Where do the Leafs go?

[BLONG7]

Looks like Shamaplan is heading to the islanders.

This will make leaf fans very happy.

 

[Voight]

Actually, it hurt every team the same.

Leaf fans, for a few years now, have been using the pandemic as an excuse for Kyle Dubas' idiotic decision to sign John Tavares.

Leaf fans want to pretend that signing would have been fine, but the pandemic left them tight to the cap, as if every other team in the league hadn't been planning their roster and their payroll with thoughts of cap increases in the next few years.

This isn't unique to Toronto.

The minute Dubas handed out that contract, it was obvious he had blown up his internal pay structure, and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. His young stars used the salary he gave Tavares as a bench mark and they all got large raises. Bad management messed up the Leafs, not COVID.

Eichel was more of a benchmark than Tavares IMO, there was no way Matthews or Marner were going to sign for less than him.

 

[KingsFan7824]

trade Mathews for a bucket loads of young players picks prospects.

That's not how it works. He's going to be 28 before he plays another game. 3 years left on a contract, with a NMC. When you say bucket load, do you mean quality or quantity? Karlsson got Ottawa a bunch of stuff, but the only stuff noteworthy was a former 19th overall pick(the odds already going down of guys picked around here to be good players)), and great luck that SJ was crap when they had to give up the pick that turned into Stutzle.

 

[waitin425]

It all hinges on Marner and Tavares. If they resign them, it's a rollback of everything they have done.

If they let them walk.....for nothing but cap space.......they will be players in the FA market. Bennett seems like a likely target with his grit and skill. Likely a defenceman as well who can shore up that blue line. Ekblad?

The final option is they go full nuclear and trade Matthews. In this scenario, I'd sign Tavares on the cheap....trade Matthews for a kings ransom and let Marner walk. Probably still would sign Bennett. Hope that they could acquire some serious grit and tenacity.

Matthews to Utah for 4th overall + Barrett Hayton + Simashev + cap dump. Draft Martone.

Knies - Tavares - Nylander
Hayton - Bennett - Martone

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

As much as it pains me to say the Leafs aren't a bad team. Florida is just really good, and their trade deadline acquisitions have been fantastic.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Actually, it hurt every team the same.

Leaf fans, for a few years now, have been using the pandemic as an excuse for Kyle Dubas' idiotic decision to sign John Tavares.

Leaf fans want to pretend that signing would have been fine, but the pandemic left them tight to the cap, as if every other team in the league hadn't been planning their roster and their payroll with thoughts of cap increases in the next few years.

This isn't unique to Toronto.

The minute Dubas handed out that contract, it was obvious he had blown up his internal pay structure, and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. His young stars used the salary he gave Tavares as a bench mark and they all got large raises. Bad management messed up the Leafs, not COVID.

Actually it did not hurt every team the same because not every team signed all their big contracts right before the pandemic. Teams who had their stars contracts expire right after the pandemic were negotiating in a completely different environment, where it was known the cap would be flat for many years.

This isn’t an excuse, it’s just basic critical thinking to acknowledge the timing was as bad as it could be for them.

 

[CTHabsfan]

Nowhere, they stay in Toronto.

 

[AnomX]

Take it easy guys, I'd hate to see the league suspend Kadri over this.

 

[Thrasymachus]

Looks like Shamaplan is heading to the islanders.

like a man casually walking away from a car wreck

Shanny to Collins:
"you didn't see the playoffs this year, I was already gone"

 

[CDN24]

Actually it did not hurt every team the same because not every team signed all their big contracts right before the pandemic. Teams who had their stars contracts expire right after the pandemic were negotiating in a completely different environment, where it was known the cap would be flat for many years.

This isn’t an excuse, it’s just basic critical thinking to acknowledge the timing was as bad as it could be for them.

I agree it hurt teams that had already hurt themselves by overspending. COVID or no COVID the Leafs had already overspent and were going to have trouble filling out the bottom of their roster. Because of the flat cap they did not have as much $$ to play with, however again because of the flat cap there were bargains to be had. Teams were able to get guys on league min contracts that would have commanded $2m + in a growing cap world.

 

[FerrisRox]

I agree it hurt teams that had already hurt themselves by overspending. COVID or no COVID the Leafs had already overspent and were going to have trouble filling out the bottom of their roster. Because of the flat cap they did not have as much $$ to play with, however again because of the flat cap there were bargains to be had. Teams were able to get guys on league min contracts that would have commanded $2m + in a growing cap world.

Exactly.

If anything, the flat cap made it so much easier to build a solid bottom six because those players had been squeezed and were available at solid price points.

Whether COVID happened or not, the Leafs spent way too much of their salary cap overpaying their players in large part becuase their General Manager had idiotically given a second line centre $11 million a season.

You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know that the young Leaf core would point to his contract, say "I outscored him, I should be paid, at the very least, the same as him."

Dubas shot himself in the foot and it was pretty obvious to everyone except seemingly Dubas.

Every team in the league suddenly had a lot less money then they had hoped to play with. The Leafs also didn't have to stay with those four bloated contracts for the length of the contracts. If they feel that they were hurt more than everyone else because of COVID, they are entitled to that opinion, but why they chose to keep the imbalance in their salary allotment and repeatedly bring in new also-rans, has-beens and never-were's as their third and fourth line and goaltenders is entirely on their management team and has nothing to do with COVID or the salary cap.

It's just really bad management.

 

[Ulysses31]

on the verge of imploding, definitely got to keep 2/3 of knies/tavares/marner.

marner gonna b 14x8 to sign so likely he the 1 gone.

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

Dude nobody ran Marner out of Toronto lol where the f*** are you getting that from?? Only thing players noticed last night was Mitch hiding in his shadow again and failing to to step into the bright lights and putting the team on his back and performing in a game 7. Marner for the first time in his career needs to look in the mirror and hold himself accountable instead of looking for excuses. His “wake the f*** up” explosion last night with dry hair was super rich.

Second period, down 3-0 and he doesn’t have a drop of moisture in his hair lol yeah he was really putting it on the line.

He just has generational endurance.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

If Leafs let guys walk and have alot of cap
space, I’ll be curious how many significant players would wanna sign there. Obviously there will be lots of teams wanting lots of UFAs so there will be lots of options for players.

No offense to Leaf fans on here but with the growing knowledge of Leafs media and fans being absolutely ruthless to players, I can see many players choosing not want to deal with that if there are other options.

Yes it would be a cool franchise to play for, but it’s chaos

This will be a very fun offseason with the cap increase

 

[Golden_Jet]

That's not how it works. He's going to be 28 before he plays another game. 3 years left on a contract, with a NMC. When you say bucket load, do you mean quality or quantity? Karlsson got Ottawa a bunch of stuff, but the only stuff noteworthy was a former 19th overall pick(the odds already going down of guys picked around here to be good players)), and great luck that SJ was crap when they had to give up the pick that turned into Stutzle.

Ottawa did well on that deal.