Leafs 2014-15 Season Thread

[BramptonYute]

Looks like another loss tonight.

Everything is going swell.

On another note, Rielly has looked good since Phaneuf has been out.

EDIT: I think I just jinxed us. Its tied now.

[OAKLEY_2]

I think if Seth Jones is offered you snatch it. Kessel could be a good fit in Nashville too.

That would be too good to be true. Yes if offered you do it.

[sortpar]

Well, at least the "suits" are being entertained by the new music, that is being played during Leaf games. The new music thing, almost comes across as MLSE trying too hard to make the Leafs games trendy and cool.

[bballsparkin]

I think if Seth Jones is offered you snatch it. Kessel could be a good fit in Nashville too.

That would be too good to be true. Yes if offered you do it.

Agreed. I would think the Leafs would have to sweeten the deal maybe by taking back a bad contract. Jones could be a generational big defenseman. As in the Pronger, Chara, and Weber mode. The thing that makes Nashville unique though is that they already have Weber. I remember the time of the draft I read they wanted to draft McKinnon or Drouin for that reason. Plus because there is a belief it is easier to mimic a stay at home big defenseman than it is to mimic an offensively talented player. All this together and maybe there is something in the works to be done with Kessel there. As a Canuck fan I'd gladly trade any combo of Canuck players for Jones.

Someone in this thread compared Kessel to VC and I've thought about that and think it is a great comparison. Perhaps a warning on how the Leafs handle Kessel too.

[OAKLEY_2]

So according to Kelly the beginning of the Leaf deconstruction is imminent. Burke soon found out that his hire and market splashes were to fatten up the team for sale. This will be the deconstruction of those horrendous moves made for business reasons not hockey reasons. I am pretty sure that Toronto only made FA moves for PR.

Things they should avoid
1. Big name coach
2. Big name goalie
3. Long term contracts
4. NCAA players (low upside)
5. Drafting defence men as a priority
6. Falling in love with power forwards at the expense of fundamental skills
7. Competing against the KHL or other pro leagues for players
8. Filling the bottom six spots with veteran FAs
9. Rethink the platinum seating
10. Don't hire yes men or yes women

[Brew666]

Burke soon found out that his hire and market splashes were to fatten up the team for sale. This will be the deconstruction of those horrendous moves made for business reasons not hockey reasons. I am pretty sure that Toronto only made FA moves for PR.

Did you read this somewhere?

If there is any truth to this, no wonder the franchise has been a failure these last few years.

I hope what Kelly wrote is true b/c if ownership is really only interested in dollars then they're never going to tear it down/rebuild properly.

I also hope this isn't a difference of opinion between the 2 ownership groups that's playing out through the media. Maybe over-analyzing but it's interesting this comes from Bell owned media and not Rogers with them being all things hockey now.

[GYBE]

Things they should avoid
1. Big name coach
2. Big name goalie
3. Long term contracts
4. NCAA players (low upside)
5. Drafting defence men as a priority
6. Falling in love with power forwards at the expense of fundamental skills
7. Competing against the KHL or other pro leagues for players
8. Filling the bottom six spots with veteran FAs
9. Rethink the platinum seating
10. Don't hire yes men or yes women

4. That's ridiculous. Eichel and Hanifan are the consensus 2nd and 3rd best players in the draft.

5. The team has no competent RD once Franson is moved. I want the best player available, regardless of position.

8. No. Those spots should go to kids making the minimum. That's what good teams do. Of course the Leafs don't have the talent to fill out the bottom of their roster well with prospects, but that's a different problem.

The other stuff I can agree with, generally.

[OAKLEY_2]

Things they should avoid
1. Big name coach
2. Big name goalie
3. Long term contracts
4. NCAA players (low upside)
5. Drafting defence men as a priority
6. Falling in love with power forwards at the expense of fundamental skills
7. Competing against the KHL or other pro leagues for players
8. Filling the bottom six spots with veteran FAs
9. Rethink the platinum seating
10. Don't hire yes men or yes women

4. That's ridiculous. Eichel and Hanifan are the consensus 2nd and 3rd best players in the draft.

Strome from Erie I take. At what will be at best 4 or 5th selection.

5. The team has no competent RD once Franson is moved. I want the best player available, regardless of position.

8. No. Those spots should go to kids making the minimum. That's what good teams do. Of course the Leafs don't have the talent to fill out the bottom of their roster well with prospects, but that's a different problem.

The other stuff I can agree with, generally.

[OAKLEY_2]

I take Strome.

[whysoserious]

I'm glad to see they are finally getting ownership on board with rebuilding but at the same time I'm a little pissed off too.

It's not like this team is drastically different than last year or years past even with some changes. They could have avoided the Dion and Phill extensions and been in a better position to land McDavid had Shanny had a bit of guts to stand up to them and say this is the path instead of waiting for the team to fail once again.

[BramptonYute]

1.McDavid
2.Eichel
3/4.Hanifan/Provorov (interchangeable)
5. Strome

Would love to end up with Strome or one of those dmen

[GYBE]

I think 7th is about the worst we could pick, so I'll go that far with my rankings:

1. McDavid
2. Eichel
3. Marner
4. Strome
5. Hanifan
6. Provorov
7. Kylington

[BramptonYute]

I think the best and most realistic spot for us would be 4th overall. McDavid and Eichel are going 1 and 2, if the third team takes Strome we can still pick up a solid dman, or if they take a dman, we get Strome.

Marner would also be pretty damn good. Although I give a slight edge to Strome because of his size.

[OAKLEY_2]

I think the best and most realistic spot for us would be 4th overall. McDavid and Eichel are going 1 and 2, if the third team takes Strome we can still pick up a solid dman, or if they take a dman, we get Strome.

Marner would also be pretty damn good. Although I give a slight edge to Strome because of his size.

Had a chance to watch a full game of the Marlies this year.

The following players from the Marlies could potentially be Leaf regulars or near regulars.

1. Connor Brown RW
2. Josh Lievo RW
3. Trevor Smith C
4. Victor Loov D
5. Christopher Gibson G
6. William Nylander C (maybe a near regular as still a kid)
7. Stu Percy D

Assume we retain from Leafs

8. Holland C
9. Kadri C
10. Komarov C
11. Clarkson RW
12. Gardiner D
13. Reilly D
14. Riemer G
15. Holzer D
16. JVR

17. 18. Return from Kessel trade
19. Return from Franson trade
20. Return from Bozak trade
21. 22. Return from Phaneuf trade
23. Waiver wire

Strome picked in draft.

[OAKLEY_2]

Add Panik to the names of players likely retained. Delete Trevor Smith and Gibson from any Marlie additions. I just cannot see the Leafs ever promoting a goalie and Smith is the captain of the farm. I will say the Marlies looked like absolute sht this year save for Percy but not as bad as the Leafs who defy a proper description as to how bad they have been. I have read talk about re upping Bernier but that sounds like the old Leafs talking and has to be a smokescreen. Any new direction mandates moving him for picks and riding Reimer through a rebuild. The Not Since 67's are in such an obvious bind with a big time fire sale sign posted and lame duck GM.

[ATLTimekeeper]

I'm glad to see they are finally getting ownership on board with rebuilding but at the same time I'm a little pissed off too.

It's not like this team is drastically different than last year or years past even with some changes. They could have avoided the Dion and Phill extensions and been in a better position to land McDavid had Shanny had a bit of guts to stand up to them and say this is the path instead of waiting for the team to fail once again.

Shanahan was brought on in the summer. Those extensions were Nonis/Leweike. The Cathal Kelly article said that Shanahan only got approval from MLSE to tear it down after proving that it wasn't going to work in the middle of this season.

Anyway, looks like another year where there's a legitimate prize at the top and they won't be bad enough to land it. Like Kadri in the Tavares draft, Schenn in the Stamkos/ Doughty draft.

[whysoserious]

Shanahan was brought on in the summer. Those extensions were Nonis/Leweike. The Cathal Kelly article said that Shanahan only got approval from MLSE to tear it down after proving that it wasn't going to work in the middle of this season.

Anyway, looks like another year where there's a legitimate prize at the top and they won't be bad enough to land it. Like Kadri in the Tavares draft, Schenn in the Stamkos/ Doughty draft.

Shanny was hired in April but you are right that the extensions were given out prior to his hiring. I wish Shanny had the guts to stand up to ownership right from the beginning though, it's reflection of this organization's simple poor planning. They missed the chance to do it right once again. Instead of rebuilding they kept holding on to hope this core was good enough even though there was little evidence to support it. Ownership has been the problem always. No matter which group they have been short-sighted and every management group since the cap era has been horrendous at managing the cap.

Hopefully Shanny gets the right people in place but it's what pisses me off, that we missed out again on a generational talent that could have set up the franchise by poor planning long-term and thinking short-term of just trying to get in the playoffs (and failing at even that low bar).

[GYBE]

Hopefully Shanny gets the right people in place but it's what pisses me off, that we missed out again on a generational talent that could have set up the franchise by poor planning long-term and thinking short-term of just trying to get in the playoffs (and failing at even that low bar).

I find this is a little much. Even Buffalo only has a 20% chance of getting McDavid, it's not like rebuilding sooner would have magically delivered him to us.

Besides, there's no way we would have been worse than Buffalo (or Edmonton), no matter what we did. We have the 5th-worst record right now. Maybe if we started rebuilding sooner we're at 3rd instead of 5th, but keep in mind that's only a 3% difference in our chances of getting McDavid.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Shanny was hired in April but you are right that the extensions were given out prior to his hiring. I wish Shanny had the guts to stand up to ownership right from the beginning though, it's reflection of this organization's simple poor planning.

"Well if you hire me Tim, my first recommendation is to scrap everything you signed off on last year, because you're clearly an idiot. And Rogers, I know you just spent billions on hockey rights, but I'd like to take your biggest ratings earner off the table for a 20% at a local boy."

[OAKLEY_2]

Shanny was hired in April but you are right that the extensions were given out prior to his hiring. I wish Shanny had the guts to stand up to ownership right from the beginning though, it's reflection of this organization's simple poor planning.

"Well if you hire me Tim, my first recommendation is to scrap everything you signed off on last year, because you're clearly an idiot. And Rogers, I know you just spent billions on hockey rights, but I'd like to take your biggest ratings earner off the table for a 20% at a local boy."

If I had a 20% shot at 649 I would be playing it every week. Rogers isn't wowing me with their Jays, Leafs or extra bandwidth charges. This year has been the biggest ignore switch ever for the Leafs and it ironically coincides with CBC leaving the building. Rogers is horrible for sports. Who told CBC to lowball HNIC? Oh wait I know who. As long as Rogers is anywhere near these teams they likely will sk monkey balz.