2020-2021 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

[Guilt Trip]

This team was tumbling off the cliff before Keefe took over. They will be better but it takes time. Dubas will address the D next.

I don't think it's quite that simple. A flat cap clearly wasn't accounted for in the plan, and after the Keefe honeymoon period was over, the team went back to pretty average wildcard spot hockey. There's virtually no room to improve the defence substantially, and I don't think too many teams are going to be throwing life preservers. There's key parts of the roster that have expiring contracts at the end of next year, and not all of them can be filled by replacement cap-minimum players.

Oh it won't be easy but they can improve the D but it may cost them a top 6 player. It's ok to deal from strength tho. As for expiring contracts, Freddie is really the only one after next season that could be tough to replace. They've gotten good value for Freddie so far. I know Hyman is up but he may have to be sacrificed or they trade a Kappy/Johnnson/Kerfoot salary to pay him. Like Bobby Mac says, you can work around the cap if you want.  You just can't keep everyone.

[herman]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/31-thoughts-will-dubas-handle-maple-leafs-off-season/
Leafs get the spotlight on this one

If the Maple Leafs believe this group needs a change, do they also believe their style needs a change? There are whispers Dubas considered some things around the trade deadline that, as one executive said, fans and media "wouldn't have expected" from him. One of those was Kyle Clifford, who he knows well. But I think there were more.

I can't see him entirely changing his belief that Toronto should play a certain way, but I can see him modifying it. Someone else with some bite is coming, and I'd guess it's on the blue line.

and the first 5 thoughts

[Guilt Trip]

Ristolinan(sp)

[CarltonTheBear]

Ristolinan(sp)

We're listing defencemen we want absolutely nothing to do with?

[CarltonTheBear]

Friedman teasing us with point #3 is just rude.

[Guilt Trip]

Ristolinan(sp)

We're listing defencemen we want absolutely nothing to do with?

He did say a D man with bite. I didn't say he was good lol.

[Highlander]

After watching the marathon Bolts/Jackets game yesterday, I actually felt a bit relieved about our result.  That frikken goalie is unbelievable, like 80 something saves, almost unbeatable.  And like the Leafs the Bolts vastly outplayed Columbus (but got the reward in the exhausting finish).
That we lost to some super hot goalie is not real shameful.  Sort of like Rutherford saying they ran into Carey Price.   Hard problems to solve.   
Hope we draft a goalie or two.

[Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate]

Interesting little aside from Friedman (lose the ridiculous beard BTW Eliotte) about the nature of Dubas's promise to Nylander.  Not that it matters; promises were made to be broken, and this song proves it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=912DKxD0H1U

[Highlander]

agreed ZZBM, the beard has to go or be trimmed to Sigmund Freud length.  The Walt Whitman thing on acid doesn't work for me either.

[herman]

https://twitter.com/leafspr/status/1293667117477310464

[Nik]

This team was tumbling off the cliff before Keefe took over. They will be better but it takes time. Dubas will address the D next.

I don't think it's quite that simple. A flat cap clearly wasn't accounted for in the plan, and after the Keefe honeymoon period was over, the team went back to pretty average wildcard spot hockey. There's virtually no room to improve the defence substantially, and I don't think too many teams are going to be throwing life preservers. There's key parts of the roster that have expiring contracts at the end of next year, and not all of them can be filled by replacement cap-minimum players.

Even if the team could trade a forward and get back a defenseman of equal value, which is incredibly hard to do, then I still don't think that's a solution. The team needs to be better, not just have talent shifted from one area to the other.

Reality is, the improvement they need isn't going to come externally. Even if they had a ton of cap space the odds of being able to land major talent upgrades in free agency isn't good and the Leafs have already done that. What separates the Leafs from the teams we want them to be like isn't whether or not they've signed good free agents or if they've added top talent with high draft picks, it's the next component. It's adding guys of high value without having high picks or huge cap dollars. That's probably the toughest avenue but it's something that just about every single top tier team has done and, quite frankly, one of the reasons the Leafs are in the situation they are is because the initial relative success of the Matthews era got people all impatient again and so the team didn't maximize their rebuild and so we needed just about every single one of their picks to be a homerun and, well, that's too tough a standard for anyone.

The solution here is more talent. Without cap space, that means internal development. That may be slow and frustrating and some of the rebuilding pain people thought we'd skipped by virtue of going from the 1st overall pick to the playoffs in a year may be coming but, honestly, this isn't a deck shuffling problem. This is a "We need to find our Letang/Keith/Holtby" kind of thing. 

[Guilt Trip]

Next year is year 5 after the tank. Patience has run out in Leafland. I havent goven uo on Dubas yet. I rhonk hes a smart guy and will straighten the team out.

[Arn]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/31-thoughts-will-dubas-handle-maple-leafs-off-season/
Leafs get the spotlight on this one

If the Maple Leafs believe this group needs a change, do they also believe their style needs a change? There are whispers Dubas considered some things around the trade deadline that, as one executive said, fans and media "wouldn't have expected" from him. One of those was Kyle Clifford, who he knows well. But I think there were more.

I can't see him entirely changing his belief that Toronto should play a certain way, but I can see him modifying it. Someone else with some bite is coming, and I'd guess it's on the blue line.

and the first 5 thoughts

Can we do a fourth line of Spezza - Thornton - someone ?

[CarltonTheBear]

Next year is year 5 after the tank. Patience has run out in Leafland. I havent goven uo on Dubas yet. I rhonk hes a smart guy and will straighten the team out.

The heat on him, and the big-4 and maybe even Shanahan, will be drastically different if something like this happens again next year.

[Frank E]

Next year is year 5 after the tank. Patience has run out in Leafland. I havent goven uo on Dubas yet. I rhonk hes a smart guy and will straighten the team out.

The heat on him, and the big-4 and maybe even Shanahan, will be drastically different if something like this happens again next year.

Given the lack of playoff revenue expectations during this weird period, I think Shanny and Dubas get a pass because who cares.

I don't think Shanahan survives given this is his second GM if things don't go well next season.  No doubt there's going to be heat on Dubas.