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Core 4 No More: The Motherfucking Off-Season Thread

Preston said:
Yup. Can't tackle this thing assuming there is only one single issue. Whether it's the pp, their lack of scoring every year in the playoffs, etc. Just based on logic and probabilities, it would be bizarre if there was a single cause. It would sure be nice! Easier to fix! But rarely the case.
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I think we might make ourselves sick worry about what these guys are going to do.

The crazy thing is, it feels like even if they fail again, they'll be right back the next year.

In the meantime, I take solace from the following:

1. We still have a superstar core. Main pieces tied up for many years yet, with only the Marner situation unresolved. He may be the sacrificial lamb, but I think there's a better chance they just extend him to a fair deal (for once).

2. Tredonkey has been inconsistent in what he's gone after. First it was Bertuzzi, Domi, Klingberg, without a care for any defensive conscience. He also stunk up the joint with shitty bottom liners like Kampf, Reaves, and Gregor. Then he turned into defensive brute lover with Baboon and Eddy at the deadline, while also adding Dewar. I don't know what all of this means. He likes grit and skill, but also grit and no skill, and also no grit and no skill. There's no real pattern. But if he dove into UFA to grab the guys he did, I think I'm going to conclude for now that he likes to chase the big fish in free agency when he doesn't have to give up anything, and then fills in the roster with stuff on the fringes at the deadline. That tells me we'll be competing for the best dmen on July 1 since half our D is expiring. After that, who knows.

3. He didn't trade away the kids, even though Keefe mostly hated all of them. Knies was a keeper, Robertson continued to stay on the roster, Lilly was kept and ultimately played, Holmberg ended up a regular, McMann survived waivers to become a key depth guy. I think all those guys will be back, and maybe Cowan or Minty find their way on the roster too. I'm a big fan of youth on the team, and so far, the donkey seems to agree.

4. Woll is legit and they like him, but they can't trust his durability, so they'll move on from Sammy and add a decently good goalie.

5. This team is actually kinda close, and if they just trust the kids and don't do anything rash, the new coach might succeed in spite of himself.
 
Damn, McLellan does seem like the kind of guy they might like.

His career started out pretty great, but he's had way worse playoff success than the Leafs have had in the last decade.
 
CTheBigPicture said:
Yup was going to say the exact same thing. That was my take away too.

You all know where I stand: no way Marner can come back again next season. Absolutely no way regardless of the return.

But Tre is charge, unfortunately that may mean a shellacking.

I am ok with going through a retooling year. But without the core 4 together.
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Instead of trying to win a Stanley Cup, can MLSE just buy one?
 
MindzEye said:
I think the fears about a potential Marner trade debacle are realistic, but I think our completely reasonable doom and gloom brigade isn't lining all of the pieces up in their assessments. These types of trades go off the rail when the market for the player becomes super limited through whatever mechanism. I don't think the market for Marner would be limited at all. There's likely to be 10+ teams interested and at least a handful of them that Mitch would be willing to waive to go to. As soon as you have 3-4 suitors involved in the process, it makes a disaster of a trade very unlikely. Those disasters happen when you feel like you have to make a move aaaaand some sort of external force (NMC, etc) is limiting your market. Kadri is a good example. The organization felt like it had to make a move, placing a false time sensitivity over getting full value for him and then Kadri used his NMC to block a move to Calgary (Brodie + Jankowski) which precipitated taking the 2nd place offer instead.....which ended up bad, obviously.
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Question is...do you think any team is willing to shell out 10+ mil for Marner?
 
Preston said:
But their chances are all generated by being unsexy, plodding and ugly and being anti rush chances. So it sounds like they don't plan on changing the way they play. They will change the players that are more suited for the cycle and anti rush game.

Anyway the point is, I've watched the last two playoffs and my takeaway is that they need to get sexier, not less sexy. Tre and Shanny obviously disagree. Maybe they're right.
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I'll assume that the "sexier" remark was directed at Marners once per year sweet goal in this years playoffs. Basically a fluke.
 
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