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Chayka? thats a big Meh for me. his track record is pretty pedestrian. He did take big swings, but very mixed results.
Latest from Friedman: John Chayka and Scott White are the finalists for a “head of hockey operations” role with the Leafs
Chayka makes zero sense as the head of hockey ops. He doesn’t have the hockey mind or the experience. But given how stupidly Pelley is brainwashed into the AI advanced stats shit, odds are, he wins the job. Pelley is also a meddler so if he hires a poindexter to “run” the team, he can control him and the team.
White is also pretty meh. His entire career is running AHL teams. He has two decades of experience but not where it counts. He got stuck at the mid level management spot. I’d much rather grossly overpay for Jim Nill.
They need Chayka to be on the team at a lower level and grossly overpaid so he doesn’t care that he’s not at the top of the food chain with a legit hockey mind above him.
leafs can play musical chairs with management and coaching all they want, but the rot starts at the top with mlse and pelley. after this debacle of a season, the questions need to be directed at the top. run it back, run it back, run it back, run it back, throw away money, hand out no trade clauses like candy, buy high sell low, scapegoating then trading marner for gimps and peanuts. thats not on berube or his assistants or the players. thats on ownership for letting this shit happen while they stack profits on a system optimized to make losing profitable. its a goddamm shitshow at the top. at this rate, i wont live long enough to witness the leafs finally win a cup or even make it to the semis. jesus fucking christ, are we supposed to cheer for ottawa or edmonton? i don’t know. just wanted to yell about it.
I tend to agree with you. Management and coaching can’t fix this current problem. But it can rebuild it from scratch with a giant head start. With Matthews and Nylander the Leafs have two individual players that can be winners somewhere else but not as core players in Toronto. Think of Phil Kessel but with twice the value. Step one has to be to trade these two guys at the 2027 draft. The Leafs can’t afford to tank in 2026 because it just pushes the 1st round pick to the next year. They’re better off building the value back up to recover a minimum of 5 major assets. Where it is five first round picks OR five top prospects or five young roster players. Or any combination.
Fuck Ottawa in it’s entirety. The entire shithole of a city can implode for all I care including the corrupt pieces of shit who run the country. The hockey team can go fuck itself along with it.
I’d much rather see Edmonton win it for McDavid.
Hockeybuzz used to be great. All of their best writers came here. Too much nonsense happened over there. Yes, UG could be more civil, but he does have some valid points. To earn respect, you have to give respect. Hockeybuzz had a lot of malcontents over there and also were to heavy handed with bans. I’ve not gone over there for months.
Absolutely correct, you have to earn respect to get it and I’m perfectly respectful to those that are respectful to me. Pretty simple.
all the hockeybuzz leafs blogs are partially or completely written by AI. there is a site called quillbot where you can paste text or images to see if they are AI-generated or altered. the leafs blogs posted recently are AI. the blogger is using the AI to do the research work (on gm candidates for example) and then putting it together in a blog. if I want to read what some AI wrote, I’d just ask the AI myself and skip the lazy-writer middleman. i mean seriously, a hockey blog is a thousand words, give or take. for all we know “jay on the leafs” is just eklund using AI and a spellchecker.
so uggie told me to come here and here i am. is this where everyone from hockeybuzz is now?
i just went back to buzz and looked at the new leafs blog. it’s all human written. dude made a liar out of me. we’ll see how long he can go without resorting to it again.
is this site always this damn slow? it takes forever for pages to change or comments to load.
Interesting. If you’re here for the blogs, Mike from Barfalo writes one that nobody reads or comments on. But it’s there. A few people came here. It’s not the best site but it’s better than HB currently is.
Rogers will not let this happen IMO as they want that playoffs revenue.
Is Rogers becoming the mordern day Ballard?If “playoff” revenue is one round and three or four home games, it’s in their best interest to slash player salaries, increase executive spending and guarantee this team has many, many years of deep playoff runs which ends in an eventual Stanley Cup than trying to turn this group of losers into a playoff pretender.
Dirty little secret; the Leafs charge their season ticket holders for every possible home playoff game and if the games don’t happen, they keep the money and put it towards the tickets for next year. So Rogers doesn’t give a fuck, they still get the money whether the Leafs actually play the playoff games or not. What they SHOULD give a fuck about is creating a team that can be a REAL contender and a REAL winner because nothing makes more money than that.
Look at the glorious Dubas “retool” in Pittsburgh…about to get swept. Worth it?
Three candidates were in Toronto earlier this week for in-person interviews, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Wednesday’s edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast.
The trio included Dallas Stars assistant general manager Scott White and New York Rangers associate GM Ryan Martin, while the final candidate was either Boston Bruins AGM Evan Gold or former Arizona Coyotes GM John Chayka, Friedman said.
Toronto is “probably not looking at this week” for a final decision, per Friedman.
The Maple Leafs spoke to former Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis months ago, but have become concerned about the immense media around him.
Good, fuck off Gillis.
I’d prefer they hire an entire team of guys but the finalists don’t seem terrible as long as they are of the mind to tear down the team and rebuild it. If any of them are retoolers, this team is fucked.
Varland should be the new closer in the short term until they can acquire another strong set-up man / closer because Hoffman can’t be trusted to be the closer anymore.
Varland is awesome. Great trade.
Ya the bullpen looks really good, the hoff is unreliable at times.Only April, still early.
The hitting really has to improve though.the Jays Bullpen stats are being dragged down by Little who is gone now. and to a lesser extent Hoffman.
Biggest issue so far is Bats. Team ops+ of 95, last season was 108
LAD are currently 148 lol..insane. 115 is generally top of the leagueLittle and Hoffman should have been shot into the Sun after their horrible performances in the playoffs.
I could understand adjusting Hoffman’s role, platoon him with Varland, find situations for him in relief prior to the 9th, whatever, but he absolutely should not be the closer anymore.
Here’s a team of players the Leafs drafted or acquired through the rebuild:
Hyman | Matthews | Marner
Knies | Kadri | Nylander
Verhaeghe | Minten | Cowan
Robertson | Carrick | Brown
Holmberg | GrundstromRielly | Durzi
Sandin | Liljegren
Benoit | Schenn
DanfordWoll | Hildeby
And then there’s the prospects whom the Leafs could have selected with 1st round picks that the Leafs have traded away in deadline day vain…
2019 1st round pick traded for Muzzin: Connor McMichael
2020 1st round pick traded to dump Marleau : Seth Jarvis
2021 1st round pick traded for Foligno: Josh Doan
2022 1st round pick traded to dump Mrazek: Sam Rinzel (Lane Hutson went in the 2nd round so he was “available”)
2023 1st round pick traded for ROR: Otto Stenberg (method of picking Easton Cowan if they didn’t trade Sandin)
2025 1st round pick traded for McCabe: Henry Brzustewicz
2026 1st round pick traded for Carlo: ?
2027 1st round pick traded for Laughton: ?
2028 1st round pick slide: ?How many of them are actually still on the team vs. contributing somewhere else?
Now just imagine if A) the Leafs knew how to draft better outside of the 1st round lottery (especially on defense) and B) knew how to hang on to their own players.
With the Leafs scrambling to find a new GM after Mehta went to New Jersey, the names popping up are interesting.
Mike Gillis should automatically be disqualified. For a “veteran” of the executive world, he has accomplished nothing this franchise should be seeking. He’s been out of a job for a long time and the last time he had a job, he was a loser that was unable to return to the Final. In fact, his team basically crumbled into the disaster it has become today, slowly and painfully. That’s exactly what he would do in Toronto. He’s the worst possible hire and it’s exactly why he’s probably the #1 target.
Mats Sundin is an example of a franchise that has no hope of the future to sell so they turn to sell nostalgia. Sundin might have an eye for talent but leave him as a scout in Sweden. He has no executive experience and he’s better off being associated with the Leafs in a role that has little to no power. Very good player but wrong guy for this job.
Gary Roberts’ name has also appeared. Again, great player but not built to be an executive. He’s a great personal trainer but that’s all he should be hired for.
John Chayka is a name that has been mentioned because he’s a numbers wizard. The same problem I had with Mehta as GM without a legit hockey mind above him would apply to Chayka. I would have no problem hiring him to be the most overpaid assistant GM but this guy can’t be the top of the food chain of hockey related decisions. There would need to be a legit President of Hockey Ops above him.
Chris Pronger is a legit hockey mind, proven winner on the ice with high hockey IQ but probably doesn’t understand the day to day operations of being a GM with contracts and advanced stats or scouting. Pronger is the type of guy you put as VP to Hockey Ops because you want his input but he’s not the best guy to get the day to day workings done. He’s also lightly experienced as an executive.
Ron Francis has freshly quit Seattle after a few years is an example of an experienced executive who could become President of Hockey Ops. He’s the experienced hockey mind in the room who knew what it took to win a Cup on the ice. The team he built in Carolina wasn’t too bad and his connections to guys like Rod Brind’Amour are greatly valuable in the future.
Pridham and Hardy are two guys who work well exactly where they are now. They serve a purpose but not who we need to promote at this moment with much bigger fish out there to hire.
Ross Mahoney is a name that most people don’t know about but would he be a big asset as GM. He’s been the head of scouting for the Capitals for 14 years and an assistant GM for 12 years. The Leafs absolute suck at drafting and developing players and bringing in a guy who understands the draft would be crucial. He’s about to be 70 but with so many young guys in the system, he could run the team for a few years and then the Leafs could promote from within after they’re set on the right track.
Ryan Bowness is another less known name but has been around scouting for awhile. He’s another young guy who has been with the Penguins, Senators and Islanders. Son of Rick, he’s been in hockey his entire life and his drafting record is pretty strong. He’s also been the assistant GM in Ottawa and in Long Island so you’ll have to overpay him to jump ship but he could be a future promotion from within once the Leafs scouting and player development is on track.
President of Hockey Ops: Ron Francis
– Figure head, hockey mind, talks to the media, reports to Pelley, keeps him the fuck away from the team and has a direct connection to Rod Brind’Amour for future recruitment.
VP of Hockey Ops: Chris Pronger
– Learns the ropes as an executive, brings a great hockey mind to decisions being made, knows what a winner looks like on the ice, doesn’t build a pussy ass team.
General Manager: Ross Mahoney
– Runs day to day operations from contracts to trade talks. Understands hockey from the draft outward which is the most important key to success in this rebuild.
Director of Analytics: John Chayka
– Grossly overpay this guy to take the role below GM but give him the chance to be promoted if he succeeds. Runs all the numbers on everything.
Capologist: Brandon Prindham
– Keeps the Leafs under the cap, gives him more time to prove he can be promoted.
Assistant GM / GM of the Marlies: Ryan Hardy
– Continues to run the Marlies with the addition of more prospects for player development. Given the opportunity to be promoted from within in time.
Director of Scouting: Ryan Bowness
– Attacks the draft, rebuilds the Leafs farm system, another future candidate for promotion.
Tanking Head Coach: Craig Berube.
– Tanks the team but builds accountability.
Future Real Head Coach 2029: Rod Brind’Amour.
– Takes over the team of the future and runs them like a machine.
Janitor: Mike Gillis
– Fucks off and is never hired by the Leafs.
If the Leafs were to grossly overpay this executive team (5+ million each, 30-40 million total which you can take away from the roster while you rebuild), I don’t think any one of them would refuse that type of money, regardless of their role. That to me is a team of hockey minds, executives and professionals that can turn this franchise around with a proper rebuild.
Trade Matthews and Nylander at the 2027 draft. Trade everybody else over 25 at the deadline / the draft. Tank in 2028. Tank in 2029. Offer McDavid max money in July 2029. Sign Brind’Amour as head coach.
That’s the rebuild plan.
I take it he too shit for St. Louis.
I take it he too shit for Pittsburg also eh!..Well, let’s take a quick look at all the facts then…
Pittsburgh first traded him for Kessel when the Leafs started the rebuild. Leafs got one of the fastest skaters in the NHL who showed he could score 10-15-20 goals and 30-40 points. Pittsburgh gave up a 1st to get him back from the Leafs, which was pretty stupid on the Leafs part because they should have just kept the small, speedy winger instead of trying to draft another one for no good reason. Then, Pittsburgh lost him on waivers to St. Louis and St. Louis lost him on waivers to Edmonton. Pittsburgh looks like a typical Dubas playoff team, about to get knocked out quick. And St. Louis is in shambles, ready to rebuild. So if those two teams didn’t see value, it’s no surprise considering the results. Edmonton has put his skills to good use.
Still, one of the fastest skaters in the NHL, playing in a bottom-six role at 1.3 AAV, I’d rather have him than Robertson who is tiny, can barely skate and doesn’t seem to be improving either. Or Jarnkrok. Or Joshua. I’m not going to pretend he’s Verhaeghe, but it just seems like the players the Leafs discard seem to still provide value while their replacements in Toronto fall flat on their face like Maccelli and Roy trying to replace Marner.
Like I’ve said before, if the Leafs had kept the players they drafted or acquired during their rebuild, their team would be better off today than what they did.
Here’s a team of players the Leafs drafted or acquired through the rebuild:
Hyman | Matthews | Marner
Knies | Kadri | Nylander
Verhaeghe | Minten | Cowan
Robertson | Carrick | Brown
Holmberg | GrundstromRielly | Durzi
Sandin | Liljegren
Benoit | Schenn
DanfordWoll | Hildeby
And then there’s the prospects whom the Leafs could have selected with 1st round picks that the Leafs have traded away in deadline day vain…
2019 1st round pick traded for Muzzin: Connor McMichael
2020 1st round pick traded to dump Marleau : Seth Jarvis
2021 1st round pick traded for Foligno: Josh Doan
2022 1st round pick traded to dump Mrazek: Sam Rinzel (Lane Hutson went in the 2nd round so he was “available”)
2023 1st round pick traded for ROR: Otto Stenberg (method of picking Easton Cowan if they didn’t trade Sandin)
2025 1st round pick traded for McCabe: Henry Brzustewicz
2026 1st round pick traded for Carlo: ?
2027 1st round pick traded for Laughton: ?
2028 1st round pick slide: ?How many of them are actually still on the team vs. contributing somewhere else?
Now just imagine if A) the Leafs knew how to draft better outside of the 1st round lottery (especially on defense) and B) knew how to hang on to their own players.
the jays are 22 games into the Season, thats the equivalent of 11 games for the Leafs season, so if it were the leafs I would think its also pretty early in the season.
The bullpen isnt shit…if you pay attention to more than the jays
Some Bullpen stats
K/9 Jays are 4th 10.20
ERA 22nd
xERA 11th
FIP 12th
xFIP #1 3.14 (very good)
WAR 12thwhen the FIP is much lower than ERA thats a good sign things are going to get better and even out.
I hadnt look at the stats yet and thats encouraging.Varland has been wicked
Varland, Fisher and Rogers have a combined era of like .50 in 34 inningsAnd with all that fancy stats, still lost 7 of 13 losses.
Hoffman absolutely sucks balls as a closer when it matters. Cost them a World Series and needs to be replaced ASAP.
