The insanity needs to stop this offseason barring a miracle.

[-DeMo-]

I use Lou to juxtapose the direction Leafs went in. I'm not a fan of his decisions this late in his career, but he has a lengthy track record and if Leafs were going to move on from him they should have at least allowed him to negotiate the MMN contracts, with some guideliness from the owners.

The point I am making is that even in lowly NYI, the team that lost their best player and captain to the Leafs; their depth lead them to far more success than Leafs top heavy approach.

The cautionary tale is "are they going to dozen down on this core"?

there depth lead them further then our stars but again not reaching the ultimate goal, and therefore are not really a model to look at or emulate. they lost all 7 years under Lou just like us. and I don't believe for a second Lou would have done much better at re-signing our stars, look at the Marleau/Zaitsev/Komorov(NYI)/Engvall/Barzal contracts. I mean since moving to NYI how many good long term contracts has Lou made?

 

[Leafsfan74]

there depth lead them further then our stars but again not reaching the ultimate goal, and therefore are not really a model to look at or emulate. they lost all 7 years under Lou just like us. and I don't believe for a second Lou would have done much better at re-signing our stars, look at the Marleau/Zaitsev/Komorov(NYI)/Engvall/Barzal contracts. I mean since moving to NYI how many good long term contracts has Lou made?

The benefit though is that the Leafs could have decided on which two of the four to build around, after accepting that four making so much money wouldn't work.

Matthews and one other overpaid forward would be fine. Even 3 is too much if they have proven they can't win.

Let's see if this team has learned it's lesson this offseason

Maybe they win the Cup this year and prove me wrong and if so I am wrong about everything.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Matthews is a big time loser. He’s a rich loser but still a loser. What kind of captain ever says ‘I guess we expected an easier night’ after being pummeled by Las Vegas - a perennial contender????

How dumb do you have to be to expect an easy night against a contending team.

He should never have been captain. You need someone who has that win at all costs mentality like a Brady Tkachuk who despite having never won a cup anyone can tell this guy has the passion and will to do whatever it takes and I would bet any money he will win at least a cup or two in his career. He was just dealt a bad hand by being drafted to a terribly run team

That quote from him literally says it all.

You think MacKinnon would say something like that after this team's playoff history? Never.

 

[TheVision]

Marchand will never play here and we may have to find a true 1dman. We have a good vet defense that lacks that weapon every Stanley winner has. We could add all those 3 and lose.

I hear that, however, #1 Dmen rarely become available.

Looking at the Free Agent class...do you want Ekblad, Chychrun? Are either #1's? Will either sign in Canada? Not sure it's attainable at this point

 

[The Shadow]

I'll take that bet.

Sure. Clearly it won’t happen with Ottawa but this guy will have his cup or two

 

[WilliamInLondon]

haha, I still think the Leafs actually go deep this year (e.g. ECF or finals), and Marner re-signs for $13.5M x 8. Then they become a perennial contender for the next 4-5 season as a Top 4 seeded EC team. I'm not saying that this is the ideal outcome (OP's vision makes more sense), but it's also not the worst.

If they blow it in the first round, my secret hope is that Edmonton goes out and wins the cup. McDavid then comes home and signs a 7 year deal next offseason, which then extends Toronto's contention window by another 7+ years.

 

[Punch Drunk Loov]

We really butched our contracts. Marner was the most egregious going from league minimum to 10.9M with a full NMC. Meanwhile Rantenan signs for notably less and with no trade protection the same offseason. Something went badly wrong

 

[MilkofthePoppy]

We need a complete rebuild.

 

[arthurcason]

We really butched our contracts. Marner was the most egregious going from league minimum to 10.9M with a full NMC. Meanwhile Rantenan signs for notably less and with no trade protection the same offseason. Something went badly wrong

The NMC was the biggest mistake. We could have had Rantenan right now. I'm pissed!

 

[ToneDog]

We really butched our contracts. Marner was the most egregious going from league minimum to 10.9M with a full NMC. Meanwhile Rantenan signs for notably less and with no trade protection the same offseason. Something went badly wrong

Yeah, it was handing the keys to the car to Dumbass.

 

[Dekes For Days]

Its a team game. Nobody can argue with results immediately after the trade. They became a play off team.

They were already a playoff team. It is a team game. And yet you're trying to falsely attribute outcomes to an individual. Having a different outcome doesn't equate to having a different outcome because of a particular trade that didn't even involve much impact shift.

And again, there is no Tkachuk alternative here.

 

[Leaffan1991]

On the bright side, letting Marner and Tavares walk will free up 20-22M in space. Could you get Bennett, Marchand, and Ehlers for that? The felxibility will be worth letting them walk. I have ZERO confidence this team will go any further than they have the last 7yrs.

That would be great, don't see them being able to sign 3 big players like that

 

[barilko05]

There are a number of reasons Lou should have moved on from Toronto and the Leafs gone in another direction. Yet, he has won 7x as many playoff rounds as this team has in the last nine years. Could anyone at Sportsnet or TSN had seen this discrepancy coming when they encouraged the "sign at all costs" decision on Nylander in his final RFA year?

I was thinking today of all of the pearl clutching by fans, especially younger fans I'm sure, who are losing their minds over the status of certain players in the offseason.

The best outcome for the Leafs is to let them walk, build the forward group as Brad has built the back end and move into a new, re-tooled era around two offensive stars in Matthews and Nylander. The Leafs now have two young forwards in McMann and Knies who can play in the top six, so Leafs would have plenty of cap space to fill in those two positions AND far more cash to build depth on lines 3 and 4 if they choose to go in this direction, and they should, barring a real deep playoff run.

Crafty veteran Lou went to NYI and despite not having the 4 superstar core players, he has won 7 rounds. The Leafs have won a...single...round....in...ten...years...

Put this into perspective, your beloved Maple Leafs have won a single playoff series in 21 years! If I hired a monkey and asked that monkey to randomly pick some players out of the entire league, altered it for cap compliance, would that monkey have done worse than this franchise?

Please, mercilessly, move on from this failed formula, it's been nine years. Dictate your decisions solely on their success this postseason. Solely.

Lou's golden age was all BEFORE the cap...and in the clutch and grab era. He was a dinosaur out of his element and I'm glad we sent him to the curb. And the Isles have been in a mediocre holding pattern ever since he got there. Yeah, they've won some rounds...but everybody knew they were never going to reach the summit. So big deal...they won a few rounds and got stomped before they made it to the final. In the end, them and the Leafs are in the still same boat. No cups. And their situation is way worse than ours is. Not good enough to win it all...not bad enough to tank and reap the draft rewards, Having to trade off worthwhile pieces for pennies on the dollar because Lou gave guys like Uncle Leo and the Giraffe overstuffed contracts that everyone knew would blow up in his face. Good riddance to Grandpa Facial Hair.

Now, that being said, I agree with the strategy. Let Mitch walk. As for JT, well, Captain Pajamas signs for 5 or less for 3 years or less or he can take his act out the door too. Look at dealing Mo. Something is obviously wrong, and maybe a change of scenery is best. Sign or deal for a youngish, heart and soul guy who's disgruntled or not living up to his potential. I know Tkachuk is a unicorn, but who knows? Nobody expected him to be dealt from Calgary, just like nobody ever thought Rantenan would be dealt TWICE before the deadline. Throw good (not ridiculous) money at couple of quality FA's to replace Marner and Rielly. That will go a long way to righting the ship. And all this should be done AFTER we tie the boat anchor to Shanahan. Because I don't think he's shown the stones to make serious changes. I'm will to give Chief and Pizza Boy more time, but Shanny's had his chance. Time to go.

 

[Racer88]

Flexibility is good of course, but only if you have things you can do with it.

There's a lot of teams with cap this offseason with a huge cap jump, and more big jumps projected. Lots of buyers, and not a ton of high end players available. It's certainly possible we get left without a chair when the music stops.


Will be a very interesting offseason.

Maybe but it can’t be any worse then the results we are getting now

 

[capfit9]

Shanahan needs to be fired. FULL STOP

 

[Azail]

Maybe but it can’t be any worse then the results we are getting now

Well I remember a time during 2006-2015 that was MUCH worse then now.

That being said, they both ended up getting nothing in the end, so does it really matter? At least it is fun watching the regular season now lol. Late 2000s early 2010s was a dark time.

 

[hullsy47]

Well, we should expect a better effort on Thursday against Florida, right?

Convince the GM he made the right decision for the 9th year in a row in mortgaging their future (against the advice of some of us...yet again...)

I agree but i wouldve traded for rantanen in a heartbeat

 

[Leafsfan74]

I agree but i wouldve traded for rantanen in a heartbeat

Yes, but they would have needed to still cut salary if they signed him which is going to be difficult. They have improved DNA in the back end, they need this upfront.

Robertson is at least deciding "F it, I'm going to play with a little more purpose and not be pushed around with ease anymore". He seems to have embraced and gone so far as to verbalize the reality that if he wants it, he going to have to take it. He seems more believable to me of late.

The adversity for these big dogs on this team has never existed. It's been too easy especially when rewarded with their absurd contracts. Without adversary one doesn't rise to the occasion when the going gets tough. they've never felt the need to struggle through to make it to their goal. This has always been this cores issue and why they won't win a Cup.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Maybe but it can’t be any worse then the results we are getting now

I mean, we could also have bad regular season results while the Bruins hold our 1st.

Not that we would know what that is like, right?

 

[Suntouchable13]

Shanahan is an asshole, he probably knew from day 1 that this core won't win a thing. He knows what types of players it takes to win. But yet he still enabled Dubas making dumbass decisions for years. He was ok with overpaying the core guys, giving them whatever they wanted.