Leafs Off-Season Thread

whysoserious · Post #21 » by **whysoserious** » Tue Jul 1, 2014 3:07 pm

So Dallas goes from having no real good C's down the middle to having Seguin and Spezza now as the top two C's. And the Leafs continue to trot out Bozak/Kadri. Ugh.

Ado05 · Post #22 » by **Ado05** » Tue Jul 1, 2014 5:56 pm

Leafs sign Robidas, 3 years 3 million per.

Broke his leg twice in the last year or so. And is 37.

Ado05 · Post #23 » by **Ado05** » Tue Jul 1, 2014 5:58 pm

whysoserious wrote:So Dallas goes from having no real good C's down the middle to having Seguin and Spezza now as the top two C's. And the Leafs continue to trot out Bozak/Kadri. Ugh.

They have a really good GM. Easily one of the best in the league.

We dont. And there was no way those guys we're being traded in the division.

whysoserious · Post #24 » by **whysoserious** » Tue Jul 1, 2014 6:01 pm

Adrian_05 wrote:
whysoserious wrote:So Dallas goes from having no real good C's down the middle to having Seguin and Spezza now as the top two C's. And the Leafs continue to trot out Bozak/Kadri. Ugh.

They have a really good GM. Easily one of the best in the league.

We dont. And there was no way those guys we're being traded in the division.

Believe, me not saying those two guys would come here from the teams they were on. It's just damn disappointing to see teams turn it around and add talent like that while we try and tinker around the likes of Kadri/Bozak and justify the Phaneuf contract for 7 years.

This group has no clue what they're doing. I'm hoping they really struggle out the gates so Shanny has some fuel to fire Nonis and others and restart. Next year is a key year to be bad so clear contracts wherever possible.

Post #25 » by **CPT** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 8:39 am

Adrian_05 wrote:Leafs sign Robidas, 3 years 3 million per.

Broke his leg twice in the last year or so. And is 37.

I don't know a lot about him, but that seems like an awful deal.

ATLTimekeeper · Post #26 » by **ATLTimekeeper** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 11:29 am

Robidas is awesome if healthy. But that seems like a significant question mark going forward. Not a great FA day for the Leafs. The only move I thought was half decent was the Frattin trade. I do like Komorov, but that deal was too much. I still consider it a win this off-season that they didn't move Gardiner and drafted Nylander.

whysoserious · Post #27 » by **whysoserious** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 12:32 pm

ATLTimekeeper wrote:Robidas is awesome if healthy. But that seems like a significant question mark going forward. Not a great FA day for the Leafs. The only move I thought was half decent was the Frattin trade. I do like Komorov, but that deal was too much. I still consider it a win this off-season that they didn't move Gardiner and drafted Nylander.

The best thing for them was to get shut out by Free Agents. This team thinks that buying out Gleason and then signing a 37 year old D man is going to fix their defensive problems? I do like Robidas as a vet addition to the defense but Gleason also wasn't bad last year for this team although still overpaid.

They should have never signed Phaneuf and let him hit the open market. It looks like he wouldn't have even got that contract on the open market and we could have saved some term and money or just walked away.

Biggest weakness remains down the middle and on the back end. It's not entirely gloom and doom but they need to upgrade their first line C position.

I am interested to see Frattin back with Kadri as they seemed to have some good chemistry the year before.

Waylon Mercy · Post #28 » by **Waylon Mercy** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 8:07 pm

Whenever you get a chance to sign a 37 year old coming off a broken leg and can bring back
two scrubs you had before you just gotta do it....

Seriously I hope the Leafs tank for Connor McDavid next year their not that far off from being
one of the worst teams in the NHL especially if they continue to bring back this nucleus of
soft chokers they've assembled.

Ado05 · Post #29 » by **Ado05** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 8:30 pm

Just have to hope that Bernier has a down year!

Also dont trust Robidas going up against top competition.

This team is playoff bound. Book it.

s e n s i · Post #30 » by **s e n s i** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 3:51 am

the komorov deal is a slight overpay but not too terrible. he does have stone hands but we didn't have a single skater last season that finished checks like he does. sure he's a 3rd line plug but he has a defined role and he does it well. with kulie, bolland, raymond, and mcclement all gone, we need leo to eat up some PK minutes. our PK (that wasn't very good to begin with) somehow got worse, so i'd expect another deal to bring in a decent 3rd line C

frattin is better than d'amigo so who can really complain about that deal. was never sure what all the jerry d love was about, dude's a scrub. at least we know lupul-kadri-frattin can be an effective line

i think our defense does get better with polak/robidas instead of gunnarsson/gleason

unless we acquire a top-6 forward, scoring is gonna be a problem this season i think

s e n s i · Post #31 » by **s e n s i** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 4:08 am

whysoserious wrote:Biggest weakness remains down the middle and on the back end. It's not entirely gloom and doom but they need to upgrade their first line C position.

you don't need to upgrade any player on any line that produced the way that one did last season. only the bruins top line potted more goals in the entire league. a projected 70pt two-way C, that wins a bunch of draws in our own end, logs a tonne of shorthanded TOI, has noticeable chemistry with both jvr and kessel, and actually played up to his once questionable contract does not need to be supplanted. bozak was great last season, won't be surprised in the slightest if he's a PPG player this season. the first line is not a problem for this team. the rest of the lines though? upgrade the whole lot of them

whysoserious · Post #32 » by **whysoserious** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 4:19 am

s e n s i wrote:
you don't need to upgrade any player on any line that produced the way that one did last season. only the bruins top line potted more goals in the entire league. a projected 70pt two-way C, that wins a bunch of draws in our own end, logs a tonne of shorthanded TOI, has noticeable chemistry with both jvr and kessel, and actually played up to his once questionable contract does not need to be supplanted. bozak was great last season. the first line is not a problem for this team. the rest of the lines though? upgrade the whole lot of them

We'll have to agree to disagree. I won't deny anything you said in terms of what Bozak gave us and the chemistry that he has with Kessel/JVR. But I hate the constant justification of average players filling roles well above where they should be. Bozak is ideally a second line C possibly third line. He doesn't stack up with top line C's and that's one part of the problem. Is it the first thing to address, maybe and maybe not but it needs to be addressed.

We saw the same thing throughout the Sundin era where he would carry average wingers to great seasons but in reality they never gave him the talent he needs.

Put the Leafs roster against any of the elite teams that contend and you can see that first line C doesn't stack up even if Bozak is playing above himself and doing a solid job.

s e n s i · Post #33 » by **s e n s i** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 4:42 am

first line, second line -- it doesn't really matter. good teams have at least two very good lines. we have one already. one of the best in the league last season. look to upgrade kadri (and lupul/clarkson) if anything, but the first line should remain intact after what they did. would be idiotic to break it up. bozak produced at 70pt clip. check out how many 70pt C's you'll find in the league, see who they play alongside (other very good players), and you'll notice that bozak on that line is just fine. i think it's just because he doesn't have a sexy name or a lethal shot that people are still discounting him after last season

i'm all for acquiring a C that's more talented than bozak, but that said player should be supplanting kadri on the second line -- trying to get lupul to show up on a day other than saturday and getting clarkson to play at even a ponikarovsky-level. upgrade that line with a stud C why don't we, or else we'll continue down the path of being a one-line team. but then again how many crosby, malkin, giroux, getzlaf, toews level centres are acquirable anyhow.

Waylon Mercy · Post #34 » by **Waylon Mercy** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 6:50 pm

s e n s i wrote:first line, second line -- it doesn't really matter. good teams have at least two very good lines. we have one already. one of the best in the league last season. look to upgrade kadri (and lupul/clarkson) if anything, but the first line should remain intact after what they did. would be idiotic to break it up. bozak produced at 70pt clip. check out how many 70pt C's you'll find in the league, see who they play alongside (other very good players), and you'll notice that bozak on that line is just fine. i think it's just because he doesn't have a sexy name or a lethal shot that people are still discounting him after last season

i'm all for acquiring a C that's more talented than bozak, but that said player should be supplanting kadri on the second line -- trying to get lupul to show up on a day other than saturday and getting clarkson to play at even a ponikarovsky-level. upgrade that line with a stud C why don't we, or else we'll continue down the path of being a one-line team. but then again how many crosby, malkin, giroux, getzlaf, toews level centres are acquirable anyhow.

So you would rather plug in holes of a 9th/10thish type team in the East rather than tank for
a franchise type player that comes around about once a decade?

s e n s i · Post #35 » by **s e n s i** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 7:05 pm

Waylon Mercy wrote:So you would rather plug in holes of a 9th/10thish type team in the East rather than tank for
a franchise type player that comes around about once a decade?

no i didn't say that. but with kessel, jvr, bernier, rielly, bozak, kadri, phaneuf, gards -- that's enough talent to not suck terribly enough to land mcdavid, regardless of who fills out the rest of the roster. we'd have to blow it up completely if you wanted a scorched earth tank. that will never happen here unfortunately

Post #36 » by **Crowned** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 9:22 pm

I wasn't a huge fan of the Komarov or Frattin transactions. Why are we signing Leo to 3 mil a year? I like him as a player, but what a waste of cap. Same with this Finnish player we signed today. Is he a significant upgrade over having Holland play on the 3rd line? These fringe players and signings all seem like a waste to me. There are a few players in the minors that are more than capable of playing a role on this team next year.

Between signing Leo, and even Santorelli today...that's 4.5 million in contracts. Seriously?

s e n s i · Post #37 » by **s e n s i** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 9:32 pm

santorelli at 1yr/1.5m is an solid depth signing for the bottom 6, no beefs at all with this. we may get more value out of this then we did last season with raymond. canucks fans are pissed to see him go, especially to the leafs

whysoserious · Post #38 » by **whysoserious** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 10:53 pm

Crowned wrote:I wasn't a huge fan of the Komarov or Frattin transactions. Why are we signing Leo to 3 mil a year? I like him as a player, but what a waste of cap. Same with this Finnish player we signed today. Is he a significant upgrade over having Holland play on the 3rd line? These fringe players and signings all seem like a waste to me. There are a few players in the minors that are more than capable of playing a role on this team next year.

Between signing Leo, and even Santorelli today...that's 4.5 million in contracts. Seriously?

Well we could be the Isles and pay Kulemin over $4million per season....wtf were they thinking?

Idontknowurlife · Post #39 » by **Idontknowurlife** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 6:39 am

Wtf are the leafs doing?

whysoserious · Post #40 » by **whysoserious** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 11:53 am

Idontknowurlife wrote:Wtf are the leafs doing?

What were you expecting them to do? They've basically committed to this roster with the contracts they've handed out. All that's left are minor tweaks around the edges or a complete blow up.

Barring a major trade for someone like Thornton/Marleau (who are apparently on the block) this is the team you're going to be watching for the short-term.