LeafOfFaith
Well-known member
Except for the Oilers gear, yeah. Still love him.
Around the League 2019-2024 Edition
- Thread starter LeafGm
- Start date
leafman101
Well-known member
Would have rather done that than Jarnkrok for 4 years. Or Kerfoot for $3.5.
LeafGm
Well-known member
Yeah, the Jarnkrok contract is baffling. Players like him are always hanging around at the end of the off-season unsigned and begging for scraps.
There was no need to give him that kind of term.
LeafOfFaith
Well-known member
I love that contract. $2m for 4 years on a good player? I’d like more of those. If he turns out to be just okay or surplus, we can easily trade him. I don’t like this revolving door of losing good role players because their short terms run out, like Mikky.
Looking at our capfriendly, aside from the top guys having only 2-3 years left, and Rielly, everyone else is 1-2 years. Nice flexibility but at the same time makes me uneasy.
Looking at our capfriendly, aside from the top guys having only 2-3 years left, and Rielly, everyone else is 1-2 years. Nice flexibility but at the same time makes me uneasy.
LeafGm
Well-known member
Not sure I see the issue. When have we ever not replaced one of these depth guys with players who were as good or better than them?
Mikheyev himself was a replacement for previous depth guys that we let go when they became too expensive. If we’d kept the Connor Browns & Andreas Johnssons of the world, Mikheyev never would’ve been a Leaf in the first place.
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Preston
MBow30 alt account
Dubas clearly identified Jarny as a guy he wanted. And Jarny gets rock hard for the longer term contracts that give him financial security... Any other deal was basically a nonstarter for him personally. So Kyle pulled the trigger. I agree with others though, after thinking about it more I'm not much of a fan. Hope I'm wrong and he at least gives them a year of two of 3+ million dollar value.
LeafOfFaith
Well-known member
We would've just had the Browns and Johnssons (whoever of the bunch we liked to keep most) and the Mikky types would still be Leafs because there's always room for a $1M free wallet signing here and there. Yeah, we've been good at replacing the lost depth players when they get priced out due to their short term deals, but eventually our luck will run out and we'll sign a few busts and burn a year or two that way.
For instance, we're getting primo value from Bunting - if he leaves after next year, are we confident we're getting another 60 point player out of the trash bin for $900k?
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
This is the point behind playing not just the Robertsons, but the Steeves, Douglas, etc type prospects during the regular season and not loading the roster up with replacement level veterans.
You don't know if your system is going to churn out a Bunting replacement if you don't look
LeafOfFaith
Well-known member
100%. You'll never find a bigger proponent of playing the kids and the other in-house guys over the bargain bin guys generally.
I've attributed a big part of our failures to playing shit like Ceci and Barrie over guys like Lilly and Sandin. And then again last year with Babushkin over those guys.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
A big part of this approach though is trusting the process and never falling in love with the mid level players. Even when they go on goal scoring binges on the 3rd line or put up 60 points playing with 2 top tier talents. They're replaceable
leafman101
Well-known member
Brown, Johnsson, kappy, Mikheyev etc. are all borderline replacement level players though. And they've all been easily replaced.
Hyman was the only actual impactful loss, but he makes way too much money. And they got really lucky replacing him.
Hyman was the only actual impactful loss, but he makes way too much money. And they got really lucky replacing him.
leafman101
Well-known member
They easily replaced all those goes for at most 1/3rd of the cost.
zeke
Well-known member
I'm guessing Rodrigues was asking for more money at the start of free agency and now was forced to settle for 1yr show me deal.
That being said, he's less than 2yrs younger than Calle and aside from going ham with 30pts in the first 33gms last year hasn't really done much in his career.
That being said, he's less than 2yrs younger than Calle and aside from going ham with 30pts in the first 33gms last year hasn't really done much in his career.
zeke
Well-known member
leafman101
Well-known member
I mean Kerfoot wasn't cheap and was supposed to be Kadri.
Point is you can get that player for less money/term and assets. Don't necessarily have to lock into a Kerfoot or Jarnkrok.
Point is you can get that player for less money/term and assets. Don't necessarily have to lock into a Kerfoot or Jarnkrok.
leafman101
Well-known member
Because those are two different types of moves.
All of his mistakes have been basically the same mistake:
Kerfoot 4 years $3.5
Johnsson 4 years $3.5
Mrazek 3 years $3.8
Kappy 3 years $3.2
Ritchie 2 years $2.5
Ceci 1 year $4.5
He's shown you can be very effective getting cheap quality depth players, and he's also shown why you should do that.
All of his mistakes have been basically the same mistake:
Kerfoot 4 years $3.5
Johnsson 4 years $3.5
Mrazek 3 years $3.8
Kappy 3 years $3.2
Ritchie 2 years $2.5
Ceci 1 year $4.5
He's shown you can be very effective getting cheap quality depth players, and he's also shown why you should do that.
LeafOfFaith
Well-known member
I think a big part of winning is keeping the band together - not just the top guys, but the important depth guys too. It's a fine line because I also don't agree with Hyman and Mikky getting those UFA deals, but the solution is to sign them to longer extensions when we can. Sometimes even one extra year makes a difference. For instance, if we still had Hyman last year and he went UFA now, would things have been different? I think a good chance yeah. And if we had Mikky for one more year now, how much better would the bottom six look the way he played last year? We could've easily signed that guy to a 2-3 year extension last year for $2M. I have zero doubt he'd have taken that. And we should've.
We can't just say oh, everyone is replaceable and then hope and pray we can replace key players every year. We should want to keep the good parts of the team intact and just rotate out the shit parts. It's not about falling in love with guys, but recognizing that they're good and trying to keep them around longer. The problem is falling in love with vets and guys like Muzzin making too much for what they are worth and likely going to be worth going forward. I know I'd love to have spent Muzz's extension money to lock up Hyman and Mikky to longer deals. We're still making the same mistake even now by keeping him. He could be converted into something that we need more than him, if not by adding a player from outside the organization, then by locking up some guys within the organization like Bunting and Sandin for cheaper than if they're lights out this year.
My biggest gripe with Dubie is how he's handled contracts during his tenure. He literally allowed himself to be bent over by Matty and Marner by not finding a way to sign them a year earlier, may have done the same with Nylander. It's no accident that guys like Pastrnak are playing for relative peanuts while we have guys making like double. He lets everyone linger too long and then their contracts run out and he's lost all his leverage as they lean towards the UFA exit.