Armchair GM 2016-2017

[Nik]

Are there any young Matt Niskanen type defense in UFA this year? He was more the type of player I think the Leafs could conceivably make a pitch for, and kind of the characteristic opposite to Shattenkirk.

Lower goal scoring = cheaper, but defensively sound puck mover (i.e. Who I hope Zaitsev will be long term).

It's really not a buyer's market for defensemen of any kind this year.

[CarltonTheBear]

Are there any young Matt Niskanen type defense in UFA this year? He was more the type of player I think the Leafs could conceivably make a pitch for, and kind of the characteristic opposite to Shattenkirk.

Brendan Smith is probably the closest there is:



Good skater, but basically no threat offensively. Could form a good 2nd pairing with Rielly to help get his shots against numbers down or with Carrick to get a stabilizing 3rd pairing.

[Zee]

Are there any young Matt Niskanen type defense in UFA this year? He was more the type of player I think the Leafs could conceivably make a pitch for, and kind of the characteristic opposite to Shattenkirk.

Brendan Smith is probably the closest there is:



Good skater, but basically no threat offensively. Could form a good 2nd pairing with Rielly to help get his shots against numbers down or with Carrick to get a stabilizing 3rd pairing.

Good Mimico kid, Shanahan will like that.

[cabber24]

Karl Alzner would be high on my wish list. Not flashy but has a lot of what the Leafs need. Minute crunching defensively sound D-man.

[CarltonTheBear]

Karl Alzner would be high on my wish list. Not flashy but has a lot of what the Leafs need. Minute crunching defensively sound D-man.

He was quite possibly their worst defencemen through 2 games and the team was almost definitely better off with Nate Schmidt in the line-up over him.

[cabber24]

Karl Alzner would be high on my wish list. Not flashy but has a lot of what the Leafs need. Minute crunching defensively sound D-man.

He was quite possibly their worst defencemen through 2 games and the team was almost definitely better off with Nate Schmidt in the line-up over him.

His career does consist of 2 games... he plays close to 20 minutes most night and is usually quite dependable.

[herman]

I was definitely depending on Alzner to return to the series, but my hopes were misplaced.

[CarltonTheBear]

I know that this won't exactly be popular, and no I'm not basing it entirely on his performance in the playoffs, but I really think that trading Zaitsev for a quality left-winger might be something that the Leafs should look into this offseason. I don't think that we'll get as lucky as New Jersey did with Larsson for Hall, but if we can get anything close to that it's something we should at the very least explore. I'm also just not convinced that his value will ever be higher than it is right now.

I will add the one condition being obviously that we need somebody to replace his minutes on the right side for next season if we want to still compete. But since this is an armchair GM thread I'm going to armchair GM.

-Trade Zaitsev for 'mystery top-6 left winger for Matthews'
-Sign Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith
-Clear cap space where necessary, starting with Bozak. While his play has absolutely won me over, I think his value too is at the highest it will ever be
-If we end up losing Martin in the expansion draft or trading him, I'd bring back Boyle for the 4C
-*shudders* bring back Hunwick. If it's a cheap deal, the extra depth can't hurt. I just hope he doesn't get guaranteed minutes again

(Zaitsev)-Matthews-Marner
Leipsic-Nylander-Kapanen
Komarov-Kadri-Brown
Hyman-Boyle-Soshnikov
Leivo

Gardiner-Shattenkirk
Rielly-Smith
Marincin-Carrick
Hunwick

Andersen

[CarltonTheBear]

His career does consist of 2 games... he plays close to 20 minutes most night and is usually quite dependable.

Honestly, you're right. But I don't think his play in these playoffs was anything very different from his play throughout the season. He was arguably their worst defenceman throughout the regular season too. Alzner probably used to be a very good defenceman, but his play has seriously dropped and it's not going to get any better.

[Significantly Insignificant]

I know that this won't exactly be popular, and no I'm not basing it entirely on his performance in the playoffs, but I really think that trading Zaitsev for a quality left-winger might be something that the Leafs should look into this offseason. I don't think that we'll get as lucky as New Jersey did with Larsson for Hall, but if we can get anything close to that it's something we should at the very least explore. I'm also just not convinced that his value will ever be higher than it is right now.

I will add the one condition being obviously that we need somebody to replace his minutes on the right side for next season if we want to still compete. But since this is an armchair GM thread I'm going to armchair GM.

-Trade Zaitsev for 'mystery top-6 left winger for Matthews'
-Sign Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith
-Clear cap space where necessary, starting with Bozak. While his play has absolutely won me over, I think his value too is at the highest it will ever be
-If we end up losing Martin in the expansion draft or trading him, I'd bring back Boyle for the 4C
-*shudders* bring back Hunwick. If it's a cheap deal, the extra depth can't hurt. I just hope he doesn't get guaranteed minutes again

(Zaitsev)-Matthews-Marner
Leipsic-Nylander-Kapanen
Komarov-Kadri-Brown
Hyman-Boyle-Soshnikov
Leivo

Gardiner-Shattenkirk
Rielly-Smith
Marincin-Carrick
Hunwick

Andersen

I find your strange and crazy ideas intriguing.  Do you have a newsletter that I can sign up for? 

[Nik]

-Trade Zaitsev for 'mystery top-6 left winger for Matthews'
-Sign Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith

I have two problems here. One, and I've said this before, I think scoring wingers are probably where you can best use the UFA market. Using a commodity like Zaitsev in search of one seems like a bad use of assets.

Two, I think you're almost certainly paying a heavy premium for defensemen on that market. I think Shattenkirk is better than we saw in this series but I think we have to be realistic about the fact that signing him probably means committing to pay him in the area of 7 million a year for his 34-36 seasons.

That said, ignoring defense for a second, I do agree that the one piece the Leafs could really use is a sort of Andrew Ladd scoring but also tough and good in battles winger to play with(hopefully) Matthews and Marner next year.

[bustaheims]

On the blueline, I wonder if maybe Kulikov can be picked up on a cheaper, short-term deal. He's not the right-handed shot people crave, but he's decent with the puck and could be decent defensively in a 3rd pairing type role.

[CarltonTheBear]

I have two problems here. One, and I've said this before, I think scoring wingers are probably where you can best use the UFA market. Using a commodity like Zaitsev in search of one seems like a bad use of assets.

Two, I think you're almost certainly paying a heavy premium for defensemen on that market. I think Shattenkirk is better than we saw in this series but I think we have to be realistic about the fact that signing him probably means committing to pay him in the area of 7 million a year for his 34-36 seasons.

I think that my general feeling here is that if we're going to use the UFA market to improve our team we have to accept that whoever we get is almost certainly going to be overpaid. That's just how that market works. So I'd rather overpay for a top-3 defenceman than a top-6 forward.

[Nik]

I think that my general feeling here is that if we're going to use the UFA market to improve our team we have to accept that whoever we get is almost certainly going to be overpaid. That's just how that market works. So I'd rather overpay for a top-3 defenceman than a top-6 forward.

That's sort of my point though. I think there's lots of evidence that you can use the Free Agent market to add a scoring winger without paying a huge price(Justin Williams, for instance) and there's not much to suggest the same with top 3 defensemen.

[CarltonTheBear]

That's sort of my point though. I think there's lots of evidence that you can use the Free Agent market to add a scoring winger without paying a huge price(Justin Williams, for instance) and there's not much to suggest the same with top 3 defensemen.

I guess it all depends on who that winger is. I mean last year we saw Backes, Ericsson, Lucic, Okposo, and Ladd all get $6mil with varying degrees of term. If those are the type of options available to us I think Shattenkirk at $7mil with term would probably be better for our team.

And just to expand a little on my original though: I only really brought this up because I felt that a) we could get a team to possibly considerably overpay for Zaitsev by exploiting the idea that right-handed defencemen are worth a ton more than scoring wings and b) we could replace/even improve on Zaitsev's contributions to the team through just the use of cap space. I do admit that being successful on both those counts is a bit pipe-dreamy.