2024 Offseason Thread: Changes

[Zee]

JT is actually the underperforming player I don?t think it makes sense to trade.

I think he tries his heart out.
He hit like crazy.
Best faceoff guy in the league or right up there.

But his ppg falls from .95 in the regular season to .67 in the playoffs
Arguably, he's the weakest link in the core 4 when it comes to scoring in the playoffs.

And he's been tapering off in the regular season - some of that this season was him taking the checking line center role - which he also did in the 1st four games against the Bruins. There is some explanation for it.

In preseason, he logged one of the faster skating times - worked on it over the summer. He also seems to skate a lot as I vaguely recall from some stat I saw a while ago.

A year from now, you'll have a core 3 in their prime and his big contract off the books - maybe in a lesser role for much less dough.

Marner is their leading playoff scorer & playoff powerplay scorer. If they're worried about scoring in the playoffs you usually do not erase the top scorer to solve that problem. You give him some guys to play with that are better at scoring. In 2024, Marner got Tavares for the 1st four games and they were a checking line against Pastrnak - with a lot of d-zone starts. Then, they move him to be with Domi & Bertuzzi - which put two distributors of the puck on one line with a 2nd tier finisher. And people wonder why/how his scoring got compromised? It may not be fully explained by that but that was a hunk of the problem - aside from Bruins checking and goaltending.

I'd patch it up in goal, with dmen and a couple of forwards. If they do a decent job of that, they're close to last year: a top 6 contender or so with a shot to steal it if their goalie gets hot. The following year, when Tavares dough comes off, they can add more and fix what didn't work.

There are no guarantees. But something like that allows them to knock on the door a few times with the core 3.

McCabe-Brodie were seemingly an excellent pair going into the 2022-23 playoffs. The wheels fell off. I saw Brodie tapered off this season. I've never really felt I grasped what the heck happened there. McCabe shows up this season and he has me wondering if he's top 5 - he's not top 4. He obviously turned it around.

Rielly had a great playoff last season. He seemed to be going ok this year. Around the time of his suspension, he seemed to taper off and never recovered. If Rielly played in this year's playoffs like he did last year, the Leafs beat the Bruins. So whatever happened there is troubling. I'd sure want to better understand that as I reconstruct the dmen ...

I don't see Marner resigning let alone with any modicum of cap hit that the fan base is likely to swallow.

I've only been watching about 60 years.
I honestly cannot ever recall management or ownership paying much serious attention to what the fan base thought about how much a player should be paid. Usually, like now, management are too busy looking over their shoulder at ownership dangling a pink slip to worry much about what the fans thought players should be paid. Around the MLSE water cooler, that notion would probably get a few laughs.

I cannot recall a players agent seriously soliciting the fan base's input in contract negotiations either.

The fans are fickle. If Marner scores in game 7 OT, they'll be trying to erect a statue. Pastrnak scores on a play Paul Maurice & another past Leafs assistant coach question was Marner's responsibility and the fans want him tarred and feathered. They're howling that Marner is responsible for the lack of playoff scoring and should be gotten rid of because of it overlooking that he leads the Leafs in playoff scoring and the forwards in playoff +/-, etc since he showed up. Marner understands the 'God-like' worship and 'Demon-like' hate that can change on a play. What coaching and management should be doing is standing up for their asset. If they don't do that, I wouldn't blame Marner for letting his contract expire without a trade. They would be getting exactly what they deserve for their conduct. They're supposed to be a team that stands up for each other.

For the record, I was not a big fan of Marner being drafted because of his size. I was worried about his ability to compete at the NHL level with the bigger bodies, etc.

I looked at some Leafs history. Here's where these Leafs greats ranked in NHL scoring over their first 8 years in the NHL:
Matthews 7th
Mahovlich 8th
Sittler 10th
Marner 10th
Keon 11th
McDonald 13th
Sundin 15th
Gilmour 19th
Vaive 26th
Nylander 28th
Kessel 33rd
Clark 160th (injured some)

When you look at all the guys he's around in offense in today's NHL, his current pay is commensurate with those players - you might bicker about a few hundred grand while ignoring that he PK's and plays two ways.

His playoff ppg, which leads his team over 8 years, is .88 which is 27th in the league (30+ playoff games played) and ties him with Alex Ovechkin and Conn Smythe winner Ryan O'Reilly during those 8 years. Not too shabby in the games that matter most.

I'm still not a gigantic fan of Marner's but it is tough to disrespect what he has done since he showed up. He's clearly one of the better players to ever pull on a Leafs jersey. He deserves to be paid accordingly. The chances of them recovering his full asset value in a trade under these circumstances is not good and would probably compromise Matthews' chances of ever leading a parade in Toronto. You do not get guys like this too often. Management would be wise to straighten out the fans and protect their asset - for their own self preservation if nothing else.

It's less about him, it's more about the reallocation of the salary cap. Tavares will not be paid 8 figures beyond next year so you choose one out of the remaining three 8-figure contracts to go and everyone is choosing Marner. They give their reasoning which is a shit-list of everything bad about him and it comes across as attacking him. The bullying of Marner by some is also done out of frustration and with the intention of pushing him out. I am okay with the bullying approach because management has not addressed the cap allocation issues and making life difficult for Marner may force their hand. If he's resigned, I don't see any of the results changing with this team.

The team's formula doesn't work and a reallocation is necessary.

Yeah, they've tried it with 50% of the cap tied up in 4 players, it's just not happening. If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2. If you can reallocate 2 players and bring in 4 actual NHL better than average players you're talking, especially if one of them is a top 4 dman.

 

[Bender]

JT is actually the underperforming player I don?t think it makes sense to trade.

I think he tries his heart out.
He hit like crazy.
Best faceoff guy in the league or right up there.

But his ppg falls from .95 in the regular season to .67 in the playoffs
Arguably, he's the weakest link in the core 4 when it comes to scoring in the playoffs.

And he's been tapering off in the regular season - some of that this season was him taking the checking line center role - which he also did in the 1st four games against the Bruins. There is some explanation for it.

In preseason, he logged one of the faster skating times - worked on it over the summer. He also seems to skate a lot as I vaguely recall from some stat I saw a while ago.

A year from now, you'll have a core 3 in their prime and his big contract off the books - maybe in a lesser role for much less dough.

Marner is their leading playoff scorer & playoff powerplay scorer. If they're worried about scoring in the playoffs you usually do not erase the top scorer to solve that problem. You give him some guys to play with that are better at scoring. In 2024, Marner got Tavares for the 1st four games and they were a checking line against Pastrnak - with a lot of d-zone starts. Then, they move him to be with Domi & Bertuzzi - which put two distributors of the puck on one line with a 2nd tier finisher. And people wonder why/how his scoring got compromised? It may not be fully explained by that but that was a hunk of the problem - aside from Bruins checking and goaltending.

I'd patch it up in goal, with dmen and a couple of forwards. If they do a decent job of that, they're close to last year: a top 6 contender or so with a shot to steal it if their goalie gets hot. The following year, when Tavares dough comes off, they can add more and fix what didn't work.

There are no guarantees. But something like that allows them to knock on the door a few times with the core 3.

McCabe-Brodie were seemingly an excellent pair going into the 2022-23 playoffs. The wheels fell off. I saw Brodie tapered off this season. I've never really felt I grasped what the heck happened there. McCabe shows up this season and he has me wondering if he's top 5 - he's not top 4. He obviously turned it around.

Rielly had a great playoff last season. He seemed to be going ok this year. Around the time of his suspension, he seemed to taper off and never recovered. If Rielly played in this year's playoffs like he did last year, the Leafs beat the Bruins. So whatever happened there is troubling. I'd sure want to better understand that as I reconstruct the dmen ...

I don't see Marner resigning let alone with any modicum of cap hit that the fan base is likely to swallow.

I've only been watching about 60 years.
I honestly cannot ever recall management or ownership paying much serious attention to what the fan base thought about how much a player should be paid. Usually, like now, management are too busy looking over their shoulder at ownership dangling a pink slip to worry much about what the fans thought players should be paid. Around the MLSE water cooler, that notion would probably get a few laughs.

I cannot recall a players agent seriously soliciting the fan base's input in contract negotiations either.

The fans are fickle. If Marner scores in game 7 OT, they'll be trying to erect a statue. Pastrnak scores on a play Paul Maurice & another past Leafs assistant coach question was Marner's responsibility and the fans want him tarred and feathered. They're howling that Marner is responsible for the lack of playoff scoring and should be gotten rid of because of it overlooking that he leads the Leafs in playoff scoring and the forwards in playoff +/-, etc since he showed up. Marner understands the 'God-like' worship and 'Demon-like' hate that can change on a play. What coaching and management should be doing is standing up for their asset. If they don't do that, I wouldn't blame Marner for letting his contract expire without a trade. They would be getting exactly what they deserve for their conduct. They're supposed to be a team that stands up for each other.

For the record, I was not a big fan of Marner being drafted because of his size. I was worried about his ability to compete at the NHL level with the bigger bodies, etc.

I looked at some Leafs history. Here's where these Leafs greats ranked in NHL scoring over their first 8 years in the NHL:
Matthews 7th
Mahovlich 8th
Sittler 10th
Marner 10th
Keon 11th
McDonald 13th
Sundin 15th
Gilmour 19th
Vaive 26th
Nylander 28th
Kessel 33rd
Clark 160th (injured some)

When you look at all the guys he's around in offense in today's NHL, his current pay is commensurate with those players - you might bicker about a few hundred grand while ignoring that he PK's and plays two ways.

His playoff ppg, which leads his team over 8 years, is .88 which is 27th in the league (30+ playoff games played) and ties him with Alex Ovechkin and Conn Smythe winner Ryan O'Reilly during those 8 years. Not too shabby in the games that matter most.

I'm still not a gigantic fan of Marner's but it is tough to disrespect what he has done since he showed up. He's clearly one of the better players to ever pull on a Leafs jersey. He deserves to be paid accordingly. The chances of them recovering his full asset value in a trade under these circumstances is not good and would probably compromise Matthews' chances of ever leading a parade in Toronto. You do not get guys like this too often. Management would be wise to straighten out the fans and protect their asset - for their own self preservation if nothing else.

I don't think Marner is cut out for the spotlight here. Every year he and his camp gets more and more adversarial with the media and he looks miserable. Even if we were to allocate $12M towards a Marner deal, which I am loathe to do, and I think the Leafs are probably loathe to do, why would he resign here if he is tired of getting gutted by the fans and media? You can write out all the stats in the world and it really doesn't change the situation at all. Marner could've straightended out the fans by not saying idiotic things to the media, playing ball on his RFA contract, and scoring when it actually mattered. These were all in his control and are of his own doing. The team had a player friendly coach and now Mitch isn't going to have his sensitive nature protected anymore and that's just TS. The kid gloves are going to come off and rightfully so. All options must be explored and if they can come to a contract agreement, so be it, I just don't see it happening.

 

[herman]

If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2.

They have NMCs so you're not going to just get straight cap dumps for future considerations. Anyone they're willing to waive to be traded to will also be sending cap hits back as they're likely in their contention windows.

 

[Zee]

If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2.

They have NMCs so you're not going to just get straight cap dumps for future considerations. Anyone they're willing to waive to be traded to will also be sending cap hits back as they're likely in their contention windows.

Right, I wasn't suggesting they are gone as cap dumps, but they have to target getting different types of players back based on their cap hits.  You're not getting back an 11 million dollar player in a Marner deal, so who knows what type of d-man or forward you get.  If they're in the 6-7million range you still have a few million to use to get someone else.

 

[dappleganger]

If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2.

They have NMCs so you're not going to just get straight cap dumps for future considerations. Anyone they're willing to waive to be traded to will also be sending cap hits back as they're likely in their contention windows.

Right, I wasn't suggesting they are gone as cap dumps, but they have to target getting different types of players back based on their cap hits.  You're not getting back an 11 million dollar player in a Marner deal, so who knows what type of d-man or forward you get.  If they're in the 6-7million range you still have a few million to use to get someone else.

Something akin to what transpired in the Pierre-Luc Dubois deal last year.

 

[L K]

I'm not against moving Tavares but one year of cap relief if we are eating a chunk of his salary to trade him...we better have a clear plan for what happens with that money.  He's not an 11M player but he is still a guy who puts up 29G and 65P last year.  He also had 16 goals and 30 points in 33 games after the all-star break.   

What are we using that money for in this offseason to upgrade the team more than what Tavares provides?

The bigger argument for trading Marner is that he won't be cheaper after next year.  So while he's an incredible talent, if you want to change the makeup of the team, he's a big salary that will be cleared out (whether by trade this year or he refuses to waive and we lose him for nothing next year).  Tavares comes off the books but if you want him back you can potentially sign him to a more cap reasonable contract next year (or even this year if you really want to go into contract extension plans).  Marner also should provide a meaningful return whereas I think Tavares will carry some value but the number of teams that will be able to absorb his contract and also be a team he would agree to play for isn't going to be high.

 

[mr grieves]

It's less about him, it's more about the reallocation of the salary cap. Tavares will not be paid 8 figures beyond next year so you choose one out of the remaining three 8-figure contracts to go and everyone is choosing Marner. They give their reasoning which is a shit-list of everything bad about him and it comes across as attacking him. The bullying of Marner by some is also done out of frustration and with the intention of pushing him out. I am okay with the bullying approach because management has not addressed the cap allocation issues and making life difficult for Marner may force their hand. If he's resigned, I don't see any of the results changing with this team.

The team's formula doesn't work and a reallocation is necessary.

Yeah, they've tried it with 50% of the cap tied up in 4 players, it's just not happening. If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2. If you can reallocate 2 players and bring in 4 actual NHL better than average players you're talking, especially if one of them is a top 4 dman.

Ooooooor you wait a year and the cap, just through the passage of time (i.e. Tavares expiring), gets reallocated as:

Matthews @ 13.5
Nylander @ 11.5
Marner @ ...12?

That's $37M, and, on an ~$90M cap, it's just over 40%. That is, if I'm remembering last I checked accurately, a pretty normal looking allocation for a contending team.

I can see moving Marner in a hockey trade modeled on the Tkachuk or DuBois deal, but just moving him for cost-controlled parts and cap space seems odd, since the cost and cap pressures are considerably lessened after next season.

Does that mean you're not really "going for it" next year? Yeah. But it maximizes their chances in years 2-5 IMO.

 

[Joe S.]

I?m not really adding anything meaningful here other than to say I?m personally in the camp of trading Marner just to get him off the team is a mistake. Unless the return is phenomenal, this will absolutely be one of those trades that is looked back on as a mistake.

 

[dappleganger]

I?m not really adding anything meaningful here other than to say I?m personally in the camp of trading Marner just to get him off the team is a mistake. Unless the return is phenomenal, this will absolutely be one of those trades that is looked back on as a mistake.

I will say this, the problem with the Leafs these past 8 years has been playoff scoring? So, to remedy this problem they're going to get rid of the player that has the most playoff points the last 8 years?

It's pretty funny on the face of it.

 

[Bender]

I?m not really adding anything meaningful here other than to say I?m personally in the camp of trading Marner just to get him off the team is a mistake. Unless the return is phenomenal, this will absolutely be one of those trades that is looked back on as a mistake.

I will say this, the problem with the Leafs these past 8 years has been playoff scoring? So, to remedy this problem they're going to get rid of the player that has the most playoff points the last 8 years?

It's pretty funny on the face of it.

Is it? Or does having a more rounded roster raise the tide more? Marner, in recent memory, has never turned it on when the chips are actually down. How many goals has Marner scored?

 

[Bender]

It's less about him, it's more about the reallocation of the salary cap. Tavares will not be paid 8 figures beyond next year so you choose one out of the remaining three 8-figure contracts to go and everyone is choosing Marner. They give their reasoning which is a shit-list of everything bad about him and it comes across as attacking him. The bullying of Marner by some is also done out of frustration and with the intention of pushing him out. I am okay with the bullying approach because management has not addressed the cap allocation issues and making life difficult for Marner may force their hand. If he's resigned, I don't see any of the results changing with this team.

The team's formula doesn't work and a reallocation is necessary.

Yeah, they've tried it with 50% of the cap tied up in 4 players, it's just not happening. If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2. If you can reallocate 2 players and bring in 4 actual NHL better than average players you're talking, especially if one of them is a top 4 dman.

Ooooooor you wait a year and the cap, just through the passage of time (i.e. Tavares expiring), gets reallocated as:

Matthews @ 13.5
Nylander @ 11.5
Marner @ ...12?

That's $37M, and, on an ~$90M cap, it's just over 40%. That is, if I'm remembering last I checked accurately, a pretty normal looking allocation for a contending team.

I can see moving Marner in a hockey trade modeled on the Tkachuk or DuBois deal, but just moving him for cost-controlled parts and cap space seems odd, since the cost and cap pressures are considerably lessened after next season.

Does that mean you're not really "going for it" next year? Yeah. But it maximizes their chances in years 2-5 IMO.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with better balance throughout the lineup.

 

[Joe S.]

I?m not really adding anything meaningful here other than to say I?m personally in the camp of trading Marner just to get him off the team is a mistake. Unless the return is phenomenal, this will absolutely be one of those trades that is looked back on as a mistake.

I will say this, the problem with the Leafs these past 8 years has been playoff scoring? So, to remedy this problem they're going to get rid of the player that has the most playoff points the last 8 years?

It's pretty funny on the face of it.

Is it? Or does having a more rounded roster raise the tide more? Marner, in recent memory, has never turned it on when the chips are actually down. How many goals has Marner scored?

Stamkos has 0 points in all his career game 7s.

Joe Sakic has 6 points in 9 career game 7s, and was pointless in 5 of those games

Kucherov has 0 points in his career in game 7

Modano has 2 points in 6 career game 7s and was scoreless in 5 of those games.

 

[bustaheims]

I will say this, the problem with the Leafs these past 8 years has been playoff scoring? So, to remedy this problem they're going to get rid of the player that has the most playoff points the last 8 years?

It's pretty funny on the face of it.

I posted this a little while back, but more than half of Marner's playoff points came from 3 series. The rest of his playoffs have been similar to what we saw this time around. They're the only 3 series he's put up more than 4 points in. The total point thing, while absolutely true, is not a good representation of his actual playoff efforts.

I'm also not in the camp of getting rid of him for the sake of getting rid of him. That's almost always a mistake. But, the team needs a shakeup, and he does feel like the most logical significant piece to move.

 

[Zee]

It's less about him, it's more about the reallocation of the salary cap. Tavares will not be paid 8 figures beyond next year so you choose one out of the remaining three 8-figure contracts to go and everyone is choosing Marner. They give their reasoning which is a shit-list of everything bad about him and it comes across as attacking him. The bullying of Marner by some is also done out of frustration and with the intention of pushing him out. I am okay with the bullying approach because management has not addressed the cap allocation issues and making life difficult for Marner may force their hand. If he's resigned, I don't see any of the results changing with this team.

The team's formula doesn't work and a reallocation is necessary.

Yeah, they've tried it with 50% of the cap tied up in 4 players, it's just not happening. If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2. If you can reallocate 2 players and bring in 4 actual NHL better than average players you're talking, especially if one of them is a top 4 dman.

Ooooooor you wait a year and the cap, just through the passage of time (i.e. Tavares expiring), gets reallocated as:

Matthews @ 13.5
Nylander @ 11.5
Marner @ ...12?

That's $37M, and, on an ~$90M cap, it's just over 40%. That is, if I'm remembering last I checked accurately, a pretty normal looking allocation for a contending team.

I can see moving Marner in a hockey trade modeled on the Tkachuk or DuBois deal, but just moving him for cost-controlled parts and cap space seems odd, since the cost and cap pressures are considerably lessened after next season.

Does that mean you're not really "going for it" next year? Yeah. But it maximizes their chances in years 2-5 IMO.

$37M on your top 3 players (all forwards) is not a normal allocation for a contending team.

Here's a list of contending teams, or teams who have recently won cups.  Notice all of them have either a defenseman or a a goalie in their top 3 of salary allocation.  Not one of those teams goes over 31M in cap space for 3 players.

Dallas: 27.8M (Seguin, Benn, Heiskanen)
Colorado : 30.83M (MacKinnon, Rantanen, Makar)
Florida: 29.5M (Barkov,Tkahchuk, Bobrovsky)
Vegas: 28.3M (Eichel, Stone, Pietrangelo)
Tampa: 28.5 (Kucherov, Point, Vasilevskiy)

 

[cabber24]

It's less about him, it's more about the reallocation of the salary cap. Tavares will not be paid 8 figures beyond next year so you choose one out of the remaining three 8-figure contracts to go and everyone is choosing Marner. They give their reasoning which is a shit-list of everything bad about him and it comes across as attacking him. The bullying of Marner by some is also done out of frustration and with the intention of pushing him out. I am okay with the bullying approach because management has not addressed the cap allocation issues and making life difficult for Marner may force their hand. If he's resigned, I don't see any of the results changing with this team.

The team's formula doesn't work and a reallocation is necessary.

Yeah, they've tried it with 50% of the cap tied up in 4 players, it's just not happening. If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2. If you can reallocate 2 players and bring in 4 actual NHL better than average players you're talking, especially if one of them is a top 4 dman.

Ooooooor you wait a year and the cap, just through the passage of time (i.e. Tavares expiring), gets reallocated as:

Matthews @ 13.5
Nylander @ 11.5
Marner @ ...12?

That's $37M, and, on an ~$90M cap, it's just over 40%. That is, if I'm remembering last I checked accurately, a pretty normal looking allocation for a contending team.

I can see moving Marner in a hockey trade modeled on the Tkachuk or DuBois deal, but just moving him for cost-controlled parts and cap space seems odd, since the cost and cap pressures are considerably lessened after next season.

Does that mean you're not really "going for it" next year? Yeah. But it maximizes their chances in years 2-5 IMO.

I would rather have Tavares at a reasonable number and reallocate the MM16 cap to D and G.

 

[Zee]

It's less about him, it's more about the reallocation of the salary cap. Tavares will not be paid 8 figures beyond next year so you choose one out of the remaining three 8-figure contracts to go and everyone is choosing Marner. They give their reasoning which is a shit-list of everything bad about him and it comes across as attacking him. The bullying of Marner by some is also done out of frustration and with the intention of pushing him out. I am okay with the bullying approach because management has not addressed the cap allocation issues and making life difficult for Marner may force their hand. If he's resigned, I don't see any of the results changing with this team.

The team's formula doesn't work and a reallocation is necessary.

Yeah, they've tried it with 50% of the cap tied up in 4 players, it's just not happening. If Tavares agrees to move and you retain $4M on his deal, that's $7M to go out and find a player or 2, if you get rid of Marner's 10.9 that's another player or 2. If you can reallocate 2 players and bring in 4 actual NHL better than average players you're talking, especially if one of them is a top 4 dman.

Ooooooor you wait a year and the cap, just through the passage of time (i.e. Tavares expiring), gets reallocated as:

Matthews @ 13.5
Nylander @ 11.5
Marner @ ...12?

That's $37M, and, on an ~$90M cap, it's just over 40%. That is, if I'm remembering last I checked accurately, a pretty normal looking allocation for a contending team.

I can see moving Marner in a hockey trade modeled on the Tkachuk or DuBois deal, but just moving him for cost-controlled parts and cap space seems odd, since the cost and cap pressures are considerably lessened after next season.

Does that mean you're not really "going for it" next year? Yeah. But it maximizes their chances in years 2-5 IMO.

I would rather have Tavares at a reasonable number and reallocate the MM16 cap to D and G.

It's a trickle down affect.  The Leafs tying up $40M in forwards would be fine if all of those forwards just took over playoff series, but more often than not that doesn't happen.  By spreading the money around more evenly throughout the roster, you have a better chance of having good players further down the lineup that may make a difference for you.  Also, having big money on a defenseman that can reliably play 25-30 minutes in big pressure situations goes a LONG way in winning games.  It's no surprise that the most successful teams usually have 1 really good stud d-man.  The Leafs have Rielly who is offense only, not as impactful as a true superstar like Makar or Heiskanen.

Looking back on their draft, it's crazy that Heiskanen and Makar went 3-4.  If you redraft that year they'd be 1-2.

 

[L K]

I still think the biggest impact on the team is the lack of internal growth.  Too many draft picks/prospects traded for rentals rather than looking for longer-term assets. 

I think there are only 9 players still in the organization who have played in the NHL since the 2015 draft:
Marner, Matthews, Nylander, Liljegren, Woll, Abruzzese, Robertson, Minten, Holmberg

Abruzzese probably doesn't play with the Leafs moving forward, Robertson had a good offensive season and should hopefully continue to build his role, Holmberg finally established himself this year.  Liljegren has perpetually been on the outs with Keefe.

We dont' have the cap space to fill in quality depth but then are also cheating ourselves but not internally developing depth.  Trading Marner is an opportunity to recoup some depth assets while also freeing up cap space to fill holes.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

https://x.com/TLNdc/status/1792238266722156638

A rough final year here obviously, as well as in the playoffs last year, but man Brodie was a bit of stud for most of his time as a Leaf. And while not a perfect fit as a LHD he solved the Rielly-partner problem for a long time. It's a shame just how much he fell off this season because I would have loved to see him stay on a cheap home down discount in more of a bottom pairing role for awhile.

 

[herman]

https://x.com/sdpnsports/status/1793009266111943144

Longer version for some of the key potential exits
[youtube]GTfDTHm0HRo[/youtube]

Full Show:
[youtube]Sb5ayUaDRBg[/youtube]

 

[herman]

https://x.com/FirstUp1050/status/1793668967699189920
82 games is a long season though