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If McDavid wants to come ..he’ll come. Moldover is the agent for both McDavid and Matthews so the discussions would be easy.
That said …I doubt he’s looking to leave unless he brings the Oilers a cup this year?
Some context for the upcoming free agent spend-off …
Nylanders 11.5M on a $88M cap translates to …
12.5M on a 95.5M cap
13.6M on a 104M cap
14.8M on a 113M capNext summer, if McDavid signs an extension, it’s going to be north of $17M. His current % would translate to $18.8M.
As much as I struggle with it on either end of the logical scale in that, largely for their versatility, I would rather have Marner than Nylander – and they are compared here because of the salary issues – but the fact is that Marner checked out before that series was over and game 7’s response from the hometown put a lid on it. Adjustments are so hard to make mid-series with players, but you can’t help but wonder if Domi swapping with Marner would’ve helped in any capacity. I think no matter who was up there Matthews not finishing on his chances severely limited the top line.
Let’s face it the 2LW was an achillies heel for this team. Holmberg was -6 at 5v5 in that series. That’s double the next closest (Tavares, Laughton, Lorentz and Carlo were all -3) and it’s been one because they don’t have the money to put it there. They need a 2C and then to move JT to the wing. They also will need a top-6 RW; I do think that because he’s a shooter, they could keep Nylander and Matthews apart and find a different RW.
Rielly may suck defensively, but he was only -1 and was on for more goals for than any other player on the team. I want him gone more than I want to keep him, but he’s not absent when the playoffs arrive. He’s just not physical. He’s never changing, but god I wish he could just put his body in front of the other team’s players rather than only his stick. MonkeyPunk
I completely agree with 16>88 but if Marner is leaving it has absolutely nothing to do with $$. Assuming the Leafs have/will have 105-110M on the table some other team is going to have to put 14+ on the table for him if it was about $$. If he’s leaving it’s about lifestyle. And I agree about Domi. My one complaint with Berube was his unwillingness to juggle lines to create better matchups. Maurice talked about how he juggled Verhaeghe on and off of Barkov’s line depending on Barkov’s matchup. Basically if Barkov was going to be used primarily to erase Matthews then he moved Verhaeghe to the Bennett line to make their lines 2 and 3 the offensive lines. We should have been doing that with MM or Knies to help create more offense from line 3. Switch Holmberg and Knies to create a Knies-Domi-McMann line ….at least try it. Or Knies with JT/88. Berube, overall, I love his plan but he lost the matchup battle to Maurice and most coaches will bc that team is so deep but still …for me, he had to try a little harder.
On Rielly …I’d move him if at all possible b/c he’s not going to age well. He’s weak on rushes and like you say very soft on zone coverage/battles. Great vision and passing but that weak shot makes him predictable. Honestly I think his turns have really suffered ..looks so stiff …maybe a chronic hip injury or something ..either way if you can move him you do. But, I don’t believe he’ll sign off on any move.
A huge part of the Panther success right now is that their blue line jumps into the rush better than anyone. Jones killed us ..Ekblad is always jumping in …last night I’m watching Mikkola jump by wingers and drive the net. Maurice is a beauty.
@Uggie …if MM signs for that then I agree, do it. No way Jarnkrok and Kampf get you Jenner though …that’s a dream. Krok gets his bonus July 1 and then you can move him for a 5th rounder …maybe. Kampf gets his bonus on July 1 then maybe you snag a career AHL’er for him b/c there’s dozens of Kampf’s available this summer for $1M and he costs twice that.
If Rielly will move on …perfect. I don’t need much back at all just to move that contract. Lots of better and/or cheaper options available.
Tanev needs to be a Leaf.
@Uggie ….it’d be nice to keep both 88 and 16 but the math ain’t mathing in their favour. IF they give Knies and Marner their raises they’d only have about $8M to sign a pair of second liners to play with 88 ….and that’s after cutting Reaves, Kampf and Jarnkrok’s $$ (fingers crossed) ….and that assumes they spend no money on the bottom 6.
They need a couple of Alpha’s in the mix to help all these elites get over the hump.
Love you buddy …but, no way you would do that. Even if you developed a strong opiod addiction and let yourself do bad things your super-smart, sandwich-making wife would stop you.
Ya, lots of reason to be pessimistic but I will say Domi did better than I expected in his minutes, McMann got his first real look and I think he deserves a second kick at the can, and Laughton got buried by Berube in the d-zone. Laughton was a mess those first few weeks on the 3rd line but settled down after that. He’s got enough of a resume (10-15G per year) that I’d try him as 3C with some speed on the wings. Worth a look for me …and frankly they’re not going anywhere so you’ve got to find a way to fit them in and make them work.
Thank god for summer…
Here’s my to do list for BT. The Cap is 95.5M …Leafs have 7D and 2G locked up for 32M leaving 63M for the forwards.
1. Create cap space. Kampf and Jarnkrok have July 1 bonus ..after that they become pretty cheap and hopefully moveable. That 4.5M can be (has been) replaced by Holmberg, Laughton, etc…creating extra cap space.
2. Lock up Knies. 5/6 years around $7M seems about right.
3. Lock up the 4th line with size/heavy forecheckers and give them an identity. Lorentz can come back. Find another big/tough winger on the cheap and put Holmberg in the middle. None of them make more than $1M though. McMann-Laughton-Domi get the 3rd line role.
4. Rielly – I’d talk to him about a change/move. If he’s open, shop him, but frankly I don’t expect them to find a match that makes sense.
Okay, the toughest part …
5. Sort out the top 6. They’ve got Knies/Matthews/Nylander signed and about 21.5M to work with for the other 3 slots. Marner/Nylander – If you signed/kept both you’d be left with about $8M to sign the other two top 6 fwds. I think one has to go to create enough room to balance out the middle six. Does MM want to stay …does Willie have any interest in moving away from the noise? Figure it out and do what makes sense. Tavares – for me, he can’t play 18+ minutes at centre in the playoffs. 1 ES point in 7 games …looked slow and couldn’t match up to Lundell or Barkov. He moves to the wing and takes a big pay cut or he moves on. I think he might stay. If he’s in at $5.5M and MM moved on then they’d have about 16M to sign two fwds to play with JT.
The UFA list is pretty shite so the idea of signing MM and JT and trading WN could make a lot of sense. Very unlikely he’d be willing to move but at this point, to make change, you’ve got to ask the question.
Letting MM walk for nothing isn’t a great outcome but in a cap space world you’ve got to pick your spots to spend. BT should be sniffing around the UFA 26′ class to see if anyone’s whispering about not re-signing.
If McDavid wins a cup this year is he more or less likely to re-sign? BT wouldn’t be doing his job if he wasn’t
