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2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

.477 PTS% at this point...blech....until they get healthy, I'm not going to get too bent out of shape.

Now, if they get healthy for December and still play like this...
 
Frank E said:
.477 PTS% at this point...blech....until they get healthy, I'm not going to get too bent out of shape.

Now, if they get healthy for December and still play like this...
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Two injury prone goalies
7 of their 9 dmen age 31 or older - a number of them with injury history
Matthews chronic injury history and questionable if he will fully recover
McMann has some annual injury history
Robertson had a terrible time with injuries trying to reach the NHL
The Leafs have one of the older NHL rosters - older players are more injury prone (Jarnkrok, Laughton, etc)

All of their injured players may well get healthy by or in December (Tanev, Stolarz and Carlo may not .. Matthew may not fully recover)
But there will probably be more injuries so I'm not confident "they get healthy for December. I hope they do.
Older rosters need young capable depth. Most of that has been traded away.
 
I’m well and truly in the “don’t let Treliving do any more damage by making more trades to try and wring the last bit of life out of the already lifeless corpse that is the current mishmash of this hotch potch identity-less roster”.

Any more changes to try and paper over the various failures are at this stage going to just make the inevitable rebuild take longer and be even more painful.

Rip the bandage off now. Get a GM with an actual vision and back him properly. Probably give him his own coach, too.

While he made mistakes at least Dubas had an outline vision and built things around it and got a coach that fitted it etc. There’s a fair argument his vision wasn’t “right” but at least everyone knew what it was.

Do that again rather than knee jerk sack the GM (ironic since that’s what I’m suggesting I know), but actually get the RIGHT GM, not one who just happens to be available (and was linked to a failing team anyway). I wasn’t a fan of the appointment at the time. I think it’s probably gone worse than I expected.
 
Guilt Trip said:
Laughton is actually a guy you keep unless you're getting an overpay. Carlo will get whatever the market is this year. Last year's prices were high.
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The lame point I was trying to make was what horrific trades these were. I know hindsight and such, but these were unforced errors.
 
Highly frustrating start to the season but I'm willing to see what happens when a few more bodies get healthy. Injuries can and do destroy regular seasons if a third of your active roster is out. If the writing is on the wall early they should definitely strip away any players not in the long term plans and try to reload for next year.
 
Bender said:
Highly frustrating start to the season but I'm willing to see what happens when a few more bodies get healthy. Injuries can and do destroy regular seasons if a third of your active roster is out. If the writing is on the wall early they should definitely strip away any players not in the long term plans and try to reload for next year.
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Give me some kind of timeline on this stuff then.

Guys are just out and we get to play the guessing game on whether they are back in a few games or gone for weeks.

I'm fine with the argument that we don't completely write the team off until they are healthy and done but is Matthews back this week? Next week? Is he coming back healthy at all?

I get that we aren't going to get details on the exact injury but the organization seems to want to make everything a secret.

Pelley made a big speech about engaging better with the fanbase and this organization doesn't do any of that. Sorry, you can log into the fan app daily to try and win a couple of hockey tickets through a lottery. Job completed.
 
L K said:
Give me some kind of timeline on this stuff then.

Guys are just out and we get to play the guessing game on whether they are back in a few games or gone for weeks.

I'm fine with the argument that we don't completely write the team off until they are healthy and done but is Matthews back this week? Next week? Is he coming back healthy at all?

I get that we aren't going to get details on the exact injury but the organization seems to want to make everything a secret.

Pelley made a big speech about engaging better with the fanbase and this organization doesn't do any of that. Sorry, you can log into the fan app daily to try and win a couple of hockey tickets through a lottery. Job completed.
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100% agree. It really is bizarre that there's a huge disconnect between what they know and what we know. The fans ultimately pay the players' salaries so we really should be given more information than we're getting.
 
I wanted to do some checking on suspensions. I had ChatGPT run a list. Here is the number of players that have been suspended for infractions against the Leafs since 2017-2018 (Originally picked this year, because that is what it had told was the last time a player had been suspended for something they did against the Leafs):
  • Matthew Tkachuk – Calgary Flames
    • Games: 1
    • Date of announcement: Dec. 7, 2017
    • Infraction: Unsportsmanlike conduct in a Flames game against the Maple Leafs (the infamous spear from the bench). Ice Hockey Wiki+1
  • Mikhail Sergachev – Tampa Bay Lightning
    • Games: 2
    • Date of announcement: Nov. 5, 2021
    • Infraction: Illegal check to the head against Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner in a Lightning game vs Toronto. NHL+1
  • Neal Pionk – Winnipeg Jets
    • Games: 2
    • Date of announcement: Dec. 6, 2021
    • Infraction: Kneeing Maple Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin in a Jets game vs Toronto. NHL+1
  • Tom Wilson – Washington Capitals
    • Games: 6
    • Date of announcement: Mar. 22, 2024
    • Infraction: High-sticking Maple Leafs forward Noah Gregor in a game in Washington; DoPS explicitly describes it as “high-sticking against Maple Leafs forward Noah Gregor.”

And now here are the Leafs suspensions that have occurred in that timeframe:
  • Nazem Kadri – 3 games (boarding/charging Tommy Wingels, BOS, Apr 13 2018) Sportsnet.ca
  • Zach Hyman – 2 games (interference on Charlie McAvoy, BOS, Dec 8 2018) NHL+1
  • Nazem Kadri – remainder of 1st-round series (cross-checking Jake DeBrusk, BOS, Apr 13 2019 – suspension for rest of series) NHL
  • Alexander Kerfoot – 2 games (boarding Erik Johnson, COL, Nov 23 2019) NHL+1
  • Jason Spezza – 6 games (later reduced to 4 on appeal; kneeing Neal Pionk, WPG, Dec 5 2021) NHL+1
  • Auston Matthews – 2 games (cross-checking Rasmus Dahlin, BUF, Mar 13 2022) NHL
  • Kyle Clifford – 1 game (boarding Ross Colton, TBL, Game 1 R1, May 2 2022) NHL+1
  • Pierre Engvall – 1 game (high-sticking/“slash” to the head of Sean Durzi, LAK, Dec 8 2022) NHL+1
  • Michael Bunting – 3 games (illegal check to the head of Erik Cernak, TBL, Game 1 R1, Apr 18 2023) Scouting The Refs
  • Morgan Rielly – 5 games (cross-checking Ridly Greig in the head after empty-net goal, OTT, Feb 10 2024) NHL+1
  • Ryan Reaves – 5 games (illegal check to the head of Darnell Nurse, EDM, Nov 16 2024)
Doing some quick math that is 11 Leaf suspensions, with 4 of them being in the playoffs. Here is my problem with this. How can a team be expected to play tough, if when they play tough, they get suspended, but when another team plays tough, they are just good hard hockey plays?
 
The reason I ran the above list is here is where I am at. I am starting to question why I invest time and money into this team, and to a larger extent the NHL. I've had time to think about it since Saturday night. I've employed the 24 hour rule to let my emotions calm down and this is the path that I am taking.

I'm seriously asking everybody here. What is the reason that you invest time and money into this team? What do you get from it?
 
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