Where do the Leafs go if they blow it yet again?

[Mr Nogatco]

Tear it down and rebuild around the new core 4: Robertson Minten Cowan & Dildoeby

 

[MikeyMike01]

The corporation that owns the Leafs doesn’t care about championships. They care about TV ratings, jersey sales, and concession revenue. No changes needed as far as they’re concerned!

 

[x Tame Impala]

Lol. And he'd be right.

I'm not saying they're going to come back and win the series, just that if they did, the narrative would spin so fast it would give threads like this whiplash.

They'd need to both have Rantanen-level Games 6 & 7's for a narrative change to happen. We're going on 8 years of being total ghosts. The best players elevate their games when the games matter most. This pair has no ability or no interest in doing it. If I were a Leaf fan i'd never want to watch them play another game for my team.

 

[Sens9292]

Be bold, trade Matthews. Ain't winning with him anyways.

I think that’s the play at this point. Throughout his career he’s proven he is not a winner
I get why they keep the core, guaranteed playoffs and regular season success

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Run it back for the 10th year. You can win with four $10M dollar forwards.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Treliving would need to get creative. They just traded a lot of futures and don’t have much in the bank.

I’m not sure what they do about that aging defence though other than maybe sign Ekblad? Their best dman is a 35 year old Tanev, and Mccabe and Rielly aren’t in their 20’s anymore either. What kind of trades seem realistic?

I’ve been wrong about competitive windows before but this year really feels like it’s now or never for them. Too many key players are aging and the division has several young teams on the rise.

 

[PuckG]

Let Nylander leave - he deserves more.

 

[JFedol]

Hopefully Harold Ballard level hockey

 

[Sendhelp2Anaheim]

If it makes the leaf fans happy solberg had a hat trick today…. He loves big games

 

[JFedol]

The writing was on the wall with a 1-dimensional goal-scoring centre being your main focus. The same with a playmaking winger but Marner's a better offensive player than Matthews IMO.

Positions should've been switched a long time ago.

 

[Satoru Gojo]

I think you seriously have to consider moving Matthews or at least exploring what he may bring back

Marner I assume will test the market

 

[Maplebeasts]

The corporation that owns the Leafs doesn’t care about championships. They care about TV ratings, jersey sales, and concession revenue. No changes needed as far as they’re concerned!

Of course they do, it is in their best interests financially to win so they get more seats in butts during the conference and cup finals, let alone the merch sales from bandwagon fans that cheer for the winning team. That being said, they will never not be one of the league's biggest teams in terms of revenue and therefore are not as desperate to win.

 

[Offtheboard412]

At this point they need to look really hard at Matthews and ask themselves if this is the guy to lead them to a cup. This isn't like Ovechkin where you had at least seen him take over series before and dominate. Matthews has never shown even that, and he's already 28, it's not like he's going to get better here. He's had a couple nice series were he put up good numbers before, but not once has he ever looked truly dominant in the playoffs. I know he's dealt with injuries this year, but that doesn't excuse every other year of his career.

 

[CowbellConray]

Marner will walk, and they should trade Reilly. Matthew’s is too big of a player to not stay, but they need to break down their other big guys and try to recoup some assets

 

[unbridledid]

Even Alan Watts would say to tear it down. He'd say "The Leafs trying to win a Championship is like trying to smooth out ripples in water with a hot iron"

Love Watts !

 

[The Winter Soldier]

Watching Verhaghe, Hyman, Marchment, Brown, Andersen these playoffs, Kadri when they Colorado won the cup, one can say they blew it up already.

 

[sxvnert]

Treliving would need to get creative. They just traded a lot of futures and don’t have much in the bank.

I’m not sure what they do about that aging defence though other than maybe sign Ekblad? Their best dman is a 35 year old Tanev, and Mccabe and Rielly aren’t in their 20’s anymore either. What kind of trades seem realistic?

I’ve been wrong about competitive windows before but this year really feels like it’s now or never for them. Too many key players are aging and the division has several young teams on the rise.

Its doable if he actually wants to do it. It couldn't be easier to convince the core four to bail/waive then it will be this summer.

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

Run it baaaaaaack

 

[AvroArrow]

They'll scapegoat Marner and keep blaming Dubas as if those are their only issues.

Scapegoat Marner, so you think he's been doing well ?

The worst part is, knowing we could've had Rantanen if Dubas wasn't a complete moron and gave Marner a NMC as a RFA

 

[RogerRoger]

The corporation that owns the Leafs doesn’t care about championships. They care about TV ratings, jersey sales, and concession revenue. No changes needed as far as they’re concerned!

Winning the Cup would bring in a metric ton of cash. When the Raptors won everyone had flags, jerseys, and hats. Now I only see hats at Winners, ironically.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

IF? IF? LOL. The writing has been on the wall for several years now: this core will never go deep. Keep Nylander, trade Matthews, and let Marner walk. Time for a major re-tool.

Change is needed.

Trading Matthews would be the worst move in franchise history

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Should have never traded Kadri. Signing Tavares for that term set their franchise back at least 5 years. Tavares is a career loser.

 

[trellaine201]

I think you seriously have to consider moving Matthews or at least exploring what he may bring back

Marner I assume will test the market

That is reasonable. It would be dumb not to explore this option. After he has surgery which I believe will happen over the summer.

 

[Sheppy]

Nah, keep it together, it’s hilarious.

 

[kevsh]

Be bold, trade Matthews. Ain't winning with him anyways.

Everyone on the team has some form of NMC.
Even David Kampf. Seriously.

Matthews' is 100%. So he's only going somewhere if he wants to, and there's no chance MLSE wants to move him. Or any of them.

The best thing for this franchise is to just wait out his contract, go full rebuild mode and hope they win a draft lottery when the next Crosby hits 17.