I’ve said this recently, and I believe it – I don’t think you replace Marner. The point here is that this is a team that loses too many 50/50 battles for pucks. They lose on the boards. Those lose in front of their net. They lose in front of the opposition’s net. The DNA here, in my opinion, is that there’s too much soft and not enough compete.
Now if I had my way we’d be moving on from Marner, Robertson, Jarnkrok, Kampf and Patches. If they could get Rielly to waive, I’d do that, too – but replacing him would be difficult, because no matter how lousy he is at defense, you still need some puck movement and skating up the ice.
The guys *I’d* want to target are Bennett, Marchand, Suter, Tanev; I’d see it as Knies-Matthews-Domi; Tavares/Marchand-Bennett-Nylander; Tavares/Marchand-Suter-McMann; Lorentz-Laughton-Tanev. There’s still pop in the top-6, but you add compete and more 50/50 puck battles won and the bottom-6 gains some offensive traction on the 3rd line with defensive awareness and lots of puck battle in that mix. There are a lot of names in the bottom-6 mix which can help a team – Smith is a favourite of mine; I like Roslovic and I appreciate the speed of Mangiapane or Granlund. There are ways to remake parts of this team in ways that compliment the key pieces. Marchand is a guy that I would absolutely target because you need a voice that knows how to win and what it takes to win and can still lead by example. He’d be my #1 target if I were Treliving.
Does that change the “DNA”? I don’t know – but they need less passivity, and they’re just carrying too much of it with both Mitch and Willy.
Marchand on the Leafs…. Are you trying to make me hate the Leafs more?