What Would You Do With This Team Over the Offseason?

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Well, that Round 1 exit sucked, to put it mildly.

Here's my wish list:

1. I'm not as down on Keefe as many are, but it's time for a coaching change regardless of his performance.
2. Marner isn't some glaring liability by any stretch, but if we have the opportunity to move him for a fair price, I'd do it at this point.
3. Matthews is fine in the playoffs, he's not the problem.
4. I'm fine with keeping Tavares through until the end of his contract, though I know that's maybe an unpopular opinion. Certainly don't want to resign him unless his price goes waaaaaaaay down, but I don't think a buyout is warranted.
5. Keep Domi, move on from Bertuzzi.
6. Woll is the #1, that's pretty obvious, let Sammy walk.
7. Resign Knies/Dewar/Gregor when their RFA time comes.
8. I don't know if there's a way to get value from Liljgren's contract, a sign and trade or whatever, but would like to see him gone. I had high hopes from him but seems like he's just not figuring it out in Toronto for whatever the reason is.
9. Cya Brodie.

The problem is Woll keeps getting hurt, he missed 3 months in the regular season and couldn't go last night.

I don't know that it is obvious he's the #1 because I don't know that he can stay healthy enough to be the #1.

He certainly shows flashes of it when he plays but health and consistency are a problem.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Cosplay as GM all you want, you know in your heart that they’re running it back again.

 

[namttebih]

Sign Pesce to play with Rielly.

 

[RAM]

Fire Keefe and probably his assistants
Fire Brendan Shanahan
Tavares isn't going anywhere drop him down to 3rd line center or even 4thline no c on his jersey
Sign lyubushkin and Edmonson
bring back Domi and Bertuzz
You need to move on from Marner try and get a true number one d push Rielly down to second pair

 

[Gallagbi]

It really depends on the Marner situation. Because that creates/destroys a ton of flexibility.

Resign Domi, I'd be interested to see him with Cowen and McMann or Robertson. Rework the 4th line - Holmberg likely needs to slot here and you want someone like Jarn with him.

On D, Montour would be my target but that's not happening without moving Marner. You have Mo, McCabe and Benoit back. I wouldn't keep more than 1 of Ed or Boosh (Ed would be my pick).

We'll need a 1B who can carry a starters load for the inevitable Will injury. Talbot's getting old, Ned kinda stinks, but those are the best options in UFA.

Overhaul the coaching staff, I'd back-up a Brink's truck to BrindArmours place and just see what he says, but I doubt he leaves Carolina.

 

[Clyde Brewer]

I'd prefer to not see any more of:

Shanahan
Keefe
Marner
Rielly

 

[TheBeastCoast]

I am okay with not trading Marner and seeing him play under a new ideally better coaching staff....but we absolutely should not be signing him back up this off season. Make him sweat it out a little bit and he can decide how much being a Maple Leaf is important to him or not.

 

[TopCheese]

Its going to be a bit of a punt year in 2025 waiting out the JT contract and some player growth. I expect our real peak to be around 2026-2027 when Knies, MCmann, Robertson, Cowan are in their primes and we have tons of cap space. Next years lineup:

Knies - Matthews (C) - P Kane
Nylander (A)- Lindholm - Domi
Robertson - Tavares - Mcmann
Dewar - Kampf - JArnkrok
Reaves

Rielly (A) - Pesce
Montour - Mccabe
Zadorov - Benoit
Edmundson

Woll
Kahkonen

 

[Racer88]

Cosplay as GM all you want, you know in your heart that they’re running it back again.

Tears of sadness but a think you might be right

 

[MarMarSab3]

Keefe gone
Marner gone
Reilly gone
Liljegren gone
Kampf gone
Jarnkrok gone

Let walk:
Bertuzzi
Lybushkin
Edmundson
Samsonov
Brodie
Giordano

 

[Stephen]

If it were up to me, I'd sell this team to Phoenix, Arizona and go through the expansion process to get a brand new franchise for Toronto.

 

[Racer88]

It really depends on the Marner situation. Because that creates/destroys a ton of flexibility.

Resign Domi, I'd be interested to see him with Cowen and McMann or Robertson. Rework the 4th line - Holmberg likely needs to slot here and you want someone like Jarn with him.

On D, Montour would be my target but that's not happening without moving Marner. You have Mo, McCabe and Benoit back. I wouldn't keep more than 1 of Ed or Boosh (Ed would be my pick).

We'll need a 1B who can carry a starters load for the inevitable Will injury. Talbot's getting old, Ned kinda stinks, but those are the best options in UFA.

Overhaul the coaching staff, I'd back-up a Brink's truck to BrindArmours place and just see what he says, but I doubt he leaves Carolina.

I like most of that but as far a the coaching choice I think it only works if he has either a new president above him that will let him deal with the players as he sees fit or Shanny becomes that person

 

[Stephen]

It really depends on the Marner situation. Because that creates/destroys a ton of flexibility.

Resign Domi, I'd be interested to see him with Cowen and McMann or Robertson. Rework the 4th line - Holmberg likely needs to slot here and you want someone like Jarn with him.

On D, Montour would be my target but that's not happening without moving Marner. You have Mo, McCabe and Benoit back. I wouldn't keep more than 1 of Ed or Boosh (Ed would be my pick).

We'll need a 1B who can carry a starters load for the inevitable Will injury. Talbot's getting old, Ned kinda stinks, but those are the best options in UFA.

Overhaul the coaching staff, I'd back-up a Brink's truck to BrindArmours place and just see what he says, but I doubt he leaves Carolina.

If we got rid of Marner, I would be interested in lobbing a poisoned offer sheet at Jeremy Swayman. Nuke Boston's cap and force their hand to move off their goaltending strength before they can go and get Elias Lindholm and live to fight another 5 seasons.

 

[Racer88]

I would make a hard and fast rule
No More Apologies to the players in public just because you hurt their feelings

If we got rid of Marner, I would be interested in lobbing a poisoned offer sheet at Jeremy Swayman. Nuke Boston's cap and force their hand to move off their goaltending strength before they can go and get Elias Lindholm and live to fight another 5 seasons.

Me likey you vicious bast#rd. Lol

 

[Suntouchable13]

Priority is a coach and a goalie. Then figure out the rest.

 

[Stephen]

Me likey you vicious bast#rd. Lol

I'm as ready to fight dirty as their Poison Dwarf on the ice. Hate Boston.

 

[613Leafer]

Fire Shanny.

Fire Keefe and replace with a coach more willing to hold star players accountable, and willing to mix things up on the PP instead of doing neutral zone drop passes for 5 straight years in the playoffs despite overwhelmingly awful PP stats.

Move Marner, and even retain salary in order to maximize the return. Tell him if he insists on staying, he's losing the letter, he's coming off PP1, he's getting benched and pushed down the lineup if he screws up, and that we can't afford to re-sign him in a year (so he may as well leave now and avoid a year as the whipping boy).

There's more obviously that needs to happen than the above, but those are the three big items I'd like to see.

 

[Racer88]

I'm as ready to fight dirty as their Poison Dwarf on the ice. Hate Boston.

I’m lined up right with you

 

[Gallagbi]

If we got rid of Marner, I would be interested in lobbing a poisoned offer sheet at Jeremy Swayman. Nuke Boston's cap and force their hand to move off their goaltending strength before they can go and get Elias Lindholm and live to fight another 5 seasons.

What do you do with Woll? You don't sign Swayman to split

 

[TakeTheBody]

okay. you know. this should have been pretty like "duh" because Shanahan was hired in 2013.... but it's been ten years of him. where did time go for real. and i think that is a bigger inditement on Shanahan. because - when you really look at it - we're the Playoff Buffalo Sabres. you make all these moves, and commit all this money because you think you're going to get to the eastern conference finals at least - and you make it to the 2nd round once in 6 years (which like big whoop you got swept so it doesn't even count).



i am going to say this again. it isn't so much what do we do. because the easy answers are easy to be all "burn it all, fire them all, etc etc."

If you fire Shanahan: who are you replacing him with. Who out there can be president of this team. and then

If you fire Shanahan and New President comes in. did Treliving do that bad of a job to be fired? Or Pridham? Because New President should clean out shop. (i'm certain that the new CBA will be drafted soon and whatever advantages Pridham had is gone because he wouldn't have drafted the new CBA right? i dunno).

if you fire keefe (and i think he should be he's constantly outcoached). who do you hire?

Does Marner have a full NMC? (why the hell does he have a full NMC?)
we need goaltending.
the defense pretty much did okay the last few games
I think we need better secondary scoring.
I know people hate on Tavares. (I have no comment i don't watch in the regular season i don't get the glitches. and i know there are gonna be people who are oh bah-humbug we shouldn't have signed him but i would say that i personally don't think that "hurt" us as much as people say it did. regardless of everything especially because Stamkos snubbed us the year before. the fact that a high end UFA chose Toronto [as we were], was important at the time. for decades we constantly whinged that no one ever chose us, and then we whinge that it's not the right one or not the right time. it's never really a perfect time but i think the way we handle Tavares is the way other UFAs in the future chooses us. but that's just my 2cents. what do I know).

but ultimately they just want to want it. i don't really see that desperation when they are about to be eliminated. I don't see themselves all but about to commit murder to try to get another goal. i still don't see them respecting the other team enough to take them seriously (8x10) they still have this mentality of "we can score buckets so we'll give them a head start" kind of thing.

9x10 the Leafs beat themselves. and they do nothing to correct this. i don't know how you change/fix that no matter who you hire/fire/trade.

I think you live in fear if you think Shanny is the only person qualified on this earth to run the Leafs. We agree Keefe should go, there are plenty of others who can do the job at least as well. We agree again I don't think Brad did that bad a job. The Leafs were in transition from the Boy Wonder Dubas to Brad. THe Dubas/Shanny plan was to give half the cap to four players. If you think it's hard to replace that genius mentality we disagree. Being afraid of change means things will never change with the Leafs. Hopefully after next season, the last season of JT money can be re-structured and spent better. That's when i think the Leafs will really come forward. If Brad is the GM and leads the show, as of now I'm okay with that.

 

[socko]

Cosplay as GM all you want, you know in your heart that they’re running it back again.

Shanahan has our real GM by the balls anyway. He doesn't have real power. And Shanny just loves running it back. So unless he's fired, that's where we're headed.

 

[Stephen]

What do you do with Woll? You don't sign Swayman to split

If we successfully stole Swayman away from Boston, which I don't think we would... the job would be his. Woll's cheap enough next year that it won't be a cap issue.

Woll is great in spurts, but I don't think I can trust a goalie who is lights out Vezina one night and unavailable for months after, who engineers a 3-1 comeback virtually shutting out the opposition, then can't make the biggest game of his life.

 

[JKG33]

3. Matthews is fine in the playoffs, he's not the problem.

48 points in 55 career playoff games from a $13m player is fine? Even if you take out his first few years he's barely a point per game. He should be well over to be worth anything close to his over inflated cap hit

 

[CapspaceKiller]

Fire Keefe, all-time terrible Playoffs coach. His entire staff probably goes too. Berube, Brind'amour and Cooper are the coaches to go after.

Trade Marner, he's overpaid...STILL. Never earned his contract. The first narrative we hear from his "camp" is he wants a raise. He's the most catered to player on the team. There's a connection to him only because he's from Toronto.

Trade Lilly, Dubas boy...never developed to anything worthwhile.

Trade Reilly, broken down and clearly declining. Probably overpaid at 7.5m/per. He's the picture of Leafs failure. Some teams might be sold on him as a supporting defenceman.

Let Sammy walk. If you want to win, you can't have a goalie so f***ed up.

Re-sign Bert and Domi to manageable contracts. This means Bertuzzi makes less AAV than 5.5m, he's not worth that much.

Boosh re-signs, he played great in the playoffs.

Focus on depth, size, toughness and speed on the backend.

 

[Qwijibo]

If we got rid of Marner, I would be interested in lobbing a poisoned offer sheet at Jeremy Swayman. Nuke Boston's cap and force their hand to move off their goaltending strength before they can go and get Elias Lindholm and live to fight another 5 seasons.

With what draft picks? It's literally not possible unless Toronto trades and gets their own 2025 draft picks back