• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

2025-2026 Off Season Thread - The Rehappening

Going to try and puck pedia GM with the cuntiest group of forwards i can figure out while keeping some skill. Marchand, Bennett, kadri, bunting and Perry. Not sure what I'll have to sacrifice to make the $$ work.
 
Going to try and puck pedia GM with the cuntiest group of forwards i can figure out while keeping some skill. Marchand, Bennett, kadri, bunting and Perry. Not sure what I'll have to sacrifice to make the $$ work.
Alas, its the worst time to try and pick up some well rounded talent this year though?
 
It's because drafting and development is a massive, massive problem for this team and always has been.

Top to bottom the organization has always held bad ideas at it's core. The amount of draft picks we've wasted on picking 6'3+ stiffs is only topped by the amount of picks we've given away taking on other people's gudpros. It also doesn't help that the fake nerd's first ever act at the draft table for Toronto was to pass over Konecny to take Dermott and a chubby italian kid with nice hands.
 
Top to bottom the organization has always held bad ideas at it's core. The amount of draft picks we've wasted on picking 6'3+ stiffs is only topped by the amount of picks we've given away taking on other people's gudpros. It also doesn't help that the fake nerd's first ever act at the draft table for Toronto was to pass over Konecny to take Dermott and a chubby italian kid with nice hands.

the dream is that this team will realize scouting and drafting is the key to a championship and have the collective epiphany that they haven't won mostly because of those reasons. A lot of the other bad decisions and trades and the constant bleeding of picks stem from the same root cause. the trading of 1st round picks for the calibre and type of players we're trading them for lay bare the chronic issues with the development system. this continues across regimes, across GMs, across scouting departments. it's a consistent pattern here.

but that's all it is, a dream.

meanwhile in the real world, we're going to see Treliving (who has no picks and nothing left in the cupboard) try to throw a dump truck of cash at the free agent market to keep this team afloat on the pretense that it has a real chance at a title. the Leafs of course will be sitting on their hands at the draft once again...and the cycle of life continues...
 
You're more than welcome to go and check: https://www.hockey-reference.com/

You're the only one here who needs convincing and nothing anyone says convinces you, so have at it.
I dug up my post from a few years ago. I'm cutting it down to just the final two games, and updating it for the last few playoffs.

2017 Caps:
Game 6 - Lost 2-1 in OT (Matty 1G, Willy 1A).
Game 7 - Lost 2-1 in OT (Matty 1G).

2018 Boston:
Game 6 - Won 3-1 (Marner 1G 1A, Nylander 1G)
Game 7 - Lost 7-4 (Marner 2A and Willy 1A).

2019 Boston (up 3-2 in the series with two chances to close out)
Game 6 - Lost 4-2 (Matty 1G, Willy 1A).
Game 7 - Lost 5-1 (Tavares 1G).

2020 Columbus (5 game series, just the last two games)
Game 4 - Won 4-3 in OT (Matty 1G 2A, Marner 3 assists, Tavares 1G 1A, Willy 1G 1A).
Game 5 - Lost 3-0.

2021 Montreal
Game 6 - Lost 3-2 in OT (zero points for the Core 3 missing Tavares).
Game 7 - Lost 3-1 (Nylander 1G, Matty 1A).

2022 TB (lost two straight close out games)
Game 6 - Lost 4-3 in OT (Tavares 2G, Willy 2A, Matty 1G).
Game 7 - Lost 2-1 (Marner/Matthews 1A).

2023 TB first round win
Game 5 - Lost 4-2 (Tavares 2A, Matty 1G, Marner 1A)
Game 6 - Won 2-1 (Tavares 1G, Matty 1G)

2023 Fla second round loss
Game 4 - Won 2-1 (Marner 1G and 1A, Nylander 1G)
Game 5 - Lost 3-2 (Nylander 1G, Tavares 1A)

2024 Boston first round loss
Game 6 - Won 2-1 (Nylander 2G - Matthews didn't play)
Game 7 - Lost 2-1 (Nylander 1G, Matthews 1G)

2025 Ottawa first round win
Game 5 - Lost 4-0
Game 6 - Won 4-3 (Nylander 2G 1A, Matthews 1G, Marner 1A)

2025 Florida second round loss
Game 6 - Won 2-0 (Matthews 1G, Marner 1A)
Game 7 - Lost 6-1 (nothing for core 4)

Looking back, I almost forgot about some of this heartbreak. We came back from 3-1 against Boston to lose in Game 7 OT. The Florida series in 2023 was insanely close every single game, for all the nonsense talk about how Florida crushed us 4-1 in the series. But anyway.

I can't bring myself to go back and see how many games the core 4 missed over the years, like Tavares not being there in the beginning series and missing the full Montreal series, and then Matty and Nylander alternating in and out last year against Boston.

But in terms of just their totals in the final two games of each series, without knowing games played:

Nylander 10G 7A 17 PTS
Matthews 10G 4A 14 PTS
Marner 2G 11A 13 PTS
Tavares 7G 2A 9 PTS

There were a total of 22 games above, though Tavares missed at least 6 of them I think, and Matthews and Nylander missed some too.

Actually all better than I expected given that it feels like they've never done anything in those elimination games, but still not good enough obviously when our record in those 22 games is 7-15.

Now just looking at the final games (total of 11 possible, our record being 2-9).

Nylander - 5G 2A 7 PTS
Matthews - 4G 2A 6 PTS
Marner - 0G 4A 4 PTS
Tavares - 2G 1A 3 PTS

Obviously nobody is good enough, given their regular season performances and talents.
 
Nylander - 5G 2A 7 PTS
Matthews - 4G 2A 6 PTS
Marner - 0G 4A 4 PTS
Tavares - 2G 1A 3 PTS

Nobody is good enough, but getting 2 goals for 22 million annually is fucking tragic. Those just are the same types of performances. Especially when you consider that the best place for Matthews and Willy to get assists from, are the two guys who can't score goals in the clutch.
 
Nobody is good enough, but getting 2 goals for 22 million annually is fucking tragic. Those just are the same types of performances. Especially when you consider that the best place for Matthews and Willy to get assists from, are the two guys who can't score goals in the clutch.
6 goals for $35.5m isn’t all that much better though.
 
It does show though, that any debate about Marner over Willy is dead in the water. Can never lose Willy, no matter what.
 
yeah, it's as much a pro scouting issue as an amateur one.

if your team's problem is generating offence and goalscoring depth through the lineup, you probably don't want to blow your load on players who don't generate any offence, which is what they did.
 
Back
Top