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Around the League 2019-2025 Edition

CH1 said:
even an obscure player like Niko Mikkola (6th rd pick) is interesting.. the guy is huge but some pro scout in Florida focused on his straight line speed (which is elite) and argued that he'd be a perfect fit for the Panthers system

and voila, another surplus value added contract is born

beats the hell out of trading a 1st rounder and a good prospect for Carlo
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There's a lesson in there. We've never had a coherent "Leaf system" of hockey. Babcock was stretchy passes on offence, grit and grind along the boards and bad shots (not too dissimilar from Berube) and be long, know where to stand defensively. Sheldon started off with a more modern possession and high quality shot driven offence but for some reason couldn't get the team to play anything but terrified hockey when they had a lead. Berube is a huge departure from that style of play but instead of fixing the bad (we're much better at holding leads now) and keeping the good. Insists that we're back to a Babcockesque stretch pass, dump and chase bullshit style of offensive play.

So targetting undervalued players elsewhere who would be perfect for our system is tricky when we've never had a unified style of hockey that the organization agrees upon from top to bottom.
 
Preston said:
As I've been saying, there are no good solutions. They're fucked and I cringe thinking about the moves that are about to be made. They have a d corps that is a day away from imploding due to age and a Matthews quietly at the end of his prime age and being held together by duct tape.. so you can't really afford to do anything but go for broke and try to win. But I legitimately don't see how they get there.

Fucked. They're fucked.
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Yep. And Matthews this time will leave IMO.
This has been royally fucked-up.
 
MindzEye said:
There's a lesson in there. We've never had a coherent "Leaf system" of hockey. Babcock was stretchy passes on offence, grit and grind along the boards and bad shots (not too dissimilar from Berube) and be long, know where to stand defensively. Sheldon started off with a more modern possession and high quality shot driven offence but for some reason couldn't get the team to play anything but terrified hockey when they had a lead. Berube is a huge departure from that style of play but instead of fixing the bad (we're much better at holding leads now) and keeping the good. Insists that we're back to a Babcockesque stretch pass, dump and chase bullshit style of offensive play.

So targetting undervalued players elsewhere who would be perfect for our system is tricky when we've never had a unified style of hockey that the organization agrees upon from top to bottom.
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Yeah I was gonna add what Florida does seems like common sense (locate talent that could mesh with their system) it does seem like a radical process among NHL teams.
 
CH1 said:
Yeah I was gonna add what Florida does seems like common sense (locate talent that could mesh with their system) it does seem like a radical process among NHL teams.
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Something I've always wondered is if the euros hadn't figured this out decades ago and the rest of us suck at sports organizations.

It's never made sense to me that a lead executive would come in and then hire a tactics/day to day guy who he would then largely defer to on style of play and by extension, personnel. The concept of a Manager who handles all player/personnel decisions, and all strategic style of play matters which specific support staffs for both makes a lot more sense to me.

This flailing around from one coach to the next and each one comes in expecting to have his way on who plays and how you play seems fucking stupid to me.
 
Or in the NFL where a HC is hired to implement a system (both offense and defense) and then the GM is tasked to find the right players (at the right price) for their HC.

On many NFL teams the HC has as much power as the GM
 
MindzEye said:
There's a lesson in there. We've never had a coherent "Leaf system" of hockey. Babcock was stretchy passes on offence, grit and grind along the boards and bad shots (not too dissimilar from Berube) and be long, know where to stand defensively. Sheldon started off with a more modern possession and high quality shot driven offence but for some reason couldn't get the team to play anything but terrified hockey when they had a lead. Berube is a huge departure from that style of play but instead of fixing the bad (we're much better at holding leads now) and keeping the good. Insists that we're back to a Babcockesque stretch pass, dump and chase bullshit style of offensive play.

So targetting undervalued players elsewhere who would be perfect for our system is tricky when we've never had a unified style of hockey that the organization agrees upon from top to bottom.
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Bingo , plus your regimes are too fucken scared to try some AHL yutes on the cheap but rather lets pick scraps and pay more
 
Leafin' said:
We should be identifying the next Bennett. The next Reinhart. Why are we never the team that can find these guys?
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Doesn't matter.

If we ever did find possibles like that they'd turn to shit as soon as they put on that blue shirt.

I'm at the point now, like someone else said a few posts ago, that I don't really give a fuck what they do this off-season. Whatever it is will likely be a disaster.

I no longer expect to ever see these peckerheads ever win a cup. Not just the current bunch either, the Leafs in perpetuity.

But yeah, I'll still torture myself by watching. It's an addiction.
 
MindzEye said:
There's a lesson in there. We've never had a coherent "Leaf system" of hockey. Babcock was stretchy passes on offence, grit and grind along the boards and bad shots (not too dissimilar from Berube) and be long, know where to stand defensively. Sheldon started off with a more modern possession and high quality shot driven offence but for some reason couldn't get the team to play anything but terrified hockey when they had a lead. Berube is a huge departure from that style of play but instead of fixing the bad (we're much better at holding leads now) and keeping the good. Insists that we're back to a Babcockesque stretch pass, dump and chase bullshit style of offensive play.

So targetting undervalued players elsewhere who would be perfect for our system is tricky when we've never had a unified style of hockey that the organization agrees upon from top to bottom.
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Then again, the Leafs had a coach once upon a time who, after they cut him loose, wound up in Florida and won back-to-back Cups playing a system that even the best player in the game today could not get past.

With Maurice behind the bench, the Panthers definitely play a discernable style. They pressure you, they grind you, and they prevent you from doing what you want to do. And to them it doesn't matter what the score is or what point the game is at. They play the same way whether it's 1-0 or 5-1. The way they play in the first 10 minutes is the same way they play the last 10 minutes. And every line does the same things in roughly the same way.

And, again, the Leafs once employed this coach.
 
Slinger 48 said:
Doesn't matter.

If we ever did find possibles like that they'd turn to shit as soon as they put on that blue shirt.

I'm at the point now, like someone else said a few posts ago, that I don't really give a fuck what they do this off-season. Whatever it is will likely be a disaster.

I no longer expect to ever see these peckerheads ever win a cup. Not just the current bunch either, the Leafs in perpetuity.

But yeah, I'll still torture myself by watching. It's an addiction.
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Acceptance of your fate makes it easier. You won't have a nervous breakdown when Marner and Tavares leave like LOF surely will.
 
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