What changes next year?

[yubbers]

Yeah he did make some bad trades in the past. how good would Kadri be right now in the press box.
barrie leaves the leafs and then what happens in Edmonton. Was near or at the top in scoring. Same prior to when he got here. Dubas got him here and then he does nothing and then lights it up when he leaves. Maybe that was a coaching issue.
And Kerfoot was arguably the best forward in the series.
I was mostly talking about what he did to address the teams after the failures last playoffs. He did exactly what was needed.

It's the culture. It's too casual.

 

[Puckclektr]

A competent GM would've had all of those players signed to reasonable contracts.

Tall task for a rookie GM which is why most reasonable posters here wanted to wait until those ELC's were done before letting Lou go.

Rookie GM wanted John Tavares though. Signs him for a ridiculous $11M max contract when the true need for the team was on defence.

OK.

Rookie GM then let ELC rookie's agents absolutely destory his salary cap, after using the John Tavares contract as leverage against their own in-season production.

Rookie GM looking for any answer for depth options after giving himself no cap space for depth.

Underdog Montreal wins in the 2021 first round.

Almost poetically stupid.

so marner holds out and what do you do. Let him sit while the team is a contender? trade him for some picks and prospects which defeats the whole purpose.
imagine the outrage if Dubas let Marner walk. It’s hard for a GM to control what players are paid when compared to other players.

 

[yubbers]

so marner holds out and what do you do. Let him sit while the team is a contender? trade him for some picks and prospects which defeats the whole purpose.
imagine the outrage if Dubas let Marner walk. It’s hard for a GM to control what players are paid when compared to other players.

losing the game of chicken to Nylander set the tone on the green GM.

 

[Luminiferous]

You would hope less drones supporting the team.

 

[Puckclektr]

losing the game of chicken to Nylander set the tone on the green GM.

I agree. He did not handle that situation well. Prior to this season there were many question marks on Dubas part.
But if you look at what issues the leafs had last year and how he fixed them with what he could I think it’s not on him.
Aside from maybe Kerfoot campbell Nylander and Spezza the leafs didn’t play well.
Dubas addressed the issues from last year

 

[TopChedder]

so marner holds out and what do you do. Let him sit while the team is a contender? trade him for some picks and prospects which defeats the whole purpose.
imagine the outrage if Dubas let Marner walk. It’s hard for a GM to control what players are paid when compared to other players.

Marner sits until he comes in at what you want or you move him. I know it's not an easy situation signing stars today, and maybe any GM overpays him, but the overpay should have been between 8-9 million, not almost 11.

 

[Raym11]

Flyers traded Richards & Carter in their prime, i'm all for our version

 

[Stonehands1990]

so marner holds out and what do you do. Let him sit while the team is a contender? trade him for some picks and prospects which defeats the whole purpose.
imagine the outrage if Dubas let Marner walk. It’s hard for a GM to control what players are paid when compared to other players.

Marner was an RFA. GM has leverage. If he signs his contract elsewhere we get 4 1sts

 

[Yak]

Half ass#d defense, mediocre goaltending and poor supporting players is reason this team lost. You need to invest more money from the back-end out. Too many dollars wasted up front for same type of players. Soft skilled players with no heart and over-paid!

One or two players are not going to make the difference. If so you would have beat the Habs.

You have the core, but the rest of the puzzle is not their. Without wholesale changes the result will be the same. No one player or a few players are going to change things.

I did not see a team that was missing a player or two, I seen a team missing a whole identity in culture and type of players it takes to win in the playoffs.

I don't say this to rag on the Leafs but things are worse then it seems, glass half empty!

 

[leafsgirl12]

Or Eichel could just play the wing....

This isn’t football lmao players can play other positions

Eichel neck injury is worrisome

 

[leafsgirl12]

It's the core.

They've pretty much changed everyone around them. I would say goodbye to Rielly + Marner at this point. They need a proper shakeup or this is going to become a routine.

I can't blame Dubas for this. Marner played like a 1M player. That's unacceptable for so many playoff series.

Rielly played with heart and effort in playoffs and he is a leader on and off ice so he should stay .

 

[leafsgirl12]

Trade Reilly
Sandin can be as affective at a quarter of the cost.

No more over-the-hill retreads who get to play based on past performance.
Thornton and Simmonds both disappeared, Brooks should have been in instead.

Wave good bye to Freddie.

Sandin can't be affective full time unless he fixes his skating problems

 

[Donnie740]

Sandin can't be affective full time unless he fixes his skating problems

Agree 1000%.

Sandin is a horrible skater. Worst part is, he's also a very soft player.

It's ok to be a bad skating D if you're physical to cover up for it. It's also ok to be soft if you have the skill and finesse to cover up for it.

But if you're slow AND soft, you're hopeless as a hockey player.

 

[Dough72]

Dubas and Shanahan need to go. They had their shot and they failed miserably.

 

[Subway Schenn]

Let Andersen walk (obviously). He wasn't the problem this year but that ship has sailed.
Trade Marner. We need to upgrade the top end of our defense and drastic alter roster composition. Prime candidate to move due to his salary.
Have a long hard think about replacing Keefe (You can't put this entirely on him but a coach has to be a large part of losing 3 straight to fall against a lower talent team).

 

[SniperOnTheWing]

Eichel neck injury is worrisome

If I see Eichel's name floated one more time I'm going to scream.

1) If the team starts out decent or shows a glimpse of hope he's great, but as soon as the season starts to slip away he starts moping and pouting and eventually quits on the team entirely, taking no responsibility on himself. He's the captain so, you know, he should probably take some responsibility. Instead he he puts on a sour puss until his coach is fired or the GM goes out and makes moves designed specifically to make Jack happy like the Hall signing that turned out to fail like everything else the Sabres do.

2) All this talk about getting rid of guys who don't perform in the playoffs, HOW DO WE KNOW EICHEL WOULD BE ANY BETTER?! He's never even been there himself! He could be an even worse choker than anybody we have already and we have no way of knowing before hand.

3) He's known nothing but a toxic losing culture since he set foot in Buffalo and not only can that be contagious but he could be the cause of it himself or at least a big part of it. Taylor Hall is lucky he only had to withstand part of a shortened season before getting the hell out of there.

4) On top of all that he's still damaged goods and may or may not need/get/demand a risky neck surgery that has never been proven to work on an NHL player before.

Can we PLEASE stop talking about Eichel. I don't want or need his loser attitude anywhere near this team.

 

[Mattavarner]

Count me in for a Marner for Jones trade, move Nylander to the Matthews line, and move Rielly for a winger of a similar cap hit for Tavares

 

[Puckclektr]

Marner was an RFA. GM has leverage. If he signs his contract elsewhere we get 4 1sts

You can pretend they have leverage. How many times has a team given up an elite player for four firsts. No team is going to give up four high firsts. If anything they will be middle to late firsts and leaf fans would’ve lost their minds if they happened.

 

[forecheck]

Half ass#d defense, mediocre goaltending and poor supporting players is reason this team lost. You need to invest more money from the back-end out. Too many dollars wasted up front for same type of players. Soft skilled players with no heart and over-paid!

One or two players are not going to make the difference. If so you would have beat the Habs.

You have the core, but the rest of the puzzle is not their. Without wholesale changes the result will be the same. No one player or a few players are going to change things.

I did not see a team that was missing a player or two, I seen a team missing a whole identity in culture and type of players it takes to win in the playoffs.

I don't say this to rag on the Leafs but things are worse then it seems, glass half empty!

100% - Sick of hearing how the GM addressed all their needs and its not on him .... HE gave half the cap money to 4 players and we are left with over the hill veterans with ties to the city to fill in the gaps and a minor eage Coach who says his idol is the GM ..... Blow this farce of a team up starting with Shanahna and Dubas .

 

[Go4soda]

I’d like a coach and gm combo who are not married to these players. We’ve come full circle back to the McCabe days when we had the muskoka 5. Too much of a country club is forming here. Big contracts, no accountability. No worries.

 

[BodaciousBeefBazooka]

Flyers traded Richards & Carter in their prime, i'm all for our version

They cup they brought home looked amazing on TV.

 

[613Leafer]

Count me in for a Marner for Jones trade, move Nylander to the Matthews line, and move Rielly for a winger of a similar cap hit for Tavares

Jones would NEED to be signed for this to make sense. You can't trade 4 years of Marner for 1 year of Jones, it would be abysmal asset management.

In saying that, yes, I agree that otherwise your premise makes sense and would give this core a good shakeup, while still bringing in quality pieces. We'd also very likely save some capspace, as Jones should only be a ~7-8M dman.

 

[Nylander88]

- You let Freddy walk (obviously), Campbell has proven he can be a starter.
- You sign a respectable goalie for a cap hit under 2.5mil, whoever is best bang for buck. Someone who has had stretches with a starter role. Ie; Rittich
- You re-sign Hyman, if he wants to be here
- Spezza stays a Leaf, until his career is done
- At the right price, you also bring back Bogosian, Galchenyuk, Simmonds
- You make a ore changing trade. Marner is the obvious target. Was head and shoulders outplayed by Willy who makes 4 million less. You don't move the best goal scoring centerman in the league ever. He at least learned to hit. Honestly think he was dragged down by Marner and his sad play. Hard when you're getting matched up against and your best partner is a grinder (Hyman) who is coming off injury. Matthews needs to be better, but I noticed for good things. Marner, I saw nothing redeemable.
-Keefe didn't adapt and it's a damn shame. Rode the garbage line of Hyman-Matthews-Marner right into the ground. You have to take a good long hard look at Bruce Boudreau imo
- Unfortunately Kerfoot is likely off to Seattle. And he was outstanding for us. Really made me a fan with his play and how he stepped up for us. Assuming he's taken, his 3.5 would be best suited to the UFA bin. Blake Coleman is a guy I look at if he has any interest.

 

[613Leafer]

losing the game of chicken to Nylander set the tone on the green GM.

Yep. And while his negotiations were the hardest, Marner and Matthews contracts are way worse.

My problem with these guys is that they had a chance to sign longterm 7-8 year contracts that would have paid them very well and very fairly, which could have been frontloaded to their benefit, while playing in a market where there's plenty of opportunities for endorsement $$ on the side. Fair deals would have ended up with us getting them on 7-8 year deals for combined overall caphits ~2-3M or so lower than what we paid.

Instead, they wanted max $$ immediately on contracts taking them right to free agency so that they could seek max money again as soon as possible. They didn't care that there was no precedent on the market to justify them getting paid that much on deals of that length, and also didn't care how it would negatively impact the ability to build a contender. They just wanted their big payday.

These guys wanted to treat contract negotiations with the Leafs as purely a business deal, so I think it's time to show them the other side of the business deal. They have no trade protections for a few years - Marner should be shipped out, and hopefully to some backwater market like Buffalo, Arizona, etc where the team isn't expected to be good anytime soon, so he can reflect on how he had the wrong priorities when pushing for the massive contract with his contending hometown team.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

One thing I'm wondering is who do they bring in, in net? because both Andersen and Rittich are free agents so they have to bring in somebody and also do they trust Jack Campbell in net as the #1 guy? Not only did he only play 22 games this year but he had a 3-1 serieslead and lost it, and that's not all his fault but if he wins 1 more game we don't have these questions but he didn't and now the door is left open