Obviously for the expansion draft, but I'll feel a lot better when another 4C is signed just to be safe.
Ben Smith re-signed to a 1-year deal
- Thread starter CarltonTheBear
- Start date
Obviously for the expansion draft, but I'll feel a lot better when another 4C is signed just to be safe.
This makes Smith and Eric Fehr the two forwards who will almost certainly be exposed to meet the draft requirements. So anybody hoping the Leafs might have had to expose Matt Martin are out of luck.
Zee said:
Just 2. And they could, but if they were planning on exposing Martin then there was absolutely no need to re-sign Ben Smith. Unless you think they actually want to use him as a hockey player.
Zee
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
I'm still not getting it. I thought there was an "exempt" list with a bunch of guys like Matthews, Marner on it that don't need to be protected and a "protected" list of forwards they WANT to protect. Anyone not on the protected or exempt list is available..so why can't they just not protect all 3 of Fehr, Martin and Smith if they wish to do so?
I was reading this article : http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/projecting-maple-leafs-expansion-draft-list-dilemma/
and in it they state that :
The following is a list of players the Leafs may or may not expose and risk losing.
F – Matt Martin
F – Eric Fehr
F – Josh Leivo
F – Seth Griffith
F – Brendan Leipsic
F – Kerby Rychel
That's with only 5 forwards protected which he lists as:
James van Riemsdyk
Nazem Kadri
Tyler Bozak
Leo Komarov
Connor Brown
So if they can protect 2 more forwards, they can choose Leivo and Leipsic from that list above and not Martin no?
bustaheims
Active member
Zee said:
Like Carlton says, they can. But, they have to expose 2 forwards who played at least 40 games last season or a total of 70 in the past two season AND is under contract or an RFA next season. If the plan was to expose Fehr and Martin, then there's no reason to sign Smith unless they actually want him around.
I don't think they ever considered leaving Martin exposed and Fehr and Smith satisfy the 40/70 rule, so it seems it will come down to protecting 1 of Rychel, Leipsec, Leivo or Griffith.
I don't know who Vegas will end up selecting but the Leafs won't be losing anyone of consequence in the expansion draft.
I don't know who Vegas will end up selecting but the Leafs won't be losing anyone of consequence in the expansion draft.
Deebo said:
Depends what you mean by 'consequence'... Leipsic is at about a PPG in the AHL and Leivo is coming off 10 pts in 13 games in the NHL. At a bare minimum, those two should be good assets for the team and losing either to expansion is a waste.
If they plan to protect Martin, it better be because they traded one or both of Leipsic and Leivo for value.
bustaheims
Active member
There was some speculation around the trade deadline that the Leafs may have had some kind of deal worked out with Vegas so that they'd take Fehr. I don't put a whole lot of stock into that, but, I'm certainly hopeful there's some truth there. Would help the Leafs in terms of the cap, and in terms of not sacrificing one of the younger guys who still have potential to be inexpensive contributors for a few seasons.
Zee said:
I think it'll be Leipsic that they protect for sure.
Zee said:
More likely some thing. In previous expansion drafts teams would agree not to take certain players in exchange for a draft pick. If Vegas is smart they do that as often as possible this time around, as there won't be much of a difference between the best exposed player on a team and the second best exposed player in most cases.
herman
Well-known member
This season:
Griffith is 24, Leipsic/Rychel are almost 23, and Kapanen is 20ish.
However, Griffith's AHL numbers at those ages are generally better, aside from Kapanen.
In any case, the bulk of Griffith's production is 5v5 primary points, while the other three produced a significant portion of their result on special teams (PP presumably).
5v5-P1 / All-Pts
Brendan Leipsic: 31.4%
Kasperi Kapanen: 34.9%
Kerby Rychel: 32.7%
Seth Griffith: 52.3%
| Player | Situation | GP | G | A | Pt | P1 | PPG | P1PG |
| Brendan Leipsic | All | 49 | 18 | 33 | 51 | 35 | 1.041 | 0.714 |
| Kasperi Kapanen | All | 43 | 18 | 25 | 43 | 29 | 1.000 | 0.674 |
| Kerby Rychel | All | 73 | 19 | 33 | 52 | 38 | 0.712 | 0.521 |
| Seth Griffith | All | 38 | 10 | 34 | 44 | 29 | 1.158 | 0.763 |
| Player | Situation | GP | G | A | Pt | P1 | PPG | P1PG |
| Brendan Leipsic | 5v5 | 49 | 9 | 13 | 22 | 16 | 0.449 | 0.327 |
| Kasperi Kapanen | 5v5 | 43 | 9 | 11 | 20 | 15 | 0.465 | 0.349 |
| Kerby Rychel | 5v5 | 73 | 8 | 14 | 22 | 17 | 0.301 | 0.233 |
| Seth Griffith | 5v5 | 38 | 9 | 23 | 32 | 23 | 0.842 | 0.605 |
Griffith is 24, Leipsic/Rychel are almost 23, and Kapanen is 20ish.
However, Griffith's AHL numbers at those ages are generally better, aside from Kapanen.
| Year | Age | GP | G | A | Pts | PPG |
| 2013-14 | 21 | 69 | 20 | 30 | 50 | 0.725 |
| 2014-15 | 22 | 39 | 12 | 19 | 31 | 0.795 |
| 2015-16 | 23 | 57 | 24 | 53 | 77 | 1.351 |
In any case, the bulk of Griffith's production is 5v5 primary points, while the other three produced a significant portion of their result on special teams (PP presumably).
5v5-P1 / All-Pts
Brendan Leipsic: 31.4%
Kasperi Kapanen: 34.9%
Kerby Rychel: 32.7%
Seth Griffith: 52.3%
herman said:
Laich'd!
Fun fact Ben Smith has actually been a very good AHL player when down there. He has a career 0.72 PPG rate, and since his rookie season he's scored 94 points in 111 games over parts of 3 seasons.
Kin
New member
herman said:
I don't know that there's anything definite with historical and team based context baked in. There's NHLe but at a glance that really wouldn't change things. You'd still be left with Leipsic being younger, potentially with some rougher edges to his game and having produced at, at the very least, the same level of Griffith.
Protecting Griffith over Leipsic would have no real justification. Reichel I think is pretty clearly the #2 choice because he's big, he's almost a full 2 years younger than Griffith and the production difference between Reichel and Griffith wasn't all that noteworthy until this year.