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Armchair GM Thread 2025/26

Guilt Trip said:
McCabe and Tanev are their best puck movers when under pressure. Not their best passers.
Benoit, Carlo, Myers are not good even under little pressure.
Danford, Villeneuve are very good at both for the Marlies.
Click to expand...
Why have the two best puck movers under pressure on one pairing?
Then we have two other pairings with substandard/not-so-good puck movers under pressure?
I do not get that reasoning.

I have not given up on Carlo. He's well ahead of Benoit & Myers in my opinion.

Rielly has decent numbers with Tanev (although only 150 mins or so)
Find another partner for McCabe (decent UFA right handed dman)
OEL Carlo
and you might have a pretty good and balanced D

I think we're on the same page regarding Villeneuve.
With their geriatric D, they're going to need 8 dmen to make the playoffs.
Villeneuve is not waivers exempt so I hope he gets a good long look in camp.
 
Yeah. Treliving is probably the worst GM we had since the cap started including JFJ. I think Zharovsky is actually a solid prospect but thats not a great return for trading a guy who is in your division against your longest rival.
 
I rarely disagree with you cw, but I lean Frankish on this one. They are forever adjusting pairings to accommodate Morgan. To me, after awhile that points to him as the problem.

My ears perked up when you say you haven't given up on Carlo. Can you elaborate? We haven't talked too much about how Berube's style affected the D ... maybe under a new coach Carlo can look more like he did with the Bruins? That is, not a complete stick figure.
 
ZBBM said:
I rarely disagree with you cw, but I lean Frankish on this one. They are forever adjusting pairings to accommodate Morgan. To me, after awhile that points to him as the problem.
Click to expand...

Who did they pair Rielly with that was so great for any length of time?
They made some adjustments but they were not with really good dmen.

And I forgot: when the did Leafs have a deep quality bottom six for checking?
We could always count on Nylander for shot blocking, finishing checks and back checking, right?
With goaltending like Samsonov and Campbell, maybe it wasn't necessary [/sarcasm]

We spent a lot of time handwringing about the core 4 consuming the cap.
So we're supposed to look the other way when it becomes fashionable to trash another player for our lot in hockey life.
I think it is a little unfair.

I don't think Rielly is the most incredible dman who ever lived. But I also don't think he got a great shake in terms of a decent partner during his time in Toronto.I do think he made a steady effort to do the best he could. I look at the names of players he was partnered with and I'm not impressed. That had consequences.
 
Honestly that knies trade would crack the top 5 worst trades of all time for the leafs. I can't believe it was the clock that saves them.

And to allow that buffoon to still make those kinds of significant moves that late into the season is sheer lunacy. I'm sure I said it during the season but that's why I wanted him fired md season, so he couldn't make those kinds of franchise altering moves.

Good lord this franchise makes it so hard to root for them.
 
ZBBM said:
My ears perked up when you say you haven't given up on Carlo. Can you elaborate? We haven't talked too much about how Berube's style affected the D ... maybe under a new coach Carlo can look more like he did with the Bruins? That is, not a complete stick figure.
Click to expand...

I think I'm roughly close to what you just said.
This was a 4th place team that probably fell to 10th-12th without Marner. The talent on their roster was better than 28th in my opinion. So we have to be careful with whatever talent surgery we proceed with.
That is why I'm trying to reign in the pending slaughter of Rielly.

Marner got run off and we got all his glorious cap money ... with little on the UFA market to spend it on. I fear a repeat. We better be careful of what we wish for. The UFA market for dmen is slim and will be slimmer before July 1.

After the trade deadline, I could barely stand to watch the Leafs so I have to keep that in mind.
What I did do is watch other teams to get a better sense of where the league was at. I've enjoyed that more than I thought.

I got a mixed read on Carlo. There were moments where he raised my eyebrows with bottom 8 level play. There were other moments where he didn't look so bad. In the wake of the team basically folding, I'm not ready to write him off.
 
ZBBM said:
I rarely disagree with you cw, but I lean Frankish on this one. They are forever adjusting pairings to accommodate Morgan. To me, after awhile that points to him as the problem.

My ears perked up when you say you haven't given up on Carlo. Can you elaborate? We haven't talked too much about how Berube's style affected the D ... maybe under a new coach Carlo can look more like he did with the Bruins? That is, not a complete stick figure.
Click to expand...
One other thing about this.
Next spring is the 60th anniversary of the last parade.
I'd prefer a rebuild starting last winter. I've said as much.
I'd jettison Carlo with the rest of them if that were happening.
But they appear to be going for a retool trying to hang on to Matthews.
So I'm playing along and working the problem of them trying to get back into the playoffs because a rebuild is not happening.

There was some sort of implosion where they played beneath the collection of talent that they had.
Hopefully, Chayka and Sundin have a better idea of what went down to help them assess personnel.
It could be very tricky to buy their way out of it on the UFA market because the UFA market is not deep and their UFA pitch is "come join our 28th place team to help us make the playoffs so we can try to persuade Matthews to hang around!!" instead of "come help a true contender win a Cup"
In 3 weeks time or so, we should have a better idea of what will be on the UFA market and maybe they will have moved one of their goalies to fill a hole at the draft.
That is probably a better time to figure out UFA plans for the roster.
After the dust has settled on the UFAs would be the time to make a final call on Carlo unless someone offers to overpay for him at the draft. Until then, I'm hedging my bets.
 
Aside from what moved at the trade deadline, Jarnkrok & Stecher are the only UFAs from the 28th place team.

What are thoughts on RFAs with arbitration rights:
Robertson
Maccelli
Quillan
?

If I recall the rules (vaguely) correctly, they have until mid July to file for arbitration.
My initial reaction is to wait and see what happens with UFAs

At the same time, there have to be some bodies they would like to replace due to their 28th place finish
As the UFA market could be limited due to the large increase in the cap and not that many players available, it may be premature to make a call on the RFAs. It is a decision they'll have to make in the next 6 weeks or so
 
As glad as I am that trade didn't go through, I'm also not really sure why Montreal would have used that many chips on a winger. If they can pick up a Larkin or Hischier instead this summer then the Habs might be thankful for Treliving bungling it too.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
As glad as I am that trade didn't go through, I'm also not really sure why Montreal would have used that many chips on a winger. If they can pick up a Larkin or Hischier instead this summer then the Habs might be thankful for Treliving bungling it too.
Click to expand...

Knies is a good fit for the style Montreal wants to play. It’d be an improvement on Josh Anderson and they’d be able to run both (on the same line if they wanted).
 
herman said:
Knies is a good fit for the style Montreal wants to play. It’d be an improvement on Josh Anderson and they’d be able to run both (on the same line if they wanted).
Click to expand...

There's no doubt he would have made them significantly better but filling that 2C spot should be their biggest goal and using most of their trade chips on something else before doing that seems unwise.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
There's no doubt he would have made them significantly better but filling that 2C spot should be their biggest goal and using most of their trade chips on something else before doing that seems unwise.
Click to expand...

I’m okay with them trying to do that :)

Michael Hage likely lines up there this season
Edit: nevermind he’s not even playing centre in college, where he has committed for the upcoming season
 
cw said:
Why have the two best puck movers under pressure on one pairing?
Then we have two other pairings with substandard/not-so-good puck movers under pressure?
I do not get that reasoning.

I have not given up on Carlo. He's well ahead of Benoit & Myers in my opinion.

Rielly has decent numbers with Tanev (although only 150 mins or so)
Find another partner for McCabe (decent UFA right handed dman)
OEL Carlo
and you might have a pretty good and balanced D

I think we're on the same page regarding Villeneuve.
With their geriatric D, they're going to need 8 dmen to make the playoffs.
Villeneuve is not waivers exempt so I hope he gets a good long look in camp.
Click to expand...
They need to re-sign him and give him a shot. Danford isn't far off. Kid impresses me live. Might be too big a step but man he looks good
 
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