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Armchair GM Thread 2024-25

If I'm shopping for a forward at the deadline, I'd like a right handed version of Pacioretty. Who fits the bill?
Christian Fischer in Detroit, perhaps.
 
herman said:
If I'm shopping for a forward at the deadline, I'd like a right handed version of Pacioretty. Who fits the bill?
Christian Fischer in Detroit, perhaps.
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Good player, and an ideal Reaves replacement, but I'd like someone who can play higher in the lineup.
 
herman said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1873806969657844203
Big, fast RW for cheap that sometimes flashes hands. Probably gets scooped by Anaheim or San Jose well before us.

Lorentz-Dewar-Puljujarvi
Or even McMann-Domi-Puljujarvi
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I would have absolutely given him a shot a month or whatever ago when we were dealing with all those forward injuries. Don't think he has a fit here now. Like you said though guessing he gets scooped up by someone in the first half of the order.
 
bustaheims said:
At this point, all he really does it make the roster crunch even crunchier - especially if Jarnkrok ever plays again.
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Yep.
Focus on the prize for this team's needs: a half decent center

The desire for term is interesting. Forget the 4thline centers Kampf/Holmberg

We've got Matthews (assuming he'll recover) & Minten pretty soon
So Tavares goes to the wing and is center depth if they add a center with term to next season?
Or is Minten the asset they flip to get a 2nd line center and shift Taveres to the 3rd line (which may not be very appealing this season the way Tavares is playing)?
 
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bustaheims said:
At this point, all he really does it make the roster crunch even crunchier - especially if Jarnkrok ever plays again.
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With an almost NHL minimum salary, he cleared. He'll make a Wilkes-Barre, PA AHL roster crunchier
I'm sure he has made a few million bucks so sympathy will be limited but it has to be sad for himself, family, friends and fans to see a #4 pick (or whatever he was) never come close to his draft potential and out of a prestigious league where no team wants him..
 
I've been kicking tires on centers (I have a long way to go ..)
Aside from Brock Nelson, and no interest in Kadri, I've recently glanced at:
Brayden Schenn (concerns: 33, seems in decline with 3.5 yrs left, $6.5 M contract, talent cost to get, NTC)
Ryan O'Reilly (33 - some decline?, doesn't seem to want to be here, $4.5M with 2.5 yrs left, no prohibitive trade clause)
Vince Trocheck (31, good numbers, $5.6M x 3.5yrs left, -everything good but no movement clause)
J.T Miller (31, $8M x 3.5 yrs left - cap fit issue, NMC - might be the best forward available but asset price would be wild)
and a few others
I have issues about the feasibility with all of them. Some due to cap hit or trade clause or asset cost.

This player might be a lower asset price consideration. I don't know him really well but recall seeing him many times.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau (32, $5M x1.5 yrs left, 16 team no trade list)
Term might be shorter than Leafs management would desire.
5'11" 195lbs - not big but ok size
He hits, blocks shots, has pretty good takeaway numbers
~.5ppg, always over 50% on faceoffs
Because it should be a lower asset cost to get him, I'd guess he'd be a more plausible possibility

There are bound to be other candidates.

I do not know him very well. I was curious about what people might think about adding Pageau?
 
cw said:
I do not know him very well. I was curious about what people might think about adding Pageau?
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I like that he's fast, defensively responsible, has just the right amount of grit/toughness while still being able to provide some offence. He's also a right-handed shot which would be a strategic bonus for the coaching staff when it comes to face-offs, which he is of course very good at. From Ottawa, and started his career there, so he might relish the opportunity to come back to Ontario.

I think a 3rd line built around McMann and Pageau with Domi or Robertson or Pacioretty feels like the type of 3rd line teams who go deep often have.
 
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He's not the flashiest of names of anything, buy, yeah, Pageau could be exactly that the Leafs' need as a 3rd line C. He's probably be my #2 choice after Trocheck, depending on acquisition cost.
 
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JT Miller for BC born defenseman Morgan Rielly plus something else. Or maybe to Rangers straight up for Trocheck.
 
In 2020, this is what the Islanders paid for Pageau:
a conditional third-round draft pick in 2022
a second-round draft pick in 2020
a conditional first-round draft pick in 2020

Hopefully, he would cost a little less.
 
Ozzie said:
JT Miller for BC born defenseman Morgan Rielly plus something else. Or maybe to Rangers straight up for Trocheck.
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Yes. Let's move our best puckmoving defenceman - an area that was exposed as a major weakness beyond Rielly in the playoffs over the last few seasons - when there's no one in the system to replace him.
 
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If Matthews was on the LTIR and was miraculously ready for the playoffs how do you spend the $?

Let's go shopping which available pending UFA's to target? Nelson, Vatrano, Provorov, Larsson, Kane, Konecny, Gourde, Granlund, Zucker, Dvorak, Martinez, Tanev.

I am going with Nelson, Vatrano, and Martinez with the Matthews money.

Imagine adding three pieces like that without any meaningful subtractions.
 
If Leafs were smart they would send Matthews to Kucherov Island and preserve him for the playoffs and add two or three more pieces to make the push.

It's a strategy that's proven to work.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
I mean that'd be easier said than done. Nelson alone would guarantee the loss of at least a 1st round pick, and we're already out of our 2025 one.
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I am talking roster pieces. Nelson is on an expiring deal so I am not sure what they would get for him. 37 goals on NYI equates to 87 somewhere else... lol
 
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