TDL wish list, who, what, how many?

[Fogelhund]

In a year where Auston Matthews has a legitimate chance at 70 goals you can't stand pat, that's gutless.

I'm not against keeping the 1st round pick but you need to do something.

Scoring 70 goals is a nice achievement. It isn't however, any indication of a team ready to fight in the playoffs. What is needed, is a consistent dedication and implementation of excellence, and both ends of the rink. Consistently showing up for games, for sixty minutes and battling. It's been a season with a mediocre effort, and mediocre results as a team, despite this nice personal achievement for Matthews.

Winning games, and doing so regularly, in a manner that suggests you might have what it takes in the playoffs is what counts, and should be where the bar is set, not some individual achievements. So far they haven't done that.

 

[Menzinger]

One player’s personal achievement is not the grounds for making deadline moves, the teams ability to use thise moves effectively and we have not seen any evidence that they might

Though, Matthews isn't exactly just 'one player', he's the single most important element of the team. Imo seems shortsighted to not try and find a way to fix things to take advantage of what he's doing this season.

If they cant, they have no business running a front office

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

They have been buyers every year, and it hasn’t made any difference, except for burning picks. No more lifelines for these guys, let them figure it out on their own

And what are those draft picks going to do to make you better during the Matthews era?

Answer is nothing, you can keep the 1st round pick, like I said I'm against that, if you can get better without moving it by all means do it.

But It's not helping you within the next 4 years and given where It's going to be the is a greater chance that it doesn't help you at all then there is that you find a gem that turns into your next star.

 

[thusk]

Matthews is our best player on both sides of the pucc my friend

Matthews is better on lift stick, blocking shot and 1v1 battle

marner is better on cutting passing lane, cut space and time on the ice and positionning

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

i'm sure they'd love to do something but without giving up our 1st/Knies/Cowan and to a lesser extent Robbie/Minten we have nothing to offer

sure we can pretend that stacking nothing assets like Steeves/Abrezzuse among others on top of each will get us a quality player but we'd be only fooling ourselves

I don't think Robbie is safe.

Keefe doesn't seem to like him and he's not a Treliving guy so there is no loyalty to him.

 

[hotpaws]

I don't think Robbie is safe.

Keefe doesn't seem to like him and he's not a Treliving guy so there is no loyalty to him.

I agree but i also don't think Nikki Robbie and say a 3rd get you much

 

[Evilhomer]

And what are those draft picks going to do to make you better during the Matthews era?

Answer is nothing, you can keep the 1st round pick, like I said I'm against that, if you can get better without moving it by all means do it.

But It's not helping you within the next 4 years and given where It's going to be the is a greater chance that it doesn't help you at all then there is that you find a gem that turns into your next star.

Personally, I can't believe that anyone actually thinks the Leafs will keep their first round pick. I think there is a 100% chance it is traded. Brad won't be able to help himself. With the Leafs' upcoming schedule, combined with the three straight wins they already have, I can see them stringing together a pile of wins, which is going to convince Brad that he has to go for it. So he will. And dollars to doughnuts that first round pick ends up in Calgary for Tanev. Whether it's the right decision or approach is a different matter, but there is no way this team is going to sit on its hands and bide its time for two years from now.

 

[arso40]

Matthews is better on lift stick, blocking shot and 1v1 battle

marner is better on cutting passing lane, cut space and time on the ice and positionning

I can agree with some of it but as a whole matthews is the better defensive player them together can be great defensively but I still give the nod to matthews regardless of usage

 

[meefer]

Spending at this year's TDL to improve our chances would remind me of the 17/18 season. We were a young team with talent, but not enough talent to win. We should have sold off JVR, Bozak, Komarov etc for younger talent and/or draft picks (high picks) to better round out our roster with affordable pieces who could grow into the support players we've consistently been looking for in Free Agency and at the TDL. Like that team, this year's edition is not good enough to spend the assets to maybe get us into, what, the 2nd round? Not good enough. We're not getting the talent needed to spring us into legit contention with the assets we have. We do have the assets to acquire some younger, more affordable talent or picks which would open up the chance for better FA acquisitions than was made this year.

 

[thusk]

I can agree with some of it but as a whole matthews is the better defensive player them together can be great defensively but I still give the nod to matthews regardless of usage

its your opinion, i dont have the view as you and thats fine...

but at the end thats change nothing for me. If leafs need to use their 2 best defensive player to overcome their awful D + bad goaltending... it doesn't exist any player enough good for it, so leafs will be in trouble whatever what they do.

in a perfect world, leafs find a way to bring in hanifin and tanev in the line up without giving up knies or cowan ( probably by trading away Bertuzzi too) and find a way to resign both exemple hanifin at 7 tanev 3.5M ( same cap hit of bertuzzi and brodie)

 

[notDatsyuk]

no just you so overrating Zacha/Frederick for underating jt, its just amaizing...and doesn't really deserve tonrespond anymore

1 had been a carreer ppg player ( yes he dont have a great season but 1 season dont make a carreer) and consider him worst than a half point player/gm carreer player... and the funniest thing its you're totally serious

We were talking about now, not career.

By your logic replacing JT with Gretzky would improve the team.

 

[Racer88]

Though, Matthews isn't exactly just 'one player', he's the single most important element of the team. Imo seems shortsighted to not try and find a way to fix things to take advantage of what he's doing this season.

If they cant, they have no business running a front office

No doubt he is a special player having a great year but it’s going to take more then him and a few trade deadline adds to get them over the hump so if they are going to trade away yet another batch of pIcks and or prospects they better be dam sure there is a good chance of success. We have watched Dubas do this for 5 years with no success and I don’t have much faith in Tre up to this point.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Personally, I can't believe that anyone actually thinks the Leafs will keep their first round pick. I think there is a 100% chance it is traded. Brad won't be able to help himself. With the Leafs' upcoming schedule, combined with the three straight wins they already have, I can see them stringing together a pile of wins, which is going to convince Brad that he has to go for it. So he will. And dollars to doughnuts that first round pick ends up in Calgary for Tanev. Whether it's the right decision or approach is a different matter, but there is no way this team is going to sit on its hands and bide its time for two years from now.

I agree but I wonder if It's an off season move, because the Leafs are going to need to bring in a goaltender because both Samsonov and Jones are free agents at the end of the year and I don't think either is coming back regardless of playoff results.

So I wonder if Brad calls up Calgary this summer and tries to pry Markstrom out of Calgary because Markstrom is a Treliving guy.

I don't know if there is as much urgency to get Tanev because I think he's ends up in July 1st anyway and possibly Zadorov too because we know Treliving tried to get both already.

He's got a lot of cap space this summer I think he's going to reshape this roster.

 

[ULF_55]

and yet it's possible that both Minten and Cowan will be in the lineup next year...

It is possible.
I'd be very happy if it happens.
marner was in year 2, but the team wasn't exactly expecting anything, and marner was 4th. overall.
If they are I expect very little from them.
I don't expect it and no one else should.

 

[ULF_55]

i'm sure they'd love to do something but without giving up our 1st/Knies/Cowan and to a lesser extent Robbie/Minten we have nothing to offer

sure we can pretend that stacking nothing assets like Steeves/Abrezzuse among others on top of each will get us a quality player but we'd be only fooling ourselves

What is your definition of quality?

There can be quality 4th. liners.

 

[RunItBackAgain]

And what are those draft picks going to do to make you better during the Matthews era?

Answer is nothing, you can keep the 1st round pick, like I said I'm against that, if you can get better without moving it by all means do it.

But It's not helping you within the next 4 years and given where It's going to be the is a greater chance that it doesn't help you at all then there is that you find a gem that turns into your next star.

4 years? Knies was here in his d+2, and Minten will be here next year along with Cowan most likely if not the following year for him. Our next real window opens for about 5 years in the 2025-26 season. Perfectly reasonable to assume our 1st rounder this season can make an impact by then if not a few of the years afterwards.

I’m fine trading our 1st for Hanifin re-signed or similar but I’d die if we trade for another rental.

 

[leafsfan5]

I'm fine with parting with picks/prospects if it nets us a young player who fills a big hole in the lineup. For example, if Tre could somehow convince Ottawa to deal Chychrun to us I'm okay with spending the 1st+ it'll cost as we end up with a top 4 LD for the foreseeable future

Making a deal for someone like Tanev I am less in favour of due to his age. At that point, I'm okay with standing pat and maybe making small deals for a bottom 6 forward or 2

 

[arso40]

Chychrun might be the perfect partner for lily but that doesn’t solve riellys partner in a perfect world lily sticcs there and you bring in a cheap right shot like peeke for timmins to battle for bottom pair minutes

 

[Captain Crunch]

There are other assets, players and prospects.

But should only be a discussion for term players.

Yes, we do have Minten and Cowan. But tell me, to be serious Cup contenders, would you agree that we need a top 2 and top 4 dman and a solid 3C who is also a good PKer? And if so, can we do that while paying Matthews, Nylander, and Marner? If so, then we must be looking at 2026 when JT’s contract comes off the books.

 

[Fogelhund]

Yes, we do have Minten and Cowan. But tell me, to be serious Cup contenders, would you agree that we need a top 2 and top 4 dman and a solid 3C who is also a good PKer? And if so, can we do that while paying Matthews, Nylander, and Marner? If so, then we must be looking at 2026 when JT’s contract comes off the books.

It’s possible, but requires some astute trades, and UFA signings. I’m also not convinced we absolutely need a solid 3C who penalty kills. Domi is in the top sixty of C’s in scoring, which provides some nice depth. I’m convinced we need a better C than Kampf has been this year, so maybe a 3b who can PK? But then Minten might be in the picture next year too. The challenge might be JT’s spot. Maybe that’s 2026 thing like you say.

It is possible.
I'd be very happy if it happens.
marner was in year 2, but the team wasn't exactly expecting anything, and marner was 4th. overall.
If they are I expect very little from them.
I don't expect it and no one else should.

You’d hope for cheap depth. 30 points from Cowan, 20 from Minten. If you can get that, it would be excellent results for us on ELC’s.

 

[rumman]

Spending at this year's TDL to improve our chances would remind me of the 17/18 season. We were a young team with talent, but not enough talent to win. We should have sold off JVR, Bozak, Komarov etc for younger talent and/or draft picks (high picks) to better round out our roster with affordable pieces who could grow into the support players we've consistently been looking for in Free Agency and at the TDL. Like that team, this year's edition is not good enough to spend the assets to maybe get us into, what, the 2nd round? Not good enough. We're not getting the talent needed to spring us into legit contention with the assets we have. We do have the assets to acquire some younger, more affordable talent or picks which would open up the chance for better FA acquisitions than was made this year.

Spot on assessment, another important fact to not ignore is these guys could have been traded because they didn’t have no trade clauses, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Leaf training staff doesn’t have no movement clauses the way they throw them around like confetti………

 

[Anthrax442]

I'm against losing assets this year unless its for a solid piece that will stay and contribute for a while like Hanifin or similar. Otherwise slap a bandaid on the D and hope for the best. We got a few kids in the system, that are hopefully bound to come up and contribute next year on the cheap.

 

[Captain Crunch]

It’s possible, but requires some astute trades, and UFA signings. I’m also not convinced we absolutely need a solid 3C who penalty kills. Domi is in the top sixty of C’s in scoring, which provides some nice depth. I’m convinced we need a better C than Kampf has been this year, so maybe a 3b who can PK? But then Minten might be in the picture next year too. The challenge might be JT’s spot. Maybe that’s 2026 thing like you say.



You’d hope for cheap depth. 30 points from Cowan, 20 from Minten. If you can get that, it would be excellent results for us on ELC’s.

But to me, that's regular season stuff, which is still fine. The problem has always been in the playoffs, when the ice surface shrinks and they have to battle for every inch out there. The core trio, for their part, have been okay to fairly good at times, but it has always been the depth scoring that has hurt us. Which always brings us back to there isn't enough left in the Cap to get the quality depth players who can also hold their own and also come out ahead in those crunch times in a playoff series. It's like that never-ending song!

 

[thusk]

We were talking about now, not career.

By your logic replacing JT with Gretzky would improve the team.

if we take your logic, We should consider reinhart in the same Category of Matthews!!! Similar stats and whatever, the difference isnone of 2 make it makenit only once abd the second make it year after year....

Jt having a bad season, yes but doesn't mean hes done. Bad half of season can happen a guy pratically having carreer low vs the guy who having a carreer high season and consider them at the same page because 1 half of season... make no sense

 

[ToneDog]

I'm fine with parting with picks/prospects if it nets us a young player who fills a big hole in the lineup. For example, if Tre could somehow convince Ottawa to deal Chychrun to us I'm okay with spending the 1st+ it'll cost as we end up with a top 4 LD for the foreseeable future

Making a deal for someone like Tanev I am less in favour of due to his age. At that point, I'm okay with standing pat and maybe making small deals for a bottom 6 forward or 2

Doubt Sens are giving him away and to the Leafs. Guessing they would want close to what they paid to acquire him. Good Luck.

• 2023-Mar-01 Traded from Arizona Coyotes to Ottawa Senators for conditional round 1 pick in the 2023 draft (Daniil But), conditional round 2 pick in the 2024 draft and round 2 pick in the 2026 draft

Now compare that to what we paid for rentals Gio and Blackwell. Dubas was ahead of his time alright.

• 2022-Mar-20 Traded from Seattle Kraken with Colin Blackwell to Toronto Maple Leafs for round 2 pick in the 2022 draft (Niklas Kokko), round 2 pick in the 2023 draft (Lukas Dragicevic) and round 3 pick in the 2024 draft

Or better yet, what we gave up for ROR and Acciari who walked for nothing.

• 2023-Feb-17 Traded from St. Louis Blues to Toronto Maple Leafs for Adam Gaudette, Mikhail Abramov, round 1 pick in the 2023 draft (Otto Stenberg), round 3 pick in the 2023 draft and round 2 pick in the 2024 draft and round 4 pick in the 2025 draft