Those who wonder why Dubas waited to sign the big 3 now see why with Campbell.

[Stephen]

I agree, the comparison doesn't make alot of sense. Goalies are alot more volatile than young scoring stars on ELCs.

One of Marner or Matthews should have been signed early so that they couldn't use the other as a comparable. It's very likely they could have signed Matthews to an 8 year "overpay" for less than what he got on 5.

Or you sign Marner first to the reported money and term, get him longer and for less, and maybe squeeze Matthews a bit more.

Dubas chose the worst possible option in waiting to sign Marner last while signing Matthews during the season for a 5 year term.

Contracts aren't what's holding the team back though. It's not a depth problem in the playoffs, it's the stars shrinking in big moments.

Having had a lot more time to think about it, I might hold onto Matthews, Marner, Nylander a lot longer than emotional reaction might dictate even if we do flame out in this year's playoffs. Tavares feels like he's falling out of the Big 4 and I have no idea how you stickhandle around him, but that's another story for another day.

The critical factor here is age. If you took the core groups of Colorado, Carolina, Florida, Tampa, the Rangers, Pittsburgh, Vegas, Minnesota, Calgary, Washington or whatever sampling of legitimate contenders this year, the Leafs group of Matthews, Marner and Nylander would be 3x of the youngest players on that list.

I won't deny that they've been disappointing in the playoffs, but looking at those groups in Colorado, Florida, it's actually taken those teams longer to get to where they are than we have.

 

[KobeBean143]

If you didn't know Matthews was a f***ing stud after his Rookie year than you do not deserve to work in hockey

And don't compare goalies and players

 

[HellasLEAF]

Disagree OP.

 

[Brad C]

This is a bad take. Re-evaluate and try again.

Good advice