bring top 6 offensive talent.

As mentioned frequently in this thread... the issue is that he just completely disapears in the playoffs. And I was skeptical of his reputation because I real'y liked him in the regular season - I thought he was just not a good fit in Vegas. But he is truly that bad of a playoff performer.

Leafs should stay away, he's not a guy that they need in the RS anyway, and hes just gonna be another scapegoat in the playoffs

 

[HOPE]

Tatar is a great player to have on a bad team. He definitely bring top 6 offensive talent.

As mentioned frequently in this thread... the issue is that he just completely disapears in the playoffs. And I was skeptical of his reputation because I real'y liked him in the regular season - I thought he was just not a good fit in Vegas. But he is truly that bad of a playoff performer.

Leafs should stay away, he's not a guy that they need in the RS anyway, and hes just gonna be another scapegoat in the playoffs

the real issue with Tatar is he's a guy with a certain skillset, good shot, good motor, good pair of hands but he plays on the perimeter way too much and when you lack vision and tunel vision you get exposed when you have less time and ice (playoffs). A good playmaker with a solid vision can get away with playing on the perimeter, he doesn't have that.

 

[Vukotal Recall]

Is not knowing Bunting our issue or yours? He is exactly the type of player the Leafs needed to add. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being one of the better signings this off season.

Bunting is a poor-skating fringe NHLer who definitely has the potential to be a useful pest 3rd/4th liner at a very low cap hit. Nothing wrong with that. Penciling him in as scoring top-6 depth is really wrong tho.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Bunting is a poor-skating fringe NHLer who definitely has the potential to be a useful pest 3rd/4th liner at a very low cap hit. Nothing wrong with that. Penciling him in as scoring top-6 depth is really wrong tho.

He had 10 goals and 13 points in 21 games for Arizona there is reason to believe there is something there

 

[Twine Tickler]

This is just not the right fit for our lineup IMO. I always found it a bit puzzling why Tatar was scratched from MTL's playoff lineup. I mean they obviously found a formula that worked that didn't involve him, but I think more or less MTL captured lightning in a bottle last post season and unfortunately for Tatar that left him as the odd man out. No one played their way out of the lineup.

that said, He undoubtingly would put up points playing with Mitch and Auston. I can legitimately see him putting up 65+ pts on that line. If he were to sign a "show me" low AAV 1 year deal to change his perception league wide I could see this being mutually beneficial. That said, putting up pts in the regular season doesn't appeal to any Leafs fan, nor should it Leafs management. This is just not the type of player I want the Leafs to sign personally.

We need guys that are able to move the needle when the going gets tough. I won't pretend to know Tatar's game in and out. I know he has game breaker stuff here and there, I just don't think he has the ability to be that type of player when we need it most. He's certainly not my first choice of top line LW, but barring a trade there really isn't many options left.

It would not shock me to see the Leafs sign him to a 1 year deal at a low AAV. If that is the case, I'll just have to hope that he is motivated to change the narrative. and put up a f*** ton of points when he plays the Habs

 

[Clark4Ever]

Bunting is a poor-skating fringe NHLer who definitely has the potential to be a useful pest 3rd/4th liner at a very low cap hit. Nothing wrong with that. Penciling him in as scoring top-6 depth is really wrong tho.

Bunting could very well top out as a bottom six pest with some offense, but if you've watched him play, he is definitely not a poor skater.

 

[Duffman955]

Hes gonna bust out at 70 points along our top line

Let's go