[Unholy_Goalie]

Signing Bennet for the money and term he is going to command will be an epic mistake

Agreed. I’m a huge Bennett fan. Wish they got him from Calgary and advocated for that years and years ago. Unfortunately, the next contract Bennett signs is probably his Clarkson contract. Wrong side of 30 for the majority of it. And the Leafs would have to significantly overpay him to get him to leave a Cup winning, warm weather, low tax, no pressure situation he is in now.

It should not shock anybody if and when Bennett, Marchand and Ekblad all take discounts to stay exactly where they are and the Panthers run it back, win or lose vs the Oilers.

[Unholy_Goalie]

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. -gravey

I disagree. If the Leafs never signed Tavares and kept on the path of keeping their own guys at lower contracts and drafting, they wouldn’t have been in this mess.

They saw a prized UFA that finally wanted to come to Toronto but they made him the 2nd highest paid player in the league when they had 3 of their own stars they had to sign AFTER he got that deal.

After that happened, the Leafs put themselves in a cycle of panic buying every deadline because the market is impatient and they death spiraled after that.

Keeping Tavares, even at a discount (look at how trash Duchene was in the playoffs for Dallas even at 3 million) is among the worst things they could do. For the same money, they’re better off with Rielly Smith (if he wants to come “home”) and trading Rielly.

[Unholy_Goalie]

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.

[Unholy_Goalie]

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.

[Unholy_Goalie]

Any homegrown talent we’ve run out of town, so I don’t know what to tell you.

But putting all your eggs in one basket and that basket falling off the counter and shattering in a pile of goop and shell fragments — which can describe our Core 4 playoff performance for like 8 years — is never going to work.

Bye-bye Marndawg, hello weaponized cap space. Bennett, Marchand, let’s go. -gravy

Running the wrong guys out of town is exactly what Leafs fans are well known for. Marner will call Kadri after he wins a Cup on his new team and they’ll laugh about it together.

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. -whip

There’s only one thing the Leafs can offer Bennett and Marchand; overpayment. The Leafs did it with Tavares, they may do it again, but it won’t work. That’s pretty much for sure because Bennett and Marchand would be world class morons to leave Florida to Toronto.

Florida will be good until Bob falls apart, which at 37, could start next year. Or soon after.

[Unholy_Goalie]

Noting that Jim Nill has been the GM of Dallas for 12 years and they have not only won nothing, they have missed the playoffs in 4 of those years. I like Dallas – I think they are an excellent hockey team.

They also haven’t ever drafted 1st overall. Highest pick (and only in the top 10 in the past 12 years) was Miro Heiskanen.

They have gone further than the Leafs, more often than the Leafs. Missing the playoffs and 1st round exists aren’t all that different.

I see that as a work in progress that has Cup winning potential for at least the next 5 years. But, McDavid…

So, I can only imagine how badly destroyed the Leafs would be if McDavid was in the way every single year.

I also like the teams and style of Tampa, Carolina and Winnipeg – and just like the Leafs, none are playing.

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.

Typically Nill has held onto his picks and he’s drafted well – although his second round picks have worked out better than a lot of his first round picks; you have Robertson, Hintz and I guess Stankoven (I’m not a huge fan of his, but he was used in the Rantanen acquisition, so hard to argue he had value) – but then you had higher picks like Honka, Gurianov, Tufte, Dellandrea and so on that really – for where they were picked – should have hit.

Maybe if he’d landed on those Dallas would’ve won a cup by now, instead of being curb stomped by Edmonton in 5.

I really don’t see any names on the draft years of Honka, Gurianov, Tufte and Dellandrea that would be able to overcome McDavid. Except maybe Pasta in Honka’s year. But even the Leafs would be better off with Pasta than Nylander.

If Nill had Matthews, Marner and Nylander as his base and then added his late 1st / 2nd round picks as depth, the Leafs would be much better off than in the world we currently live in where they throw 1st round picks out for 4th line rentals. I don’t see him making the Tavares mistake either. And he did draft Oettinger (in the 1st round) which is miles ahead of what the Leafs had in net before this past season. Leafs took Liljegren in 2017.

There’s also Wyatt Johnston, 23rd overall. Mavrik Bourque, 30th overall. Thomas Harley, 18th overall. All recent contributors while the Leafs have almost nothing to show for 10 years of 1st round picks.

And when Nill finally does trade a guy like Stankoven and 1st round picks, he lands a mega catch like Rantanen.

We could be looking at something like this instead of what we have…

J. Robertson | Matthews | Marner
Johnston | Hintz | Nylander

Harley | Heiskanen

Oettinger

I know who I’d rather have as our GM looking at that alternative…that’s for sure…

[Unholy_Goalie]

i don’t know much about Lewikie but I’ve heard he’s a take no excuses winner so i’m excited to see who he and mlse bring in as president because i know he has full autonomy ????

Tim Leiweke?

He brought in Shanahan.

And hasn’t been in charge since 2015.

[Unholy_Goalie]

yes he is cause you like to pylon poop on him and others Leafs players and is cheaper than Kampf. ???????????????? -dmnted

Every single season there are dozens of 4th liners available. Most of them, cost peanuts. The Leafs refuse to sign these players when they are at their cheapest and dive dick first into overpaying for them at the deadline.

And they do it, every, single, year. To the point where they effectively have traded every single 1st round pick for 10 years. A decade. Gone, in trades.

[Unholy_Goalie]

Boy, are you in for more disappointment than AA. -whip

I don’t get disappointed by the Leafs anymore. I already expect they’re going to fail miserably.

[Unholy_Goalie]

This is exactly what happens when you don’t have a balanced team and are spending a huge chunk of your cap on a 4 players: you have to overpay for complimentary players, in the hopes that you can inject some scoring into the bottom half of your lineup because your expensive guys can’t elevate their game in the playoffs.

Incorrect.

This is exactly what happens when the only impact players the franchise is capable of drafting is lottery picks.

If this Leafs team was constructed by Jim Nill, it would have all the superstar players along with drafted, developed depth players.

[Unholy_Goalie]

Laughton is a pylon. And the Leafs paid for the career high of 18 goals, 43 points price for him.

Rielly can and will be traded if the Leafs management actually put their mind to it.

Rielly not being traded isn’t because he can’t be moved, it’s because the Leafs have decided they believe he’s worth keeping.

[Unholy_Goalie]

I like Cowan. He’s easily their top prospect. And he should be pretty close to untouchable unless some kind of insane offer is presented.

All that being said, he’s small for the NHL and his offense won’t keep him in the NHL at the beginning. He wasn’t exactly like a 120+ point phenom this year or last year. His playoff performances were impressive but he was also playing on absolutely stacked teams.

He should probably spend the whole year getting his lower body as strong as possible and time in the AHL learning how to be a good pro.

Chances are, this idiot team will burn a year of his ELC and play him 20 games like they did with Fraser Minten then trade him at the deadline for a 4th line LW.

[Unholy_Goalie]

The entire hockey world says Marner is walking, for free.

Organizational failure of epic proportions. Management disaster.

Tree is part of that. Yes he only had a few weeks to make a tough decision on the core. But he ultimately walked the team to where they are now. No one has ever had the stones to make a tough decision in this era. Now? Best of luck to Tree and the management. They’re going to need it. I’m not super optimistic Tree can make chicken salad out of this. He got completely schooled at the deadline. Look at what Florida did, and what he did. His record does not give me a ton of be-leaf. -fifty

“The stones to make the tough decision” is currently to keep Marner, let Tavares walk and get Rielly to waive his NMC.

There is no way this team is better next year by losing a 100 point player and keeping the defensive garbage that is Tavares and Rielly. Whatever the Toronto screaming mob is saying, doing the complete opposite is usually the best course of action.

There seems to be a consensus that Morgan Rielly is the DNA that needs to be moved. Treliving needs to look at a West Coast team, cut a deal, then present the trade proposal to Rielly to drop his no movement clause. Vancouver seems logical, since it’s home and he might consider it. Maybe a second rounder coming back and the rights to Brock Boeser. Leafs can offer an 8 year for Boeser if he chooses to sign here. -Prince

Why the fuck would you ever want to sign Boeser to an 8 year deal when he was a 50 point, -25 player last year? A 1 year deal. Okay. Try it out. 8 years for that garbage? The fuck are you thinking? You would literally be trading Rielly’s contract to immediately replace it with another terrible contract. Just a bad, bad idea.

LeBrun reported that Rielly is not waiving his no trade. These guys like LeBrun just don’t say stuff for $hits and giggles. They do have reputations. -fifty

LeBrun is irrelevant. Every player that has been given a NMC and waived it disagrees. If management tells him, they do not want him anymore, he will come up with a short list of teams he prefers. Even if it’s only 2 or 3 teams, it’s still more than 0. Rielly won’t waive for any team, but he will waive for a few specific teams. And they need to get him to waive it as soon as possible. He should be gone before the draft.

[Unholy_Goalie]

Forget Burns, go for Aaron Ekblad. Weaken your divisional opponent and upgrade at RD. Rielly is the fly in the butter dish. He really needs to be gone.

I think pretty much everybody agrees, Rielly has to go. I’d be fine with Tyler Myers and Teddy Blueger from Vancouver for Rielly. I think it makes sense for both sides. Would also accept Oleksiak + either John Hayden or Tye Kartye from Seattle.

Ekblad scored 3 goals and 33 points. Burns had 6 goals and 29 points.

A) Ekblad would be stupid to leave the Panthers. Bennett, Ekblad, Marchand; they’d stay exactly where they are and run it back over and over again until it doesn’t work anymore if they knew what was good for them. Why wouldn’t they? The only reason they wouldn’t is to be grossly overpaid. And that’s what it would take to get any one of them to join the Leafs. And what can the Leafs absolutely not afford to do? Overpay guys enough to make them jump ship…like the mistake we made with Tavares…and it didn’t work when we did it with previous UFAs who were 30+ either.

B) Burns could potentially give the Leafs a depth bargain being able to play as a RHD and as a RW if required. He’s 40, he’s from Barrie and never won a Cup. Maybe he does the old “last stop in Toronto before I retire” tour. In terms of value, I’d take that over signing a guy to a 7 year, 9-10 million dollar deal who has a long history of concussions.

I’d even take Burns for as high as 2-3 million if it meant he plays the PP and if you traded Rielly to Seattle for Oleksiak who is a LHD. So, alternatively, you could have…

OEL / Tanev
Oleksiak / Burns
McCabe / Carlo
Benoit

That’s 3 pairs of LD/RD that could each easily play 20 minutes each. Evenly share the load situationally. Would be a dream come true for Berube defensively.

C) I’m fully aware Burns could easily get one last, bigger money deal somewhere else. But if he’s one of those guys who grew up wanting to play for the Leafs, this is an excellent opportunity to get a “Corey Perry” type bargain with way less risk involved. If you overpay Ekblad for 3 goals and 33 points, imagine how that contract looks in the future. We’d have another Rielly situation all over again.

I don’t see the cap value in overpaying long term to sign Ekblad at soon to be 30-37, even if he did want to leave a proven winner, fantastic weather, lower taxes and zero pressure.

[Unholy_Goalie]

Knies Matthews Domi
McMann Tavares Nylander
Robertson Bennett Marchand
Lorentz Laughton Holmberg
-gravyface

Knies @ 7×3 | Matthews | Marner @ 13.16×8
R. Smith @ 4.25×3 | Jenner @ 3.75×1 | Nylander
Domi | McBain @ 3.5×3 | B. Tanev @ 1.75×2 (or Corey Perry)
Laughton | Blueger @ 1.8×1 | Lorentz @ 1×1
Comtois @ 850 (or Pacioretty if he doesn’t retire)

OEL | Tanev
McCabe | T. Myers
Burns @ 2×1* | Carlo
Benoit

*(if he doesn’t retire, hometown guy because he’s from Barrie. Could be the ultimate utility player as both a 7th D and a 13th forward.)

There’s actually a long list of horrible options. Marner is by far the best of all the options and if your goal is to win a Cup, they must resign Marner.

Let’s go one by one through what would be top-six forwards and give you the reasons why the majority on this list are either garbage, not better or won’t sign with the Leafs.

For starters, Boeser is horrid. -25 player who deserves his -25. He was a 50 point player last year, only made the playoffs twice in his career. This guy is like a less athletic, Value Village Kessel.

Ehlers, not leaving Winnipeg, soft as baby shit, not a playoff performer, not a 100 point, Selke nominee, PKer. Most of his playoff runs ended with 0 goals. This guy is Value Village Nylander.

Tavares. Is. Garbage. 7 years of his prime, he can’t skate, he can’t defend and he didn’t score in 6 out of 7 games against the Panthers. This guy was the definition of bad DNA. Show him the door.

Duchene. Value Village Tavares. Horrid defensively, can’t score 5v5. Basically a PP weapon who can’t play in any other situation. Cheap but ineffective.

Nelson, very good size, good player but probably not leaving Colorado, has no reason to play in Toronto (from Minnesota) unless you massively overpay him. And he’s 33. Not going to be a “prime years” contract. Usually a 50 point player most of his career. 0 playoff goals in 7 games for Colorado this year. ZERO.

Bennett and Marchand are not leaving better weather, better taxes, better team, proven winner and less pressure to deal with the BS that is Toronto. They’d both be complete idiots to sign with the Leafs. Also, didn’t Leafs fans hate them 10 minutes ago? You really want to overpay these guys into their mid to late 30s after they got that much mileage? That’s like buying a Mercedes at a used car lot with 200K KM on it. Looks great, sounds great but get ready to pay the double what it’s worth just for an oil change.

Giroux, not leaving Ottawa, hasn’t been a 100 point player in 7 years. Basically another 50 point guy on the wrong side of 37. Hasn’t been a playoff performer since 2012.

Palmieri, off the market. Also, 34 anyway…

Drouin has 1 playoff goal in his last 20 playoff games and he had the benefit of playing with MacKinnon. If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay in Colorado and continue being a passenger over there.

Suter, is better than Malgin, I’ll give him that but still, 2 playoff goals in 13 career playoff games? Don’t see this guy moving the needle that much

Granlund, good player but 32, why would he leave all his Finnish buddies in Dallas after going so deep this year?

Benn is washed, from BC, no reason to come to the Leafs. Probably just stays in Dallas for 1 year, 1 million dollar deals.

Kuzmenko, one year wonder, completely unreliable.

Donato, from Boston, why would he don’t see why he wouldn’t go back to Chicago / Boston unless you overpaid him. 0 playoff goals in 19 playoff games.

Roslovic, from Ohio, don’t see why he’d leave Carolina or come to Toronto unless you overpaid him. 3 career playoff goals in 45 games. Already have enough Jarnkroks and Kampfs. Don’t need another.

Mangiapane, 5’10”, 14 goals, 28 points. This guy can’t replace Marner except if it’s in a police line-up for the height and weight. If he takes a super cheap contract, he’s worth a shot but probably not a legit top-six threat in the playoffs as his career playoff numbers are unimpressive. 7 playoff goals, 14 points in 37 games.

The only two top-six forwards you listed that make sense are Smith and Kane. And you don’t need to lose Marner to get them.

Smith is a two-way, Cup winner, solid LW who can score some goals in the playoffs. But he’s not a 100 point player. You replace Tavares with Smith, not Marner.

Same goes for Kane at 36-37 years old. 10 years ago, he could replace Marner, but he’s a one-way, injury prone player now. He hasn’t had a good playoff run since 2015. Literally a decade ago since he had a playoff run with more than just 1 or 2 goals. That’s a complimentary player, not a guy who you can expect to replace a 100 point, two-way player 27-35, much less win a Cup with. You sign Kane the same way the Oilers signed Perry; 1 million dollar, 1 year deal to occasionally play on the top line and on the PP. You add Perry to the mix, you don’t replace Draisaitl with him.

[Author]

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