My honest opinion for 2021-22

[Highlander]

I never did understand the Zaitsev departure in the sense that he was being asked by Babcock to play a different role, one he was ill suited for and didn't like. It seemed to me that the expedient step would have been to revert Zaitsev to his previous role where he played reasonable well (well enough to get a raise and a contract extension anyway) and wait to see how he performed.

Then there is the fact that Babcock was already on thin ice at the time -- although it was not publicly known at the time -- so why dump a player to satisfy a coach in that position?

The policy of giving away players and first rounders is stupid. Connor Brown springs to mind but there are others. The Marleau first round price was insane as was the same price paid to bring in Foligno -- a player that leaf management does not seem overly interested in retaining.

Shortly put, the debate as to wether Lou or Dubas is or was the better choice as GM avoids the alternative that perhaps neither one was better than the other ... or the best choice.

If it came down to a choice however, I would have chosen Lou, based purely on his body of work and his understanding of the type of player needed to win in the playoffs.

Insanity is repeating the same behaviour expecting a different result and the Dubas insistence that he will bet it all on this group makes me think 2021/22 will be his last as Leaf GM. Last year's roster was not good enough and I see nothing so far to indicate next years' will be better or even as good.

Very unfair for you to call it a 'policy' of 'giving away players and first rounders'.  What, exactly, should Dubas have done with the Marleau contract?  Cap space is valuable, extremely valuable.  Did you see the recent Shane Gostisbehere trade to Arizona?  Competing GMs will demand a premium to help with cap issues, hence Dubas' stance with Edmonton on the Hyman deal.

I just don't understand the bias against Dubas.  I mean, have at it, he hasn't delivered the success we all hoped for.  But man alive at least use real examples rather than these straw-man arguments that are clearly disingenuous.

Name 26 other teams that have a better record than the Leafs. Dubas is doing just fine. Trust the process..

[moon111]

As it stands... this might be the extent of the developed by the Leaf's line-up for next season.
---------- / Center / Right-Wing
----------/ ---------- / Right-Wing
--------- / ----------- / -------------
--------- / ----------- / -------------
Left defense / -------------
-------------- / --------------
-------------- / Right defense

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Perhaps to that, you can add that most of the so-called assets they've had were were overpaid and under-performing with select few trading partners which resulted in many cases of buying high and selling low due to no fault of the current management.

David Clarkson, Patrick Marleau, Phil Kessel, Nazem Kadri, Matt Martin, Connor Brown, Nikita Zaitsev, Carl Grundstrom, Connor Carrick.

Perhaps the biggest criticism that could be done with the current Leaf's management is they allowed Hunter to draft guys with obviously no talent just because they were big.

[Shamus2009]

I never did understand the Zaitsev departure in the sense that he was being asked by Babcock to play a different role, one he was ill suited for and didn't like. It seemed to me that the expedient step would have been to revert Zaitsev to his previous role where he played reasonable well (well enough to get a raise and a contract extension anyway) and wait to see how he performed.

Then there is the fact that Babcock was already on thin ice at the time -- although it was not publicly known at the time -- so why dump a player to satisfy a coach in that position?

The policy of giving away players and first rounders is stupid. Connor Brown springs to mind but there are others. The Marleau first round price was insane as was the same price paid to bring in Foligno -- a player that leaf management does not seem overly interested in retaining.

Shortly put, the debate as to wether Lou or Dubas is or was the better choice as GM avoids the alternative that perhaps neither one was better than the other ... or the best choice.

If it came down to a choice however, I would have chosen Lou, based purely on his body of work and his understanding of the type of player needed to win in the playoffs.

Insanity is repeating the same behaviour expecting a different result and the Dubas insistence that he will bet it all on this group makes me think 2021/22 will be his last as Leaf GM. Last year's roster was not good enough and I see nothing so far to indicate next years' will be better or even as good.

Very unfair for you to call it a 'policy' of 'giving away players and first rounders'.  What, exactly, should Dubas have done with the Marleau contract?  Cap space is valuable, extremely valuable.  Did you see the recent Shane Gostisbehere trade to Arizona?  Competing GMs will demand a premium to help with cap issues, hence Dubas' stance with Edmonton on the Hyman deal.

I just don't understand the bias against Dubas.  I mean, have at it, he hasn't delivered the success we all hoped for.  But man alive at least use real examples rather than these straw-man arguments that are clearly disingenuous.

Name 26 other teams that have a better record than the Leafs. Dubas is doing just fine. Trust the process..

The process has been good regular seasons and poop the bed in the first round that’s not really something I feel comfortable trusting. The leafs organization has 3 more seasons to prove to Auston that they have a chance at a cup, he’s not a John Tavares or Jason spezza that grew up cheering for this team so chances are that after this contract he’ll hit the open market and like his last contract won’t be taking a home town discount. This season they have three extremely important rfa contracts. Campbell, Riely and sandin all of which I think are going to be huge factors in how the leafs do in the regular season. If the leafs finish top three in the Atlantic those three players are going to be key contributors to it. Then you have 13 million to try and get them signed which won’t happen your loosing at least 1 maybe two and then sign depth players as well so more bargain hunting. This is the season the leafs have to go go it not only because if they don’t the whole front office is getting canned but because if they don’t make a run this season I think the backend looks way different next season and not in a good way. Everyone says that sandin is the replacement for Riely but remember he’s a rfa this season too and if he has the season a lot of people are expecting he might want to hit the market and might move on as well and Reilly after the offseason that defencemen have had is going to be looking for 7-8.5 million.


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[OldTimeHockey]

Everyone says that sandin is the replacement for Riely but remember he’s a rfa this season too and if he has the season a lot of people are expecting he might want to hit the market and might move on as well

Sandin can't move on unless the Leafs want him to.

[Bender]

Everyone says that sandin is the replacement for Riely but remember he’s a rfa this season too and if he has the season a lot of people are expecting he might want to hit the market and might move on as well

Sandin can't move on unless the Leafs want him to.
[/quote]He's also barely cracked the lineup yet. Worrying about losing him is way premature.

[Joe]

Over the years I’ve seen the term ‘hometown discount’ thrown around and honestly, are there any examples of this actually happening? Where players left significant dollars on the table to stay ‘home’?

No one should have any expectations of Matthews taking a discount. He deserves whatever is coming to him.

[bustaheims]

Over the years I’ve seen the term ‘hometown discount’ thrown around and honestly, are there any examples of this actually happening? Where players left significant dollars on the table to stay ‘home’?

No one should have any expectations of Matthews taking a discount. He deserves whatever is coming to him.

Hard to say. There are definitely rumblings of players being offered more money to go elsewhere but chose to stay where they were - but, they're really just rumblings, and there's a lot of factors at play in that decision. Players aren't going to leave a contender, leave a situation where they're happy/comfortable, or choose to go to a bad team for a little extra cash.

[Nik]

Over the years I’ve seen the term ‘hometown discount’ thrown around and honestly, are there any examples of this actually happening? Where players left significant dollars on the table to stay ‘home’?

No one should have any expectations of Matthews taking a discount. He deserves whatever is coming to him.

To some extent, sure. People will cite Tampa lots and I think there are quite a few guys who took less than they almost certainly would have fetcged on the open market. Someone like Sid Crosby almost certainly could have gotten more than what he got as a UFA than he did signing long term in Pittsburgh.

The thing though, that people don't want to hear is...Matthews did kind of give the team a discount. By either way you could have measured it.

Would he have been offered more as a UFA? Yes.

Could he have demanded more and the Leafs probably would have given it to him? Again, yes. The Leafs don't ruin their relationship with him if he wants 12 million a season.