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2026-27 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion | Official: Sundin & Chayka to lead front office

Feels like this team could be good and contend if the team play updates work, or it could be a repeat of last year with no 1st overall to look forward to.
 
herman said:
On the face of it, it’s a lot of money for mostly grinders.

But:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2072537480356618300
Committed grinders are far more effective than a committee of players forced to grind.

Coaching last season also had an impact in that their premier skill C was deployed to defend heavily with offense-first wingers who couldn’t perform offense properly.

Will this work better? I think the lines have clearer roles and expectations they can hang their hat on, and there is room within those roles to rotate and elevate and reward performance. At least three skaters can flow between top 6 and bottom 6 roles capably as the situation requires: Knies, Cowan, Paul, and arguably Tavares.

If it fails, most new pieces are very sellable at the deadline to recoup futures (outside of Raddysh). Sheet’s clear for whatever Matthews decides as well.
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I think Sissons, Paul, and Joshua can all contribute more offensively given the right opportunity. Mushy middle is gone. It's nice to remove offensive-only guys from lines 3 and 4.
 
PP Options:
Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Knies, Cowan, Roslovic, Paul, Joshua
Raddysh, OEL, Andrae, Rielly (uhh...)

PK Options:
Duhaime, Sissons (FO), Blueger (FO), Paul (FO), Lorentz, Joshua, Matthews (FO), Knies
McCabe, Tanev, Stecher, Raddysh, Rielly (ugh)
 
Bill_Berg said:
Feels like this team could be good and contend if the team play updates work, or it could be a repeat of last year with no 1st overall to look forward to.
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I can see Bob really not working out which definitely does scare me but at the very least you have players willing to muck it up and not just stand around when their captain gets his knee obliterated.

The other thing I like is that they're all two year deals. If they aren't good next year we can pivot off of a large number of these contracts pretty painlessly and can start the rebuild in earnest. We don't have our picks for two years, but unless we hand Boston or Philly Landon Du Pont then eating the next two to have McKenna is the best outcome of a very crappy Treliving timeline.
 
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cw said:
Puckpedia says this new roster is the oldest team in the league.
That is not the end of the world maybe as many contenders are on the older side but it raises some eyebrows for a claim of longer-term contention to retain Matthews who is looking to extend 8 years ...
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I think it depends on how Puckpedia calculates that age. I think they still have Jarnkrok, and Stetcher in there, as well as Zach McEwen. You replace those players with a McKenna, Danford, and Quillan, and that starts to bring that number down. Also, if you replace Stolarz with AA, that would also bring that number down. I think they would be more middle of the pack with those numbers. The second oldest team currently is Vegas, and they just went to a cup final, so it can't be all bad to be old.
 
herman said:
PP Options:
Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Knies, Cowan, Roslovic, Paul, Joshua
Raddysh, OEL, Andrae, Rielly (uhh...)

PK Options:
Duhaime, Sissons (FO), Blueger (FO), Paul (FO), Lorentz, Joshua, Matthews (FO), Knies
McCabe, Tanev, Stecher, Raddysh, Rielly (ugh)
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Not playing The G.Mac on the PP?
 
rdowdall said:
I think it depends on how Puckpedia calculates that age. I think they still have Jarnkrok, and Stetcher in there, as well as Zach McEwen. You replace those players with a McKenna, Danford, and Quillan, and that starts to bring that number down. Also, if you replace Stolarz with AA, that would also bring that number down. I think they would be more middle of the pack with those numbers. The second oldest team currently is Vegas, and they just went to a cup final, so it can't be all bad to be old.
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I do think it's hard to compare the two though. We are definitely going to have to pivot in a couple of years just on the basis of how short these contracts are. It's going to be a fascinating couple of years at least.
 
I'm not crazy about the top-6/bottom-6 method, especially against some of the other top teams in the East. But for whatever its worth, I do think this is a group of players better suited to going that route than we've seen in the past here.

But I don't think it's a guarantee that's how our lines end up looking. Chayka was rather complimentary of Roslovic's ability to play centre, and obviously of course he's going to say that to the media but if we take him at his word there then there's a chance the middle-6 looks something like:

Paul-Roslovic-Nylander
McKenna-Tavares-Sissons

Each line there has a (potential in one case) game-breaking talent, a guy who can definitely score some goals, and a defensive/physical presence.

That leaves Knies and Cowan to play with Matthews, a line that I thought deserved a much longer look together this past season. And of course the defensive face-off eating 4th line with Blueger & co.
 
I am glad Carlo is gone, a monster of a man doing squat after Gudas took out Matthews. It's symbolic that he's gone. Stop obsessing with what you want someone to be or what you have invested in a guy and just move on.
 
Bender said:
This is damage control and as we've seen with public statements from hockey players lately who behind the scenes have been unhappy with their team that front facing talk is extremely cheap. He might stay for now, but I doubt he stays there all year and I can't see how he extends after all this. This oozes a revisit at least by the trade deadline.
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I don't think that is news.
CBJ are in the same boat as the Leafs are with Matthews and the Oilers are with McDavid. Next July 1 they are all eligible to re-sign for more years. CBJ and the Leafs would like to recover assets if their star is going to walk. Oilers will be hoping their star doesn't walk.
As I've said before, the sooner the player makes the decision to move on, the more his team can get back in a trade. We see more evidence of that with the compensation bantered about for Werenski moving with 2 years left on his deal or Brady moving with 2 years left on his deal.

Maybe the media circus in Columbus makes him want to leave by the deadline. If he's leaving, his team would prefer that he does sooner because their return will be more and they're not winning a Cup any time soon.
As of yesterday, the Leafs are in a similar boat - this is not a Cup contender.
 
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