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2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

2 more pages of Marner "discussions"? I thought we weren't talking about him anymore?

If we really want to discuss the difference between the team with Marner and the team without Marner..I would argue that it's 14 points. 68 team points vs 82 team points. That's all that matters at the end of the day.
 
GhostofPotvin29 said:
But there’s no guarantee (as we’ve seen right now) that pivoting off one of the star forwards means a better team. It would mean a different team, but not necessarily better. And while they were overpaid relative to their peers, they consistently produced and I’d argue that the Leafs, at least during the Dubas years, consistently found productive value throughout the rest of the lineup. Plenty of teams had their stars for less cap hit, sure, but plenty of them overpaid other players throughout the lineup too. What’s the difference if your overpays happen to the stars or the rest of the lineup? Especially when the cap was flat, there was no guarantee that trading one of those guys makes the team better.
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It had enough runway and was proven not good enough time and time again and instead we lost Marner for nothing when we could've recouped assets. That is hardly defensible.

If we're going down the guarantee road then death and taxes and all that.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/2033250791490830834

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced today that the hockey club has re-signed goaltender Artur Akhtyamov to a three-year contract extension. The deal is a two-way contract for the 2026-27 season, followed by a one-way contract in 2027-28 and 2028-29. The average annual value of the contract is $900,000.
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The Leafs continue the trend of extending their young goalies to cheap 3-year deals (Woll and Hildeby both got basically the same deals).
 
I just heard Friedman on the radio and I was a little distracted so I'm not sure if I heard it properly but he said something to the effect of Treliving was so pissed at the players reaction to the Matthews incident that he called players directly and reamed them out over the phone.

Now, I absolutely agree that the lack of response is embarrassing. But, if this is true, this seems ridiculous to me. How could any player take that seriously? In my mind the appropriate response to a call like that would be 'ok buddy, and thanks for being there when this roster needed help'.

And since when is an appropriate course of action for a GM to ream out the players?

This management team is something special.
 
That sounds like the kind of thing that, if it happened, would make a player give even less of a damn going forward in all honesty.

“I don’t want to play for those morons”.
 
There’s an article on the athletic today saying the Leafs need a new president and new vision (probably supported by a new GM).

I think that’s pretty much one of the most obviously acceptable takes out there at the minute.
 
Joe S. said:
I just heard Friedman on the radio and I was a little distracted so I'm not sure if I heard it properly but he said something to the effect of Treliving was so pissed at the players reaction to the Matthews incident that he called players directly and reamed them out over the phone.

Now, I absolutely agree that the lack of response is embarrassing. But, if this is true, this seems ridiculous to me. How could any player take that seriously? In my mind the appropriate response to a call like that would be 'ok buddy, and thanks for being there when this roster needed help'.

And since when is an appropriate course of action for a GM to ream out the players?

This management team is something special.
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If that's the response a player had I'd want them off the team immediately. I talked to a guy who played in the E and isn't old or a goon and he said it was one of the most embarassing things that he's ever witnessed in professional hockey.
 
Bender said:
If that's the response a player had I'd want them off the team immediately. I talked to a guy who played in the E and isn't old or a goon and he said it was one of the most embarassing things that he's ever witnessed in professional hockey.
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I think both sides are jokes in this instance.

The GM is an idiot and the players are spineless jackasses.
 
I think a good deal of this is media hype clickbait BS.

Gudas is a bull and we are supposed to expect Rielly to take care of him? Like when he clotheslined Greig after the slapper? All I can say is, if Matthews' future with the team could only be ensured by a gang-swarm of non-fighters on Gudas, then I guess it's bye-bye to him.

MLHS's article is most nuanced take. Sure, if you want instant retribution then the Leafs look like their usual entitled wussie selves. But how many times this season, when it was still salvageable, did Captain Matthews challenge HIMSELF to elevate his game and "do something about it." And, muddying the waters further, how much of that lack of response by Matthews was caused by Berube deploying him the way he did?

This season was a team failure from top to bottom, Pelley on down. It's time for a complete management re-set and then let the new GM figure out what to do with Matthews and everybody else. Nobody on this squad is untouchable.
 
ZBBM said:
I think a good deal of this is media hype clickbait BS.

Gudas is a bull and we are supposed to expect Rielly to take care of him? Like when he clotheslined Greig after the slapper? All I can say is, if Matthews' future with the team could only be ensured by a gang-swarm of non-fighters on Gudas, then I guess it's bye-bye to him.

MLHS's article is most nuanced take. Sure, if you want instant retribution then the Leafs look like their usual entitled wussie selves. But how many times this season, when it was still salvageable, did Captain Matthews challenge HIMSELF to elevate his game and "do something about it." And, muddying the waters further, how much of that lack of response by Matthews was caused by Berube deploying him the way he did?

This season was a team failure from top to bottom, Pelley on down. It's time for a complete management re-set and then let the new GM figure out what to do with Matthews and everybody else. Nobody on this squad is untouchable.
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I don't think most people are expecting Rielly to fight Gudas. In speaking to my buddy who played in the E, he said you have to respond either in a scrum or a crosscheck or a slash to the back of the skate or calf etc. Send the message, take the penalty or even one game suspension and move on. Even Nick Foligno fought Perry when that was, I think, pretty clearly an accident.

Totally agree Matthews probably wouldn't have jumped in there either if Willy was on the ice. Mirtle brought up the Marchand slewfoot on Liljegren and nobody did anything then either.
 
I don't think the Leafs had a guy on the ice who could "take" Gudas. I do think there was an argument that you go 4 on 1 against him and "hockey code" wouldn't view the Leafs as the party in the wrong for jumping him like that. You go after him in the aggregate.

That being said, I think the media is just taking advantage of their opportunity to fan the flames of chaos because it gets media clicks. As much as the debate around whether Toronto is a good/bad media market....Toronto has a greater number of shit disturber reporters who cover the team. I don't think on the whole that the media coverage is unreasonably unfair to the Leafs but there are a disproportionate number of these stupid articles and podcast jockeys who just throw shit at the wall to create controversy out of smaller issues that just doesn't happen in other markets to the the same extent.

I do however think there is a big problem if on the 30th the Leafs aren't out for blood. That is not a game where a win should be the priority. That should be a game where the Leafs go out to send a message.
 
Bender said:
I don't think most people are expecting Rielly to fight Gudas. In speaking to my buddy who played in the E, he said you have to respond either in a scrum or a crosscheck or a slash to the back of the skate or calf etc. Send the message, take the penalty or even one game suspension and move on. Even Nick Foligno fought Perry when that was, I think, pretty clearly an accident.

Totally agree Matthews probably wouldn't have jumped in there either if Willy was on the ice. Mirtle brought up the Marchand slewfoot on Liljegren and nobody did anything then either.
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I think Perry knew he was taking a risk with Tavares' face and could have better avoided it.
 
Anyway, I guess every face in this organization is a punchable one right now. It's tough to think our best is behind us and that a path to contention probably doesn't include this core/group/management... any of it.
 
L K said:
I don't think the Leafs had a guy on the ice who could "take" Gudas. I do think there was an argument that you go 4 on 1 against him and "hockey code" wouldn't view the Leafs as the party in the wrong for jumping him like that. You go after him in the aggregate.
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This notion that guys like 88 need to fight and stand up to him is complete bullshit. Do what Barzal did to Marchment when he hit Schaefer. Not one Leafs fan or media would be bitching if 88 skated over and Barzal'd Gudas. The issue with 88 and others is that they do nothing, ever. They did nothing to Marchment when he hit Stolarz either.
 
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