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The defense is better today than it was yesterday.

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My biggest concern when it comes to the defence is AGE more than anything. Two of our most dependable players defensively in Giordano and Brodie are up there, and both really struggled in the playoffs. Giordano you could maybe force him to load manage but Brodie is going to be an every day guy. Big concern is that both men hit a wall in their play and suddenly we’re relying on McCabe and a young Liljegren to handle major defensive duties.
 
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Luke Schenn is a soon to be 34 year old journeyman. He’s hopelessly slowfooted, provides ZERO offence and has a negative +/- for his career.

Yes, he’s not terrified of his own shadow and he’s not afraid to block punches with his head, as he did in the playoffs when Tanner Jeannott split him open.

But let’s be honest - - they’re not losing much with Schenn going out the door.

It’s absurd to give Schenn $2.75M x3 I’m just glad it’s Nashville stuck with that boat anchor and not Toronto.
 
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Schenn was a great TDL add. Schenn was not, could not be the partner for Morgan Rielly over the course of a year. The difference in TOI between the two (using Schenn's 17m/g in Van with Hughes last year, and this year in the playoffs for Toronto) would result in a carousel of usage for our D, and given who we have, this would result in chaos. Klingberg and Rielly, jeez.

If you are looking for offence from the back end, I see no options other than:

Rielly Liljegren/Brodie
McCabe Klingberg
Gio Brodie/Liljegren

Timmins is a wild card. If he can stay healthy I think he might be the natural replacement for Klingberg, I believe he has some natural flair in the Ozone, and a bit of jam back home. He needs games. And good health.

If one is looking for more of a heavy D...hope for trades.
 
Klingberg is likely going to replace Morgan Rielly on the PP#1 and produce a lot of points in the process.

Leafs have been missing a PP QB Dman with the ability to score from the point, so it should make the PP more effective.
 
Mess said:
Klingberg is likely going to replace Morgan Rielly on the PP#1 and produce a lot of points in the process.

Leafs have been missing a PP QB Dman with the ability to score from the point, so it should make the PP more effective.
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Agreed that Klingberg is going to see a ton of PP time.

But I’d prefer to have two actual defenceman together on the PP instead of this ridiculous idea of putting a forward at the point. They don’t know when or how to properly pinch and they can’t skate as strongly backwards.

Way too much of a liability.
 
As much as I like Rielly, any team that has him as their best defenseman probably isn't icing a cup winning defense.

One of the main problems I had with Dubas was that he neglected the back end. I'd really like to see Treliving make that a focal point for improvement. So far the only change they've made was swapping out Holl for Klingberg.

A softer Barrie 2.0 isn't much of an upgrade, if any, over Holl.

I really hope Klingberg re-gains his offensive touch. Because, believe it or not, he's even worse defensively than Holl. And he costs more.

For a team with cup aspirations they can't have any cap inefficiencies.

This is a manufactured problem. They did it to themselves. The point isn't just to get better.

It's to be the best.

How anyone can look at that blue line and call it a cup contending defense is beyond me. It's the same defense that wasn't good enough last year. At this point maybe the Leafs should consider trading their best defenseman.

For an even better one.
 
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I think the single best way to be a dominant playoff team is to have 1 elite D-man and one very good/close to elite guy also....in the playoffs you can basically have 1 of those 2 guys on the ice almost the entire game and they can control the game from the back end. Really hard and really frustrating to play against an elite guy back there who can scoop up loose pucks, make good decisions and keep the puck out of the D-zone.
The problem is, it is very hard, if not close to impossible to have 1 elite guy and another near elite guy.

The Leafs dont' have that, I'm not going to convince myself they are anywhere close to that. But if their forward group can dominate the offensive zone that is the way they can still win, which is the blueprint they are going for.
 
Keefe ( who should have been fired) needs to rest his older D-men more. Gio was bad in playoffs. Brodie not much better.
 
We should be better moving the puck, but be less physical. Is it better? We’ll see. That will come down to how much Lile and timmins improve, gio will prob continue to regress. A full season with Mccabe will be good for him.
 
Arzak said:
He makes outrages $ 2.75 M.

We can't afford that and pay Mitch what he deserves. Same with ROR @4.5 (not even half a Mitch) .

We need ELC players, otherwise not enough for M&M.
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Schenn really helped unlock Reilly this playoffs though and Morgan was over PPG. Canucks fans raved about how he was the perfect fit for Hughes as well, who was also an offence first player. He’s a super late bloomer and defensemen take a really long time to develop but he’s legit #4 shutdown RD imo that can fight. He’s not a perfect player and that’s why he got 2.75…. But with his personality, shutdown style, and ability to fight he will be greatly missed. I think we may have made a mistake on this one.
 
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Aashir Mallick said:
Disagree, we need puckmovers, who are also physical. McCabe Brodie isn’t that terrible physically, but they can’t make a pass to save their life so they got hemmed in

We need physical and puckmovers, those are usually elite guys such as petro, paryako, peche etc.. but since we can’t find both right now I’d much rather get the puckmovers
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We should trade Nylander for McAvoy, find a way to pull it off Trev !!!
 
Jimmy Firecracker said:
My biggest concern when it comes to the defence is AGE more than anything. Two of our most dependable players defensively in Giordano and Brodie are up there, and both really struggled in the playoffs. Giordano you could maybe force him to load manage but Brodie is going to be an every day guy. Big concern is that both men hit a wall in their play and suddenly we’re relying on McCabe and a young Liljegren to handle major defensive duties.
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Same, Gio and Brodie are major question marks, agreed they were both showing their age in a major way last playoffs, and they're only gonna get older. I'm happy enough with these 4 guys in these 4 spots:

Rielly - xxx
McCabe - Lily
xxx - Klingberg

But I don't like depending on Brodie as Rielly's partner, or depending on Gio in our top 6.

Would've loved if we could've done something like:
- Re-sign Schenn. Yeah he's getting older too, but he's playing the best hockey of his career, age doesn't seem to be catching up with him yet
- Trade Brodie for a cheaper bottom pairing 6D. I could see something like a 1:1 Brodie/Zadorov trade working, something like that?

I'd have a lot more faith in this:

Rielly - Schenn
McCabe - Lily
Zadorov - Klingberg
(Gio/Timmins)

Than this:

Rielly - Brodie
McCabe - Lily
Gio - Klingberg
(Timmins)

Although I think it's very possible that Brad isn't done, and more D moves are coming. If we manage to re-sign Nylander, obviously Murray will be dealt, but I think it's pretty likely Brodie gets dealt too, and hopefully we can find a decent replacement for him.
 
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Our defense is not better. All we've done is lose Schenn and replace Holl with Klingberg, who while better offensively, is worse defensively.
And while rumours are rumours, sounds like the most likely to be removed before the season starts is our best defensive defenseman.
 
Can't judge the D until October cause Bundy is not done yet. Right now?? You could argue that Klingberg's offensive contributions will be outweighed by his defensive lapses. Brodie wore down hard as the year came to an end and Gio cannot play 82 games.

They need 1 or 2 changes to bring in size and snarl. This D would get run over by physical teams.
 
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Larcos_Unal said:
Can't judge the D until October cause Bundy is not done yet. Right now?? You could argue that Klingberg's offensive contributions will be outweighed by his defensive lapses. Brodie wore down hard as the year came to an end and Gio cannot play 82 games.

They need 1 or 2 changes to bring in size and snarl. This D would get run over by physical teams.
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Klingberg pretty much mailed in last season. I can't see him doing that again if he wants to get anywhere close to the deal he turned down in Dallas ($7m x 8).
 
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People were seriously alright with running it back with 5 d men that cannot transition the puck at all lol?

Did you not see how badly that hurt the leafs this year in the playoffs?
 
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Peasy said:
People were seriously alright with running it back with 5 d men that cannot transition the puck at all lol?

Did you not see how badly that hurt the leafs this year in the playoffs?
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Some folks on here honestly believe this D core can win a cup lmao

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Worried about the holes on the pk. Kerfoot and Holl had warts but they were usually decent. I would put long stick Knies in for kerfoot and let him learn. He could be decent. I see a jackhammer dman as a requirement to keep the crease clear of marauding players.
 
Dekes For Days said:
Our defense is not better. All we've done is lose Schenn and replace Holl with Klingberg, who while better offensively, is worse defensively.
And while rumours are rumours, sounds like the most likely to be removed before the season starts is our best defensive defenseman.
Click to expand...

I'm quite happy with Klingberg over Holl even if the upgrade is pure offense because at least Klingberg can do that.

Holl can't play defense or provide offense
 
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