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2025-2026 Off Season Thread - The Rehappening

CH1 said:
a large chunk of NHL players prefer to play in cities with a large amount of good golfing days and max anonymity

You don’t really hear about it in other sports.
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I'm not saying it's not something they're feeling or even that they're overpowered by the pressure.

Just saying that none of them has actually said anything about the pressure.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
I'm not saying it's not something they're feeling or even that they're overpowered by the pressure.

Just saying that none of them has actually said anything about the pressure.
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And those other leafs also choked under the pressure when not complaining about the pressure.
 
zeke said:
Actually most of those guys only made it once, and got hammered in the 3rd round by the canes.

The first time sundin made it was that fun no-pressure surprise year out of nowhere where a young medium talented leafs team got to beat an ok Flyers team that had lost Lindros, beat a mediocre pens team with one good player, and got hammered by a shitty sabres team being carried by Hasek.

But those grizzled super gritty epic playoffs vets leafs team only made it to the 3rd round once, getting hammered by the canes.
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Ya that core was a massive disappointment and this one was younger, better had more time and couldn’t even be 2000s Leafs disappointing.
 
With some time and space from the disappointment, which we badly need, we do have to also acknowledge that they took the defending champs to seven games after finishing first in the division for the first time, and going deeper into the playoffs than they ever did before. They didn't get the luck of Carolina to play a crippled NJ or a garbage pretender like Washington. This WAS actually progress, as fucked up as it may seem.

This all comes from one game. We wiped out game 5 with game 6. This is all about game 7. One solitary fucking game. I'm torn over throwing everyone out and setting out on some uncertain path with brand new pieces. I'm almost sure it will go nowhere other than to a quicker need to blow it up fully, while keeping them around and again improving the depth maybe maybe maybe takes us further next year. There's no way to know. It's all risky shit at this point.
 
zeke said:
Actually most of those guys only made it once, and got hammered in the 3rd round by the canes.

The first time sundin made it was that fun no-pressure surprise year out of nowhere where a young medium talented leafs team got to beat an ok Flyers team that had lost Lindros, beat a mediocre pens team with one good player, and got hammered by a shitty sabres team being carried by Hasek.

But those grizzled super gritty epic playoffs vets leafs team only made it to the 3rd round once, getting hammered by the canes.
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Hasek also missed games
 
zeke said:
And those other leafs also choked under the pressure when not complaining about the pressure.
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I don't know what to think anymore. We saw those stats about Mackinnon and Ovechkin barely having any better success than our guys, except for that one magical season where they went all the way. They cracked under pressure every other season but that one time? Mack just let Rantanen piss all over them to take the series.

Pressure is a constant no matter where you play or how good your team is. Is it THAT much more for Leafs? Or is it just a matter of waiting for that one lucky season where it finally happens?
 
Caps gutted it out with backstrom and ovy. They cycled through mercurial 1D guys and cut bait on their all speed skating dman when he aged out. And finally turned a late first into a good d and got some gritty skill around the big two to win it.

Objectively the leafs really should stick with 34 and 16 but holy fuck they’ve made that tough to do.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
This whole fucking timeline would've been corrected had we traded the exact same assets for Marchand and Carlo instead of that Laughton trade.

I still remember when they were announcing the trade late on TSN as the deadline hit and they said, wait now Marchand is traded too, I thought FOR SURE they were both coming to us in the same deal. That's a memory that will burn forever.
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Marchand requested Florida. You weren't getting him.
 
Caps traded for Oshie, dumped Semin and Green and fired everyone.

If they keep 34-16 they gotta dump some other big pieces.

There is too much baggage and these guys can’t deal with it. They need a fresh start and to move on from the Core 4 era, however that ends up looking.
 
mbow30 said:
Caps gutted it out with backstrom and ovy. They cycled through mercurial 1D guys and cut bait on their all speed skating dman when he aged out. And finally turned a late first into a good d and got some gritty skill around the big two to win it.

Objectively the leafs really should stick with 34 and 16 but holy fuck they’ve made that tough to do.
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We saw a big difference with Knies emerging, McMann getting a real shot and excelling (in the regular season at least), and Robertson taking a step forward.

We have Cowan who should be ready to step in now and maybe make a similar impact. If they work him in and he gives us a Knies-type boost, and we give Robertson a real shot in a top six role, we're that much younger and better. It shouldn't be so fucking hard to improve on the edges of the roster, and it seems like maybe they started to realize that when they pushed out Reaves and relegated Kampf to the sidelines. Next step is getting rid of Jarn too and letting Robertson play, while giving Cowan the 3C role and seeing what he can do.

I take this and any resulting pain of a 10th straight flop over going out and overpaying a couple of mercs to come in and try to be a hero.
 
mbow30 said:
Caps gutted it out with backstrom and ovy. They cycled through mercurial 1D guys and cut bait on their all speed skating dman when he aged out. And finally turned a late first into a good d and got some gritty skill around the big two to win it.

Objectively the leafs really should stick with 34 and 16 but holy fuck they’ve made that tough to do.
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You have to surround 34 and 16 with much tougher players. Your most valuable trading chip is willy.
 
leafman101 said:
Caps traded for Oshie, dumped Semin and Green and fired everyone.

If they keep 34-16 they gotta dump some other big pieces.

There is too much baggage and these guys can’t deal with it. They need a fresh start and to move on from the Core 4 era, however that ends up looking.
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You can't lose Nylander, who just finished second in scoring and has no one talking about it.

If Tavares wants to come back for cheap, like $3M or $4M as a direct acknowledgement of leaving money for other talent to come in, you can't say no to him and another 35 goals.

This core 4 stuff is garbage marketing that took on a life of its own. They're just four good players.

The answer may really be with Rielly and OEL and getting a real offensive first pair D. Our transition from the backend has always been trash from day one. If we had just picked Hutson over Minten, again, timeline would look so different now.
 
leafman101 said:
It is probably better asset management to sign Marner and trade Willy.

But there is no easy answer because it’s not a talent question. It’s a fuck these fragile fucks question.
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Why? We probably don't exit the first round without Willy this year.

If anything, he may be the most important of the bunch to keep, even more than Matthews.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
You can't lose Nylander, who just finished second in scoring and has no one talking about it.

If Tavares wants to come back for cheap, like $3M or $4M as a direct acknowledgement of leaving money for other talent to come in, you can't say no to him and another 35 goals.

This core 4 stuff is garbage marketing that took on a life of its own. They're just four good players.

The answer may really be with Rielly and OEL and getting a real offensive first pair D. Our transition from the backend has always been trash from day one. If we had just picked Hutson over Minten, again, timeline would look so different now.
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They will never win together.
 
leafman101 said:
It is probably better asset management to sign Marner and trade Willy.

But there is no easy answer because it’s not a talent question. It’s a fuck these fragile fucks question.
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New off-season training regimen

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LeafOfFaith said:
Why? We probably don't exit the first round without Willy this year.

If anything, he may be the most important of the bunch to keep, even more than Matthews.
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Also the worst of the three, so there is that.

But it’s more just you can get something from him, but will get nothing for Mitch. Hence, better asset management.
 
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