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Tampa Bay and Carolina do much better at the draft table than the Leafs. Winnipeg, not so much. But it usually shows up on the ice which is why Tampa Bay has won Cups and Carolina goes deep often.
~UGWith all due respect to the Carolina Hurricanes, and bearing mind that the Leafs failures are evident – but also tell the tale of their path – the Eastern team in the Stanley Cup final has been from the Atlantic Division every year since 2019. The Atlantic is a gauntlet – Boston, then Tampa and now Florida have all been powerhouses. Would Jim Nill have managed the Leafs into surpassing any of them? I don’t know. A lot of the Stars players did not have an answer for both the Oilers speed and their physicality. Wyatt Johnson had an exceptionally awful playoff. Did you know that the -16 he and Duchene both had is the worst playoff +/- since they started tracking it (Paul Reinhart had a -16 to tie this auspicious mark in 1982-83).
I just can’t picture Bennett or Marchand signing with the Leafs. Especially Bennett, why would he leave Florida?!? Their window is WIDE open, and they’re set up to be a problem for at least next year as well.
~WHIPPERFlorida cap space.
Bennett resigns the same contract as Verhaeghe, 7M cap hit for 8 yrs.
Ekblad going want 8.5M cap hit on an 8 year contract.
they got just over 18M in cap space. and those two contracts gobble it up pretty darn quick.
someone on the current Panther roster is not going to be back with the team.if you’re having trouble staying signed in with safari use Ghostery👍
ek must have an ace in the hole with big interwebs🤔
whomsoever hasn’t been banished from our rightful hb home spread the word 👊🏿
Florida always revamps their team, every year. Leafs ended up with Stolarz, OEL and Lorentz from Florida, last year. It’s cap management and they’re good at it. Either Bennett or Marchand won’t be back next year. Probably will let go Ekblad too. Boston went off their cliff this year, and expect Tampa to do the same, next year. Florida may also take a step back to retool. Leafs need to keep moving up the ladder and try to get first in the division again this year. Rielly, Marner, Robertson, Kampf, McMann and Holberg out should get the salary cap fixed and free agents taking their place in the lineup. Reaves on the cruise ship to Robidas Island, to enjoy the sunset of his hockey career.
With all due respect to the Carolina Hurricanes, and bearing mind that the Leafs failures are evident – but also tell the tale of their path – the Eastern team in the Stanley Cup final has been from the Atlantic Division every year since 2019. The Atlantic is a gauntlet – Boston, then Tampa and now Florida have all been powerhouses. Would Jim Nill have managed the Leafs into surpassing any of them? I don’t know. A lot of the Stars players did not have an answer for both the Oilers speed and their physicality. Wyatt Johnson had an exceptionally awful playoff. Did you know that the -16 he and Duchene both had is the worst playoff +/- since they started tracking it (Paul Reinhart had a -16 to tie this auspicious mark in 1982-83). -Monkeypunk
I definitely could see Nill being able to do a better job in our division than what they’ve done the previous 10 years under various puppets of Shanahan. Even if it was a 5% improvement, that could have been the difference between winning and losing all those Game 7s.
I agree, Johnston was horrid defensively but I’d rather have him as a trading chip than N. Robertson or Jarnkrok, especially if it were able to facilitate being able to bring in high quality reinforcements like Rantanen.
I agree, Johnston was horrid defensively but I’d rather have him as a trading chip than N. Robertson or Jarnkrok, especially if it were able to facilitate being able to bring in high quality reinforcements like Rantanen.
~UGSure – but Johnston was drafted 23rd – noting that the Leafs since 2021 held the 25th, 25th, 25th, 23rd (traded down) and will have the 25th spot again this year. As we’ve noted, they haven’t done a good job of getting value for their 1st round picks that they’ve traded, but they have seemingly found some value in their later picks – Danford, Cowan, Minten, Hildeby, Grebenkin, Knies – maybe even Akhtyamov all have NHL potential – that’s largely since 2021. Setting aside the tragedy with Amirov, the 2020 draft was disappointing – to have made 12 picks and have none of them turn out (save maybe Akhtyamov) is terrible.
This all being said – the guy we hired to be our new Director of Amateur Scouting, Mark Leach, comes from Dallas.
the failure of this latest (10 years +\minus) iteration of our beloved laffs begs the question; should treedying tell all of these losers (corpse 4) that they’re no longer wanted and go print money somewhere else and when these entitled little cream puffs invoke their ntcs berubae scratches them every night because they’re proven pussies and dresses a team that wants to win hockey games and doesn’t sit out with hang nails and lace bite and will bang bodies every night and take the drugs to keep them going and at least compete every night?🤔
if this is not a possibility then i fear that we will never see the cup come back to Toronto in our lifetimes🤦🏿♂️
Sure – but Johnston was drafted 23rd – noting that the Leafs since 2021 held the 25th, 25th, 25th, 23rd (traded down) and will have the 25th spot again this year. As we’ve noted, they haven’t done a good job of getting value for their 1st round picks that they’ve traded, but they have seemingly found some value in their later picks – Danford, Cowan, Minten, Hildeby, Grebenkin, Knies – maybe even Akhtyamov all have NHL potential – that’s largely since 2021. Setting aside the tragedy with Amirov, the 2020 draft was disappointing – to have made 12 picks and have none of them turn out (save maybe Akhtyamov) is terrible.
This all being said – the guy we hired to be our new Director of Amateur Scouting, Mark Leach, comes from Dallas. -monkeypunk
Sorry but I don’t see enough value in the Leafs picks considering how little impact they’ve had on the ice for the Leafs. And I’m looking at the picks made as far back as 2016. Most of them have been traded for rentals, sure, but nothing that has actually created legit depth or helped win playoff games and series.
Maybe I’m missing something but in total I see Knies and Woll for the Leafs…and J. Robertson, Hintz, Harley, Oettinger and Johnston for the Stars as non-lottery legit contributing players. Mason Marchment is a direct example of a steal as well.
From 2016 until 2025, the Leafs should have at least 2 or 3 more guys who are direct impact players today. That’s basically landing one legit impact guy every two drafts. I don’t think that’s asking too much. And yet, the Leafs have seemingly never been able to do it. The Leafs seem to get one every five drafts.
I’m glad they have at least one person from Dallas working on the team but we won’t be sure he’s the guy who was really the biggest brain behind the operation until many years down the road. Unfortunately, the people in charge the past 10-12 years clearly didn’t get enough hits to make a difference when we need it the most; right now.
I still maintain that if this Leafs team had it’s top 10 lottery picks as the core and the correct 1st/2nd round pick depth picks behind them, this team would be right in the conversation of Stanley Cup contenders instead of throwing away it’s leading point producer and trying to replace him with old, overpaid, spare parts as a piss poor excuse for patch work depth.
It’s a chicken/egg problem: because this organization is always lacking outside the top 6, they blow all their draft picks on depth players that cost a premium at the deadline. When the draft comes around, they’re desperately trying to recoup some picks so that they have something to draft, but since they’re always short early picks, the chances of landing an impact player are low.
It all stems from the top-down approach this team has had to filling out the roster: ditch Marner, sign JT to a discount, and start balancing out the lineup and maybe we don’t need to cough up picks every deadline for Laughtons and Folignos.
Here is a question
Lets say the Leafs now with Marner are a 105 point team. pretty much last season, a few lessHow many points do the Leafs have in 2025-26 if..
-they dont re-sign marner and dont replace him
-replace him with Bennett
-replace with player of your choice (name them)Here is a question
Lets say the Leafs now with Marner are a 105 point team. pretty much last season, a few lessHow many points do the Leafs have in 2025-26 if..
-they dont re-sign marner and dont replace him
-replace him with Bennett
-replace with player of your choice (name them)I guess it depends on what you’re looking at and how you’re looking at it. Marner both drives play and kills penalties. Bennett doesn’t kill penalties, but he did have a much higher Created xGoals – so he’s in the right places, doing the right things. I feel that if you could mix him in with Tavares and Nylander, you’ve made your second line a very dangerous line. With a healthy Matthews, it would be a resurgence, even with Marner gone – but Domi could offer a shadow of what Marner brought. You could seek out an Ehlers or a Boeser, but I’d much rather be targeting Marchand and other guys to recreate the bottom-6 with more compete and more defensive acumen to help improve the PK as a whole.
The area I’d see improvement is that you can improve the areas you can’t today due to dollar allocation which affects a larger percentage of the overall game (ie, Marner is on the ice for 33% of the game, but the other 67% does suffer as a result of the lack of rounded talent out there).
I guess it depends on what you’re looking at and how you’re looking at it. Marner both drives play and kills penalties. Bennett doesn’t kill penalties, but he did have a much higher Created xGoals – so he’s in the right places, doing the right things. I feel that if you could mix him in with Tavares and Nylander, you’ve made your second line a very dangerous line. With a healthy Matthews, it would be a resurgence, even with Marner gone – but Domi could offer a shadow of what Marner brought. You could seek out an Ehlers or a Boeser, but I’d much rather be targeting Marchand and other guys to recreate the bottom-6 with more compete and more defensive acumen to help improve the PK as a whole.
The area I’d see improvement is that you can improve the areas you can’t today due to dollar allocation which affects a larger percentage of the overall game (ie, Marner is on the ice for 33% of the game, but the other 67% does suffer as a result of the lack of rounded talent out there).
really just looking for a quick not a lot of thought put into it answer.
Here is a question
Lets say the Leafs now with Marner are a 105 point team. pretty much last season, a few lessHow many points do the Leafs have in 2025-26 if..
-they dont re-sign marner and dont replace him
-replace him with Bennett
-replace with player of your choice (name them)Signing Bennet for the money and term he is going to command will be an epic mistake
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