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2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

I know it sounds like a broken record but sorry this team was never built right from day one of the Matthews era, speed and skill but no grit in the playoffs, an absolute waste of 10 years.
 
4EVRLEAFAN said:
I know it sounds like a broken record but sorry this team was never built right from day one of the Matthews era, speed and skill but no grit in the playoffs, an absolute waste of 10 years.
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Management, or maybe ownership wouldn't pivot off how this team was built. It's hard to blame either one. This team was electric the last 10 years in the regular season. Very fun group to watch. They just couldn't get it done in the playoffs. In hindsight, the right move would have been to trade Marner back in 2021.
 
Guru Tugginmypuddah said:
Management, or maybe ownership wouldn't pivot off how this team was built. It's hard to blame either one. This team was electric the last 10 years in the regular season. Very fun group to watch. They just couldn't get it done in the playoffs. In hindsight, the right move would have been to trade Marner back in 2021.
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In hindsight, we should've been really worried when they signed Thorton and Marleau.
 
cabber24 said:
Old and slow because of overpayment of our young stars. No $ to add anything of any value. Had to trade assets for retention, taking salary, and shop the bargain bin. It's mostly Dubas who over paid. We try to augment our young stars who never had it in them to take the next step in the playoffs. At the end of the day, the only winners were our young stars' bank accounts.
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I do not think the core 4 was grossly overpaid by Dubas.
Tavares was a top UFA and probably could have got a little more.
Marner & Matthews have been top 10 scorers and good defensively since they came into the league
Nylander was a cut below because he was not great defensively and didn't rack up as much offensively.
But their contracts were in line with others in the league when you consider the timing of the signing, the duration, etc.
The NMCs were also common around the league.
Covid threw the cap growth off so they were cap tight to fill in the supporting cast
 
cw said:
I do not think the core 4 was grossly overpaid by Dubas.
Tavares was a top UFA and probably could have got a little more.
Marner & Matthews have been top 10 scorers and good defensively since they came into the league
Nylander was a cut below because he was not great defensively and didn't rack up as much offensively.
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I think what we can say is that, while none of them were bad contracts, none of them were deals, and all the teams that contended at least had a deal that allowed them to fill in the supporting cast with quality.
 
Guru Tugginmypuddah said:
It was crazy. How far do you want to keep going back? I'll go straight to the creation of the universe, which I think was a terrible idea.
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Oh come on. If Lameriello didn't sign him to that stupid contract, Dubas wouldn't have been forced to make that trade. It's a pretty simple straight line. I don't know how this is a stretch at all. Dubas didn't create that mess.
 
cw said:
I do not think the core 4 was grossly overpaid by Dubas.
Tavares was a top UFA and probably could have got a little more.
Marner & Matthews have been top 10 scorers and good defensively since they came into the league
Nylander was a cut below because he was not great defensively and didn't rack up as much offensively.
But their contracts were in line with others in the league when you consider the timing of the signing, the duration, etc.
The NMCs were also common around the league.
Covid threw the cap growth off so they were cap tight to fill in the supporting cast
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I take exception to this. I think there is some proof in the numbers. I've done no research on this but I can't think of another player entering free agency for the first time, coming off a career year, who signed for only a $1m increase on the yearly salary from their previous contract. To me, that shows Marner was overpaid on his previous deal.

There are two great comparable players in Point and specifically Rantanen. Marner received $10m more than Rantanen over the same time period, signed the same year, and I don't think it's a coincidence the signed identical 8-year/$96m contracts this past offseason.


(*I won't litigate what McDavid did. He clearly could have received $17m or more on his free agent deal if he so desired)
 
The original overpay was for emotional damages (e.g. ELC bonus, Babcock); the subsequent 'discount' was helped along by tax advantage. Probably sewered some of his endorsement potential down the line though.
 
I know I'm oversimplifying but these guys get paid in US dollars. Their money goes 30% farther in Canada. I know this has been brought up before, but this should get more play.
 
herman said:
The original overpay was for emotional damages (e.g. ELC bonus, Babcock); the subsequent 'discount' was helped along by tax advantage. Probably sewered some of his endorsement potential down the line though.
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I know I go on about this too much but I don't think Lameriello gets enough credit for all the terrible moves he did in his time here.
 
Joe S. said:
I know I go on about this too much but I don't think Lameriello gets enough credit for all the terrible moves he did in his time here.
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He did some good in righting the ship when things were really off the rails from the prior seasons. Disappearing Joffrey Lupul (rumoured shenanigans) led to some really fun memes.
godfather_lou.jpg
 
Joe S. said:
I know I'm oversimplifying but these guys get paid in US dollars. Their money goes 30% farther in Canada. I know this has been brought up before, but this should get more play.
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Also, "Signing" bonuses get taxed at 15% in Ontario so the tax advantage is negligible for higher end free agents who can take advantage of that kind of agreement.
 
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