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Man, JT is at the point where he scores and the leafs still lose. Keep him. He literally IS the Bozak if that’s what you want to call it.
I’m seeing that out of him now tbh, can he play? Yes, does he amplify a linemates game? No.
As for Knies whatever, he won’t look as good without top ten picks on his line, get rid of him when they decide to drop Matthews while he is shiny imo.
And yet those goals could still win some games against bad teams. Also, why keep him when he can get you draft picks or prospects? That’s the same mistake we got stuck with when Sundin refused to waive his NTC. Tavares won’t want to play on a lottery team at 38. He’s still going to want to win a Cup and playing on a trash lottery team doesn’t come before trying to win a Cup.
You’re right about Knies probably does play a lot better with elite line mates and get you a better return but if the Leafs blow up the team and rebuild, but you’ll need him when you have new elite franchise players on ELC and he would still be under 30. And the majority of the team will still be on ELC until he’s 32 which means you can afford to overpay him to stay.
Think of how Chicago had veterans on the team before Kane and Toews showed up. It allowed them to win a Cup a lot faster than expected. I’d rather have Knies at 29 than try to find another one and wait 5 years for him to be ready. If he refuses to play on a tanking Canadian team, you trade him but if you can keep him, you keep him.
A couple of things. 1, Knies is only on a 6 year contract, not 7, the leafs are only going to be just starting their rebuild when it comes time to resign him, he won’t want to stay. So trade him when he plays ramped up with the other guys because face it, he’s a late round 2 guy who won’t look as good without them. Also like I said, he’s from Arizona and really doesn’t give a shit about the leafs unless he’s signed by them.
As for JT your point makes mine even stronger. If the leafs are going into rebuild, and JT is what you say he is, then he’s precisely what they want to keep. The old fucking C along with the old fucking D core til they draft up the new guys to take their places. The. End.
The way the leafs are dumping off their picks means that when they intend to rebuild it’s going to be a Chicago style one so don’t keep anyone in the middle. Old, then young.
Knies is 23 signed until 2031. That means if they trade everybody, tank in 28/29/30, they have Knies until he’s 29. At that point, the Leafs have a team full of ELC and a cap that’s probably at over 100 million a year. If it costs the Leafs 12/13 million to keep Knies happy, they could easily afford to do it. If he wants to leave, then they can trade him. But you can’t trade him now because he gives you under 30 value for the future.
Tavares helps the Leafs lose playoff series, not regular season games. If they want to tank, they’d fill the line-up with two bad goalies and Bozaks, not Tavares. And don’t kid yourself into thinking Tavares would stick around on a lottery team. He’d only play for the Leafs if the believes they can win a Cup. A non-playoff team makes Tavares say bye bye to the pajamas as he chases a Cup in his retirement years, not sitting around TO on a team that loses 60 games. And the Leafs could easily get picks for him that would be way more useful to a rebuild than any kind of loser lessons he’d have to teach.
You and I see Knies differently. He’s a southern American UG, his desire to stick around with a rebuilding Canadian team likely doesn’t exist unless he gets HIGHLY overpaid and while he is good, he isn’t that good. I’d bet he’d walk to a competitor at the end of his contract u less he was offered 50-60% more than he was actually worth.
As for JT I will never understand your hatred, not liking him fine but for you it’s outright hatred. That guy took a discount to stay here and will be him and both him and his family are from there, he offers his home to other players, he is a team man. I guess I’ll just get used to you dreaming about him leaving and bitching about how he doesn’t for the next few years because I’m fully convinced he wants to retire as a leaf and plans to. I know his contract is technically M-NTC in the last 2 years but only to 5 teams he picks. 5 teams UG. Tell me exactly which of the potential top 8 teams would want a 37-38 year old C at over $4 mill? This guy is going to take over the C position once Matthews is moved until a kid is ready to take it over is my guess.
I see Knies as under contract and useful because he would be under 30. He either earns his keep or he doesn’t. Cap space wouldn’t be an issue if you had to overpay him to stay because the Leafs would be closer to the cap floor than the cap ceiling if they traded away all the guys I listed above. And yes, if he has no desire to stay, you trade him when that time comes. But he signed a 7 year deal so he’s locked in until the Leafs decide otherwise.
Tavares sucks. He’s a career loser. Just like Marleau, Thornton, Spezza and all the other home town pylons the Leafs brought in to pretend to be “leaders”. They’re losers. Tavares is a perfectly nice human being but he does not win this team games that matter. His discount is 1000% irrelevant if it yields bad on ice results. If a bad player plays for free, he’s still a bad player. Tavares is a one-way player. He scores and then is the cause of more goals against. He’s the wrong guy for this team. Some “contender” would gladly take him at the trade deadline for half his salary (Leafs could easily retain salary because the cap space wouldn’t matter anymore on a tanking team) and he would waive his NMC because he would rather be on a “pretender contender” than be on a last place, lottery team.
Why keep Knies? His contract would be up 3 years later, and he’ll be 28. Do you think he’ll resign to stick around with a few 20-21 year olds on a rebuilding team? Doubt it.
As for JT please oh please stop your dreaming. He’s signed one year longer than Matthews is and his final year makes him 38. Who would take that at $4 mill? Just let him finish his career where he wants to, it’s why he signed here at this price this past summer and didn’t go somewhere else for the $7 he could have gotten easily. My guess is he retires at the end of the contract and then jumps up into some “administration” role for MLSE after that.
Because he would become the new leader of the team. 3 years at that price would work great. And if they had to pay him to stay, so be it, the Leafs will have plenty of cap space as most of the team will be on ELC. Absolutely wouldn’t trade Knies until way, way later.
No, fuck Tavares. He’s part of the problem. But he wouldn’t stay on a lottery team anyway. He’d take the first ticket out of town. At 38, he will want to be a passenger on a contender. Playing in Toronto only really matters to him if he thinks he has a chance to win. If the Leafs were a lottery team, he’d never have come in the first place.
Add Knies, by then he’ll be hitting his mid twenties so sell him off too.
Look at the 4 d men that still will be signed for awhile and what age they’ll be at once Matthews contract is up. At this time in the final year of Matthews’ contract those 4 are Rielly, McCabe at 34, OEL at 36, and Tanev at 37. All of them signed for 2 more years after that except OEL who’s done at the end of that season as well.
No, Knies would stay. Leafs have him for 7 years and he shouldn’t be moved, they’ll need him later. He’s still young enough to become an impact player later on much like Kadri would have been had he not be traded.
After you trade Matthews and Nylander, the rest of the team knows there is no longer any reason to stay on this team and all agree to move on as well. Tavares and Rielly would beg to be traded off a lottery team.
Traded at the draft:
Matthews: Two 1st round picks + top prospect + young roster top-six FWD or top-four D
Nylander: 1st round pick + top prospect OR young roster top-six FWD or top-four DTraded at the trade deadline to a contender who will overpay for a Cup run.
Tanev: 1st round pick or young RHD or top D prospect
McCabe: 1st round pick or young D prospect
OEL: 1st round pick or young D prospect
Tavares: 1st round pick or young top-six forward
Rielly: 1st round pick or young D prospectIf anybody questions if these players can get a 1st round pick, the Leafs traded a 1st + a prospect for Laughton and Carlo so go fuck yourself and learn how the trade deadline makes teams vastly overpay every year.
In theory, a giant sell off could yield the Leafs as many as eight 1st round picks (plus their own) and at least two top prospects or young roster players.
If the Leafs have nine 1st round picks in one draft and even only 3 or 4 of them become useful top-six FWD or top-four D plus their own lottery pick becomes a franchise player, they could literally overhaul their entire team in one year. If they tank for two more years, they could add one more franchise player plus one more top-six FWD or top-four D.
They could use all their 2nd and 3rd round picks on depth pieces and keep drafting goalies in hopes of finding a future goaltender too.
The year Matthews’ contract ends truly makes me curious tbh. I can see that being the year that change begins.
The Leafs are fucked for this year and next year because they have no 1st round pick. But they can fully tank in the 2027/2028 season if they keep their 1st round pick.
This team is not worth trading that 1st round pick.
So they can trade Matthews and Nylander in the offseason of 2027, acquire as many picks and top prospects as possible, tank for 28, 29 and 30. And then maybe, they’ll have a good core after that.
I meant the leash around Berube’s neck is tightening. He’s a big dog without any bite ..and I agree, I don’t think he’s a good coach. If this team is floundering around Xmas the noise about his job will get loud.
I disagree. Berube is here until Treliving gets fired. Also, there are so few good free agent coaches out there.
Leafs are a Stollie injury away from the draft lottery ….without a pick.
Goal 1 – Matthews n McCabe with a clinical “how not to play hockey in the dzone”
Goal 2 – PK
Goal 3 – Lorentz n McCabe with a clinical “how not to play hockey in the ozone”
Goal 4 – Matthews and Domi, having watch the previous goal, with another perfect clinic on “how not to play hockey in the ozone”.Terrible. Berube’s leash is tightening.
Berube is so overrated. He’s mostly been a career.500 coach. The one year he won the Cup, he did so with a stacked blueline and Binnington who played out his mind in net.
Now Tanev is injured, that makes everything worse defensively.
Berube can tighten his leash or use an electric dog collar like a psycho lunatic would use but who is he going to punish? Who does he bench and then who comes into the line-up? This is what they are. This is what they got. And it sucks a tail pipe.
It is too early in the season, but what is real potential of this team?
1st round exit.
Trade Matthews and Nylander to recover as many top prospects and assets as possible. Tank in 2028.
Amazing effort from this team tonight. You can really, really see the change in every single molecule of the DNA of this team the way they came out firing like wild animals in the 3rd period at home. Made perfect use of that PP too.
Huge fight with 16 seconds left. Really effective.
Tavares and Nylander got their points and the Leafs eat another L. This team is going nowhere unless they have a radical change that seems to always be promised but never actually happens.
