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Great concept, do we have indication that either of these players would have signed these? For example, my recollection of the Nylander signing was there were 2 sources of outrage at the time of the signing: 1) Nylander's refusal to sign a bridge deal, which was still the norm at the time and...

So, how do you think the Leafs should have handled any one of those scenarios? Or are we just complaining that we don't like the way money flows in the NHL?

I've been wondering about this with Robertson. I think it's actually a really interesting case for whether the RFA rules actually work. As you point out, Robertson's issue is that as strapped as the leafs are, if he signs with someone for ~$1.5, the Leafs probably just match. No upside to...

If you're looking for an example of what a tear it down rebuild would have looked like for the Jays, on the optimistic end you could look at what the Orioles who have just been crushing the Jays have done. Back in 2018, The Orioles were cratering. The record was awful, and it was not a fluke...

While we can't ever know for sure how it impacted their results, I suspect you're right. Personally I loved the kids up the end of the dugout having fun. In every walk of life, people do their jobs better when they enjoy doing them. I find the old school baseball mentality where everything has...

Pretty good group of players! Ironically, the shift from offense focused Teoscar & Gurriel -> defense focused Varsho & Kiermaier would probably have been fine if it hadn't also coincided with Kirk forgetting how to hit (people here may not like him, but he won the Silver Slugger in '22), age...

Marner's playoff issue in 2024 wasn't tighter checking, it was that he didn't produce on the Powerplay. The Leafs went 1 for 21 at the same time as the Penalty Kill (of which Marner is also a key feature) crumbled (though to be fair, it's not like this was a strength). In '22 and '23, Marner...

If we're going to get meta, I'd suggest taking it up a level further and not getting to attached to any sort of "playoff style" (and beyond that, I think you've got some legwork to do on your premise re: playmakers, but meta's the phrase i'm bumping on, so let's stay there). Right now it's the...

Feels like reaching. Biggest reason Savard didn't have bigger playoff numbers was he played most of his career on teams that didn't make the playoffs. Argue that's on him if you like, but it's a team game. Even if your take holds somewhat true, Savard in his 25 playoff games doesn't have the...

At risk of missing the point... I don't think that McCauley fits this narrative. McCauley's 01-02 playoffs were probably the only time he really performed to his potential in the NHL with the Leafs (possibly the first half of the regular season back in Cujo's first year in Toronto). With...

Yes. Players like Marner are extremely hard to come by. Trying to be clever with cap space is an easy way to make the team worse.

Bo and Vlad aren't the victims in the story of this Blue Jays season. The team is built around them and they haven't produced.  We're getting towards the end of their team control years now and the team has to decide. Pay them as stars (which is I assume their ask and why they haven't already...

That's a generous serving of irony there. In the hypothetical where we replace Marner's $11M with 2x $5.5 players, that's no guarantee of quality. Last year the leafs spent $5.5M on Tyler Bertuzzi and $5M on TJ Brodie. If that's what the Leafs got for Marner, that does not read as an...

I think it's polarising because the bolded statement is only true if we've decided the Leafs are better without Marner. I think there are a lot of people who have internalised the "nobody else has as top heavy a salary cap structure as the Leafs" to mean "you can't win this way". While that's a...

I'm all for GM's being boring, and most of the bets Shapiro & Atkins have made were individually defensible at the time, but at some point, if all your bets keep losing, responsibility lies with the one placing the bets. Tougher to parse coaching, the single biggest failing of the Jays is...

A version of the Leafs as committed to team defence as they were from games 5-7 and where the special teams contributed would be an interesting team to watch.

Media sells on entertainment, and the drama of running a big star out of town is more entertaining that a nuanced reflection. People are uncomfortable with relative probability, even if we don't "believe in fate", we tend to become fatalistic after the fact... "thing x was never going to...

If I were to put myself in Marner's shoes, what I'd want is transparency from the team and assurance that the media narrative can be ignored. i.e. Treliving should be (and likely is) talking to other GMs to establish the reality of any trade value. He should make sure Marner is aware of this in...

I think more likely that the old men of baseball decreed that it wasn't the way we do things under the guise of "growing up". Still plenty of people who think anyone who bat flips should get popped.

For those after dramatic change, Marner's contract status will be tantalising. Particularly after signing bonuses get paid on July 1, and the big cap hit comes along with only $775k of actual salary. Just that one pesky obstacle of his NMC preventing you from transforming him into whatever piece...