GDT: Trade and Free Agency Thread - Training camp approaches

[WTFMAN99]

Lol....That hasn't been an issue for some time now.

Probably not, contract has been signed, his work is done lol.

 

[VanW27]

But all three would make sense on a PTO... if they are better than someone else, they might get to play, if not... next.

On Bargain contracts, you could make an argument for all three really.

I'd agree on Bozak and Gundbranson, not Neal though.

Neal is basically just Wayne Simmonds, 4th line PP specialist - I don't even want him since we already have a better 4th line PP specialist (Spezza)

There are still a few decent depth D out there, I'd like to sign one of them but I'm not a big believer in Sandin. especially if Muzzin goes down it would be nice to have a vet who can PK you can plug in the lineup, Gundbranson, Benn, Hutton, and Demers are all still out there.

 

[shaner8989]

Bozak at league minimum then trade Kerfoot for futures. Saves us almost $3 mill in cap.

 

[Sypher04]

Bozak at league minimum then trade Kerfoot for futures. Saves us almost $3 mill in cap.

probably would save us about 2.5m, but you’d be better off having both players if you want to win.

 

[LeafChief]

Ritchie - Matthews - Marner
Bunting - Tavares - Nylander
Kerfoot - Bozak - Kase
Spezza - Kampf - Simmonds/Engvall

Mikheyev out the door for picks. I'll miss Mikheyev's speed but saying he has hands of stone would be a compliment to him.

 

[Sypher04]

Ritchie - Matthews - Marner
Bunting - Tavares - Nylander
Kerfoot - Bozak - Kase
Spezza - Kampf - Simmonds/Engvall

Mikheyev out the door for picks. I'll miss Mikheyev's speed but saying he has hands of stone would be a compliment to him.

I think mikheyev is a far more useful player than engvall. I’d move the latter

 

[LeafChief]

I think mikheyev is a far more useful player than engvall. I’d move the latter

That works too.

Robertson/Ho-Sang/whoever else can slot in when Kase is inevitably injured.

 

[Once]

I'd love to have Bozak back but I did read he had a deal in place with the Blues..could have been speculation as he still hasn't signed and its September 8th.

I don't see many cons to Bozak. Familiar, has a cup, actual 3rd line centre, good on draws, scoring touch, should be cheap depth. This would also move Kerf to the wing, where he is at his best, and relegate Kampf/Spezza to the fourth line.

 

[Fogelhund]

I'd agree on Bozak and Gundbranson, not Neal though.

Neal is basically just Wayne Simmonds, 4th line PP specialist - I don't even want him since we already have a better 4th line PP specialist (Spezza)

There are still a few decent depth D out there, I'd like to sign one of them but I'm not a big believer in Sandin. especially if Muzzin goes down it would be nice to have a vet who can PK you can plug in the lineup, Gundbranson, Benn, Hutton, and Demers are all still out there.

On a PTO, who cares.

 

[bossram]

Ritchie - Matthews - Marner
Bunting - Tavares - Nylander
Kerfoot - Bozak - Kase
Spezza - Kampf - Simmonds/Engvall

Mikheyev out the door for picks. I'll miss Mikheyev's speed but saying he has hands of stone would be a compliment to him.

I think mikheyev is a far more useful player than engvall. I’d move the latter

The Leafs should keep both. My views of Mik and Engvall are pretty similar: I think both are actually pretty important to the Leafs. Much more so than guys like Ritchie and Simmonds, each of whom don't bring any defensive value and need to be thrown on a line with two better players to extract any offence out of them.

Mik and Engvall are actually good (and fairly priced) depth players. They have value at being able to play defensive minutes and play on the PK. Despite whatever perceived lack of offence, their actual even-strength scoring rates are surprisingly close to many other players we would consider superior offensively.

I don't think having Bozak replace one of Mik or Engvall as a slight cost-saving measure is worth it. The qualitative downgrade in team speed is significant, and the Leafs lose a player who can play high leverage defensive minutes. If anything, Bozak would be an assurance in case of a Kase injury, or Ritchie not cutting it, to replace Kampf, or to give Spezza nights off.

 

[Lightsol]

Domi is not the perfect linemate for Marner. They never worked well together in London. He has tunnel vision and isn't a good F1. Floats too much and isn't physical outside of the rare time he loses his mind.

He'd probably fit better with JT/WN, which would still make pursuing him worthwhile as long as he comes here on a Kadri type deal.

The issue with Domi in Toronto is twofold; first, if he's still acting the way he did in London and Arizona, you can expect him to start whining about not playing with Matthews and Marner almost immediately. Second, I'm really afraid that if Max signs in Toronto, his dad is going to try and convince Tannenbaum to let him micromanage the team...

 

[nuck]

Ritchie - Matthews - Marner
Bunting - Tavares - Nylander
Kerfoot - Bozak - Kase
Spezza - Kampf - Simmonds/Engvall

Mikheyev out the door for picks. I'll miss Mikheyev's speed but saying he has hands of stone would be a compliment to him.

Mikheyev was two different players his first two years. His 2.45 pp60 as a rookie was the 4th best on the club in the last two seasons of all forwards who played regular minutes and he managed this with a very unremarkable 8.2 shooting %. The two seasons are small samples but there is obviously a real chance he can be closer to year one than year two which would be a massive win for the club. I wouldn't trade him for the type of pick he would return and I don't think KD considers it either. Much safer to give him more time to prove himself then to maybe get a 3rd or a 4th in return.

To be clear, I don't think he will do the 2.45 again but I certainly cant promise he won't and that production is rarified air, even for Matthews and Marner. Spezza is 38 now and really unlikely to repeat last season but Mik is a lottery ticket again. Plus they will want him to onboard Semyonov and to attract the next Rusky in the pipeline.

Not sure why they don't have Bozak yet but that seems like a no brainer and Neal I am on bnoard with as I think he has a lot more left in the tank than Simmonds and has some grit.

 

[nuck]

The Leafs should keep both. My views of Mik and Engvall are pretty similar: I think both are actually pretty important to the Leafs. Much more so than guys like Ritchie and Simmonds, each of whom don't bring any defensive value and need to be thrown on a line with two better players to extract any offence out of them.

Mik and Engvall are actually good (and fairly priced) depth players. They have value at being able to play defensive minutes and on the PK. Despite whatever perceived lack of offence, their actual even-strength scoring rates are surprising close to many other players we would consider superior offensively.

I don't think having Bozak replacing one of Mik or Engvall as a slight cost-saving measure is worth it. The qualitative downgrade in team speed is significant, and the Leafs lose a player who can play high leverage defensive minutes. If anything, Bozak would be an assurance in case of a Kase injury, or Ritchie not cutting it, to replace Kampf, or to give Spezza nights off.

But there is almost a 100% chance they will need to replace Kase for injuries. If he is healthy he is a top 6 guy but he probably isn't healthy so he can't be written in ink anywhere in the lineup. A steal of a deal if he is there for the playoffs but we can't rely on that. I think Bozak can replace Kerf and be a better (actual) center this season as well, just look at the players these two guys played beside last season. Also Bozak is still a good skater so he isn't a typical 35 year old add, just not a guy you would be good with for a multi year commitment.

 

[Magic Man]

They should have signed Bozo instead of Kase for the same price. I don't think there is room for him now.

 

[mydnyte]

Bozak would be our 4th line center, Kampf was brought in to fill the #3C role

 

[Mickey Marner]

A Bozak return would be fine with me, you can never have too many centers. At the very least he can win faceoffs, play bumper on the PP and always has good chemistry with puck-dominant RWs, of which we have several.

 

[Knies iT]

As it stands currently, the Leafs stand to lose any of Anderson, Engvall, Brooks and/or Menell to waivers.

Robertson likely starts in the AHL as he's waiver exempt, and the Leafs probably carry one of Brooks/Anderson/Engvall on the big club. Still, to lose potentially two of those names to waivers would be terrible foresight.

If a guy like Timashov gets claimed, then potentially all of those names will. Dubas needs to trade a piece like Engvall now to prevent a claim and alleviate some cap so they can carry an extra body.

 

[VanW27]

They should have signed Bozo instead of Kase for the same price. I don't think there is room for him now.

The caps no issue assuming he signs for ~1 million.

The real problem is Keefe/Dubas were completely unwilling to bench/waive Thornton and Simmonds last year, so the same is likely true for Simmonds this year. Technically you could make it work without waiving Simmonds but you would need to run a 21 man roster with the spare being a forward and be right against the cap, as we saw last year that creates some issues if you run into any short term injury problems.

I hope they saw the error in that last year, hopefully that's why Simmonds got a 2 year deal at 900K, based on merit he's a league min, 1 year deal guy at this point.
If they were willing to waive Simmonds and Engvall than it works beautifully, run a 20 man roster, sign Bozak, call up Simmonds/Engvall or waiver a exempt players like Semeyonov and Robertson as needed. Cap space can be accrued quickly through the season.

That flexibility would also allow them to sign a vet D man and do the same thing on the back end, have your "top 6":
Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Holl
Dermott - ?Vet?

Yo-yo Sandin and Liljegren as needed, even if it's only paper transactions and you have one of them as a top 6 regular.

 

[ToneDog]

A Bozak return would be fine with me, you can never have too many centers. At the very least he can win faceoffs, play bumper on the PP and always has good chemistry with puck-dominant RWs, of which we have several.

He's also money in Shootouts.

 

[VanW27]

As it stands currently, the Leafs stand to lose any of Anderson, Engvall, Brooks and/or Menell to waivers.

Robertson likely starts in the AHL as he's waiver exempt, and the Leafs probably carry one of Brooks/Anderson/Engvall on the big club. Still, to lose potentially two of those names to waivers would be terrible foresight.

If a guy like Timashov gets claimed, then potentially all of those names will. Dubas needs to trade a piece like Engvall now to prevent a claim and alleviate some cap so they can carry an extra body.

I wouldn't worry about that, and it's certainly not terrible foresight, Brooks is a fringe NHLer, AAAA type of player, every team has players like him that will be on waivers during the year, Engvall is versatile but probably overpaid for what he's done - I could see a team claiming him based on the size and skating and but also wouldn't be surprised to see him clear. Anderson is similar to Brooks but a bit younger so he might be a bit more valuable to teams.

Better players than all 3 will be on waivers and most will clear.

That said, the best play is to waive Simmonds and keep one, or even both Engvall/Anderson on the roster, assuming no one else is brought in that would work. I don't think management will do that though.

 

[Knies iT]

I wouldn't worry about that, and it's certainly not terrible foresight, Brooks is a fringe NHLer, AAAA type of player, every team has players like him that will be on waivers during the year, Engvall is versatile but probably overpaid for what he's done - I could see a team claiming him based on the size and skating and but also wouldn't be surprised to see him clear. Anderson is similar to Brooks but a bit younger so he might be a bit more valuable to teams.

Better players than all 3 will be on waivers and most will clear.

That said, the best play is to waive Simmonds and keep one, or even both Engvall/Anderson on the roster, assuming no one else is brought in that would work. I don't think management will do that though.

Engvall and Anderson would be arguably the best players available on waivers. Only comparable talents would be more unproven options like Benson out of Edmonton, or Clague/Grundstrom out of LA.

Brooks would sting the least but he will get claimed based on his production and versatility. Engvall is a guaranteed claim, not sure how you think a 6'5" PK'ing hybrid centre with 12-15 goal pace is going to clear. He has almost 100GP on a contender.

 

[VanW27]

Engvall and Anderson would be arguably the best players available on waivers. Only comparable talents would be more unproven options like Benson out of Edmonton, or Clague/Grundstrom out of LA.

Brooks would sting the least but he will get claimed based on his production and versatility. Engvall is a guaranteed claim, not sure how you think a 6'5" PK'ing hybrid centre with 12-15 goal pace is going to clear. He has almost 100GP on a contender.

I like Engvall, and like I said, I would waive Simmonds to keep him protected - but lots of fans seem to hate the guy (read around here for proof of that), and while fan opinions don't really matter Dubas/Keefe don't seem to like him that much either based on usage, so it's hard to say what league wide opinion of him would be.

I'd also add it matters when you waive a player, I don't believe Engvall would clear through the season, but during training camp when throngs of players are waived, no one is injured and and every team looks at their roster and believes young players x/y/z are ready to step into a NHL role, he might.

 

[LeafChief]

Waiving Simmonds is definitely the move.

Unless you can liquidate Engvall for picks beforehand. Losing Engvall to waivers would be dumb.

 

[Magic Man]

The caps no issue assuming he signs for ~1 million.

The real problem is Keefe/Dubas were completely unwilling to bench/waive Thornton and Simmonds last year, so the same is likely true for Simmonds this year. Technically you could make it work without waiving Simmonds but you would need to run a 21 man roster with the spare being a forward and be right against the cap, as we saw last year that creates some issues if you run into any short term injury problems.

I hope they saw the error in that last year, hopefully that's why Simmonds got a 2 year deal at 900K, based on merit he's a league min, 1 year deal guy at this point.
If they were willing to waive Simmonds and Engvall than it works beautifully, run a 20 man roster, sign Bozak, use call up Simmonds/Engvall or waiver exempt players like Semeyonov and Robertson up as needed. Cap space can be accrued quickly through the season.

That flexibility would also allow them to sign a vet D man and do the same thing on the back end, have your "top 6":
Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Holl
Dermott - ?Vet?

Yo-yo Sandin and Liljegren as needed, even if it's only paper transactions and you have one of them as a top 6 regular.

You do make a good point about the use of a 20 man roster. I've been meaning to point that out. I think they'll carry 21 most of the season, but they have some wiggle room.

With Sandin and Liljegren up with the big team at a roster size of 21, the bonus with them being on ELC's is they can send one or both down on off days to accrue cap space on, send one down when one is playing well with Dermott and bank cap space and send one down to promote a forward when they have lost a forward. They will want both up when they go on road trips and it makes sense to have them all playing and alternating on the bottom pairing. But, it does give them some extra wiggle room.

 

[bossram]

But there is almost a 100% chance they will need to replace Kase for injuries. If he is healthy he is a top 6 guy but he probably isn't healthy so he can't be written in ink anywhere in the lineup. A steal of a deal if he is there for the playoffs but we can't rely on that. I think Bozak can replace Kerf and be a better (actual) center this season as well, just look at the players these two guys played beside last season. Also Bozak is still a good skater so he isn't a typical 35 year old add, just not a guy you would be good with for a multi year commitment.

I'd be fine with Bozak for depth. I'm just responding to people saying that he should replace one of Mikheyev or Engvall. That's nuts. Same for Kerfoot. He's not a super cap efficient player, but the Leafs need his versatility up front.

Bozak subbing in for Kase/Simmonds/Ritchie is fine.

It's a moot point though. It looks like Bozak will be back in St. Louis as soon as they figure out their cap situation.