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2025-2026 Off Season Thread - The Rehappening

Every PR move Mitch does ends up looking bad. I don't know if it's him or the people that surround him (likely both), but the messaging is usually terrible and if it isn't, Mitch's tone ends up souring the whole thing.

Dude had it all here and took every wrong fork in the road on his way out.
 
MindzEye said:
He is, you'll see.
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I hope you’re right.

But my thinking on Auston is either he’s a soft wussy choker to only slightly less of a degree than Mitch.

OR—he’s incapable of remaining healthy enough to properly compete in the playoffs after playing anything resembling a full NHL regular season.

And unfortunately, there really isn’t a functional difference between the two.
 
MindzEye said:
He is, you'll see.
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I have the same worry, but I lean 65/35 that he's different. Here's hoping.

I also always cited the concern of Matty going into doom and gloom mode if his buddy ever left, so I'm very keen on seeing how he reacts to all of this before we even drop the puck on next season.
 
Volcanologist said:
believe me, I want to be wrong on this very very badly, so I hope his buddy Mitch's departure sparks some kind of sea change in him.
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It's tough to do big things in big games when you're perpetually roped to a puck dominant winger who spends his entire shift circling the outside of the danger area doing his best to avoid contact.

Auston deserves his share of the blame, but we have to look at what his share is. Auston turns into a 30-35G possesion dominant 2 way centre in big games, which isn't enough but is still a pretty good player, and he's generated some of the biggest goals these sad fucks have scored over that period. Game 6 this year to force game 7. The 1st goal of the close out game against the Sens this year. 3rd period GWG against the Bruins (Presto provided the video above) last year before missing the rest of the series with injury. Season saving goal against Columbus in game 4. Against Tampa in our close out game against them when we finally won a round.

Not enough for a player of his quality and cap hit. Not in line with McDavid or Mackinnon. But he's made a legitimate positive impact in a lot of our biggest games over the last bunch of years. Just can't say that about Mitch, and Auston has done it while dragging that version of Mitch around with him.

In big games, Auston turns into Anze Kopitar instead of what he should be. In those same games though, Mitch turns into Alex Kerfoot. Big, big fucking difference.
 
MindzEye said:
It's tough to do big things in big games when you're perpetually roped to a puck dominant winger who spends his entire shift circling the outside of the danger area doing his best to avoid contact.

Auston deserves his share of the blame, but we have to look at what his share is. Auston turns into a 30-35G possesion dominant 2 way centre in big games, which isn't enough but is still a pretty good player, and he's generated some of the biggest goals these sad fucks have scored over that period. Game 6 this year to force game 7. The 1st goal of the close out game against the Sens this year. 3rd period GWG against the Bruins (Presto provided the video above) last year before missing the rest of the series with injury. Season saving goal against Columbus in game 4. Against Tampa in our close out game against them when we finally won a round.

Not enough for a player of his quality and cap hit. Not in line with McDavid or Mackinnon. But he's made a legitimate positive impact in a lot of our biggest games over the last bunch of years. Just can't say that about Mitch, and Auston has done it while dragging that version of Mitch around with him.

In big games, Auston turns into Anze Kopitar instead of what he should be. In those same games though, Mitch turns into Alex Kerfoot. Big, big fucking difference.
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I don't remember all the specific goals, but Fla game 6 was mostly on Bob and Sens goal was that Marner set up giving him the emoty net I think.
 
Best playoff game of his career! Truly felt like the tide was turning, he was a fucking monster all night. Since then he's been a shell of that player. Crazy. What an emotional rug pull
 
Preston said:

View: https://x.com/NHLRumourReport/status/1940411135586349561?t=9Bixc0ITUop8tOVBRGODLw&s=19

Common sense here and it's probably more of that then an actual report. Really didn't sound like Tre was close to anything when he spoke yesterday. He's gonna wait. And I do think they'll use up their cap space prior to training camp. Don't fuck it up, Bundy.
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The likely outcome is probably to see who falls through the cracks and do the Bertuzzi-Domi 1 yr special with them (Roslovic?). Maybe Orlov on a short term deal and turn Rielly into one of those bad contract old forwards, etc.
 
I mean if it's a trade too, why not see what you have in Cowan/Robertson in camp before plugging the roster up too.

Unless it's the Kampfroks getting punted. Then fine, make a trade earlier.
 
The Leafs have a pretty good cap situation now.

Tavares, McCabe, Tanev, Stolarz/Woll all locked into well undervalue contracts. Knies is signed long term at a reasonable amount that will be easy for him to out perform). Domi, OEL, Carlo, Roy, Maccelli all providing value.

Aside from Krok/Kampf, Rielly is the lone bad contract. He either has to to rebound back to a 50+ point d, or go.
 
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