Trades & Free Agency Thread: Off-season Edition

[Americanadian]

Noah Cates would be my #1 target for a pre-season trade right now. He would be the perfect buy-low boom/bust 3C. Based on daily faceoff and last years usage he is currently the Flyers' 4LW.

Klim Kostin would be my #2 buy-low target. He would be a perfect 3LW in the mold of McMann and Knies. He hits everything that moves and scored at a decent rate in his stops in Edmonton and San Jose. His underlying numbers point to last year being a bad luck season and not to him getting significantly worse. He has 8 fights over the last 2 seasons. Based on the rosters on daily faceoff and the posts on here from San Jose fans he doesn't have a spot in the starting lineup on opening night.

 

[Torontonian]

Yes and No.

The players are not mindless robots.

Also, a lot of time last year, beside kept doing the drop back and entering the zone, the other main problem is players not willing to shoot.

I do think it is a bit of both considering the offensive talent and creativity we have.

The issue I find with Toronto powerplay is lack of personal so to speak. It felt like Toronto was always forcing the play to 34 and teams would cheat towards him like they do with Ovi/Leon. The difference is Toronto doesn't have a shooting threat from the point like Bouchard and Carlson, nor did they ever utilize the bumper position on the PP.

 

[dubplatepressure]

Yes and No.

The players are not mindless robots.

Also, a lot of time last year, beside kept doing the drop back and entering the zone, the other main problem is players not willing to shoot.

I do think it is a bit of both considering the offensive talent and creativity we have.

Agreed. Specifically, no one time threat at all. They default to being too cute and have an aversion to putting the puck into ice that forces them to fight for space - ie netfront. We saw some one-time goals from Willie and AM34 last year and combined with them finally lining up on their strong side so they can actually compete a one timer last year it seemed things were moving in the right direction. But that sort of faded and by the time playoffs hit it was nonexistent. They need another system out there - they absolutely cannot line up weak-sides anymore, and they need someone on the blueline with a reasonable one timer who's not afraid to practice it. Beyond that, they need to get more comfortable going to and playing in the dirty areas of the ice which are more highly contested in the playoffs.

 

[thusk]

Power Play Success Rates (2018-2023)​

2018-2019:​

• Regular Season: 19.8%
• Playoffs: 17.9%

2019-2020:​

• Regular Season: 20.0%
• Playoffs: 18.8%

2020-2021:​

• Regular Season: 20.1%
• Playoffs: 19.2%

2021-2022:​

• Regular Season: 21.6%
• Playoffs: 19.5%

2022-2023:​

• Regular Season: 21.3%
• Playoffs: 19.3%

Team's tighten up in the playoffs, it's no secret. The Leafs just happen to have the worst case of this, and it's very obviously tied into their questionable PP personnel and lack of shooting ability / one-time threats. In the playoffs, you NEED to get to the front of the net to convert. Our guys just don't do that. Double team Matthews and Nobody is worried about Mitch dancing around the perimeter passing off into nowhere or Rielly taking a harmless shot from the point.


I was actually quite impressed with the team's 5 on 5 play this past playoffs, especially games 5-7 where they played an impressively tight team defense.

The biggest issues is not the fact leafs didn't have player in front of the net...It's not aboit strategy... Where the pp felt in playoff is on the battle to get the puck back.

When you're in pp and see a 2v3 or 1v2 battle in the corner, it's a problem. Like even strenght offensive, leafs was too passive and didn't put enought pressure and forechecking. It's hard to get a good pp only with skill by losing 75-80 % of battle and that's exactly what's happening in playoff. That can work in regular season, not in playoff.

 

[SprDaVE]

Hold up...

https://x.com/i/web/status/1833488938394157087

 

[tmlfan98]

Pacioretty AND Hakanpaa ??

Kampf is so getting moved after training camp.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I looked at your comparisons, and thought, well that isn't much of a drop off.

This year, our regular season PP% was 24.0%, playoffs 4.8%, that's terrible.

Since 2018-19 our regular season is 24%, playoffs 15.8%.
All the teams in the League regular season 20.47%, Playoffs, 20.73%.

I wondered about your data, and figured teams tighten up in the playoffs, and the rest of the league likely saw similar drops... so I looked at the data, and it proved the opposite. Teams actually score at a slightly greater rate in the playoffs on the PP.

Out of curiousity... I checked the PK stats too...76% in the playoffs... 79.6% regular season. 2018-19 to 2023-24

Everything gets worse in the playoffs... just a terrible playoff team.

We better hope it's down to coaching.. because this is something that needs fixing. If it doesn't get better this year... it's the players, and they'll need changing... which we've been over ad naseum anyway.

Are you looking at equals? Are you including the non-playoff teams in the reguar season?

I had a quick look at the PP for the four teams in the conference finals, and three of them had a drop of 2.4, 4, and 5, while Edmonton was up 3.

 

[Fogelhund]

 

[SprDaVE]

Pacioretty AND Hakanpaa ??

Kampf is so getting moved after training camp.

I hope so. Seems weird to be adding more unless something else is cooking. But maybe they'll let the waiver wire fix it.

 

[dubplatepressure]

Pacioretty AND Hakanpaa ??

Kampf is so getting moved after training camp.

Fine with it especially with that PTO signing from FLA.

 

[Magic Man]

Hakanpaa at his original contract would make them cap compliant with a 22 man roster. Adding Pacioretty at 1M would be fine if they waived Reaves.

If Pacioretty and Hakanpaa both took league minimum it still wouldn't fit in under the cap without some other transaction.

 

[Fogelhund]

Cap wages has us at having $2.375 in cap room, with a 20 man roster. Timmins, Murray waived and sent down, none of the kids on the team (Cowan, Grebenkin, Minten)

Toronto Maple Leafs | Salary cap and contracts

Obviously if any of those are on the team, or not waived, it changes things. Clearly they have some type of plan though. I'm not sure they really need Patches at this point though.

 

[leafsfan5]

I'm very interested to see how they plan to create their lines with the addition of NRob and Patches. Lots of offensive pieces in the lineup now

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Cap wages has us at having $2.375 in cap room, with a 20 man roster. Timmins, Murray waived and sent down, none of the kids on the team (Cowan, Grebenkin, Minten)

Toronto Maple Leafs | Salary cap and contracts

Obviously if any of those are on the team, or not waived, it changes things. Clearly they have some type of plan though. I'm not sure they really need Patches at this point though.

I'm not sure which site is more correct, Cap Wages or PuckPedia Puckpedia had them at 1.28 million at last check but that didn't include Robertson

 

[Americanadian]

Someone has to be on the way out if Pacioretty is coming in with a contract, not a PTO. Or Reaves is sent down. All of this assuming a 1.5x2 for Hakanpaa.

 

[OVO16]

And to think we had people going to war for David Kampf. He's definitely gonna get shot to the moon after all these transactions takes place.

He makes way too much to be a 4th line center

Someone has to be on the way out if Pacioretty is coming in with a contract, not a PTO. Or Reaves is sent down.

Reaves isnt being sent down. Kampf will be dumped im sure. Reaves is a player both Tre and Berbube likes.

 

[OVO16]

McMann - Mathews - Marner
Knies - Tavares - Nylander
Robertson - Domi - Jarnkrok
Paccioretty - Dewar - Holmberg/Reaves

 

[Rare Jewel]

Someone has to be on the way out if Pacioretty is coming in with a contract, not a PTO. Or Reaves is sent down. All of this assuming a 1.5x2 for Hakanpaa.

*checks who the coach is*

Yeah, Reaves is going to be on the team.

 

[LeafGrief]

I'd be astonished if Kampf goes anywhere. He's been our most consistently reliable bottom sixer for a few years now. Replacing him with tweeners to make the money work to squeeze in a geriatric Pacioretty isn't going to happen.

Good news with these signings is that we're going to have some real competition at camp. Lots of guys with deals and the NHL lifestyle to play for, kids trying to fight their way in and steal those jobs. Robertson, the kids, Pacioretty, Reaves, even Holmberg will all be working hard. Should be a good camp, and it's nice to have a bit of quality in our depth.

 

[tmlfan98]

I'm not sure which site is more correct, Cap Wages or PuckPedia Puckpedia had them at 1.28 million at last check but that didn't include Robertson

The only current difference between PuckPedia and CapWages roster projection is that PuckPedia is projecting a 22 man roster and CapWages is projecting a 21 man roster. So PuckPedia's projection will seem like they have less cap space.

 

[weems]

Kampf is definitely overpaid but he's still been a very useful player who always plays extremely tough minutes and I think he's also been pretty good in the playoffs.

I can understand if he needs to be traded for cap relief but he certainly isn't just some random that brings nothing.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

Pacioretty? The desperation is thick

 

[dubplatepressure]

Pacioretty? The desperation is thick

meh buy low with some potential. Don't think that's going to sink us either way.

 

[Skullz]

I wonder where the fit is if we have both Patches and Robertson; both need to be sheltered defensively. They do add a lot of scoring potentially though, which we need desperately.

Hard to see how the roster works capwise. I hope Reaves gets buried, we have so many better players and cheaper too. I also would like to see Kampf moved to open up space. Holmberg/Dewer can take his minutes for a fraction of the cost.

 

[thusk]

Kampf is definitely overpaid but he's still been a very useful player who always plays extremely tough minutes and I think he's also been pretty good in the playoffs.

I can understand if he needs to be traded for cap relief but he certainly isn't just some random that brings nothing.

Exactly

its one thing to say leafs should move Kampf but honestly who in this line up could replace Kampf? nobody... The only hope is Minten and nobody know if hes really NHL ready.