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Leaf Rumours

Like I said prior to this trade breaking, I think we just traded a better defenseman for a worse defenseman that's making slightly more money. But in the end, it's essentially cap neutral and Liles wasn't really playing for us anyways, so it's not a big deal. I just hope that we never at any point this season see Gleason playing while one of Rielly or Gardiner is sitting on the side-lines as a healthy scratch. If he's just here to compete with Mark Fraser and Paul Ranger for our 6th defense slot, I'm OK with it.

On that front though, you have to figure another shoe's going to drop there. How long will we carry eight healthy defensemen on the NHL roster? Either someone else is getting traded, or Gleason is Carlyle's desired replacement for Fraser, and he'll be getting a one-way ticket back to the AHL.
 
i thikn people have fallen so in love with the ideas of puck moving d-men and that you need good skaters on the back end, and that defensive guys who are maybe less mobile are overrated... that they have lost sight of the facts that you don't need 6 puck moving d-men, that a team with a group of 6 dmen who all move the puck and skate decently (like the leafs) can still be total shit defensively, and that just because 'defensive dmen' get overrated doesn't mean that there isn't a role for them.

gleason's skating might burn him some times.

but, you know... franson's risk taking burns him some times. gardiner's passing burns him a lot of the time.

liles was a totally redundant piece. they have 2 defensemen who do what he does better than he does it and two young guys who probably do it as well (and at least one of whom certainly will with experience). they have two other guys who can play on a second pp unit if needed.

he was a one dimensional offensive defenseman -- the last thing this team needs.

gleason isn't going to solve all of their problems defensively, but he plays a pretty stalbe game and will add some physicality so he should help them take a step towards improving.

the leafs d kind of sucks. they are all talented, but ranger and franson are both mitsake prone, high risk players, gardiner is a pretty bad decision maker and rielly is 19... which has led to a whole shit ton of bad defensive play.

they need a guy or two who can stabilize the 4/5/6 spots. again, gleason should be able to help there. at the very least, he'll help more than liles, who is basically just a pp specialist.
 
MindzEye said:
Can he possibly be slower than Fraser?
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the slowest defenseman i have ever seen play for the leafs (svehla) was also one of the best.

it's about decision making and playing within your limitations.

frankly, ranger's biggest problem has been his high risk play wtihout having the speed to compensate for his inevitable mistakes and giveaways. if gleason can play like ranger without those 3-4 forced passes or ill advised rushes a night, he is going to help this team.
 
and even in the case of fraser... when they relegated him to playing against 3rd and 4th lines, and limited his minutes to those situations and the pk, he was a pretty good player for this team. not a superstar, but until they expanded his role at around hte 30 game mark last year, he was a pretty useful piece for this team.

in any event, gleason is a better skater than fraser, with better puck skills.
 
Re: Liles, Dennis Robertson to Canes for Tim Gleason

This was talked about in the Winter Classic thread Sheep.

However...

Adds some jam to our defense which is sorely lacking. Liles wasn't being used anyway. He is also an upgrade over Ranger/Fraser.
 
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Re: Liles, Dennis Robertson to Canes for Tim Gleason

Merging with the Leaf news thread.
 
Listen to mbow....he's dropping some straight science.



Couldn't have said it better myself, even if I'd wanted to.
 
Jonas Siegel ‏@jonasTSN1050 37m
Carlyle on Gleason: "The decision was made to find a player that we felt was going to fit into our back-end more so than what [Liles] was."
 
One thing I'm hoping Gleason is adept at is creating separation between his check and the puck during the defensive zone cycle situations. One of our biggest defensive problems is the general inability for most of our defenders (and most of our wingers) to win 1 on 1 puck battles and get the puck up and out. We spend entire shifts just chasing the puck around the outside of the zone. As much of a proponent as I am for shot quality, you simply can't allow that type of zone time and not expect it to burn you regularly.
 
mbow30 said:
i thikn people have fallen so in love with the ideas of puck moving d-men and that you need good skaters on the back end, and that defensive guys who are maybe less mobile are overrated... that they have lost sight of the facts that you don't need 6 puck moving d-men, that a team with a group of 6 dmen who all move the puck and skate decently (like the leafs) can still be total shit defensively, and that just because 'defensive dmen' get overrated doesn't mean that there isn't a role for them.

gleason's skating might burn him some times.

but, you know... franson's risk taking burns him some times. gardiner's passing burns him a lot of the time.

liles was a totally redundant piece. they have 2 defensemen who do what he does better than he does it and two young guys who probably do it as well (and at least one of whom certainly will with experience). they have two other guys who can play on a second pp unit if needed.

he was a one dimensional offensive defenseman -- the last thing this team needs.

gleason isn't going to solve all of their problems defensively, but he plays a pretty stalbe game and will add some physicality so he should help them take a step towards improving.

the leafs d kind of sucks. they are all talented, but ranger and franson are both mitsake prone, high risk players, gardiner is a pretty bad decision maker and rielly is 19... which has led to a whole shit ton of bad defensive play.

they need a guy or two who can stabilize the 4/5/6 spots. again, gleason should be able to help there. at the very least, he'll help more than liles, who is basically just a pp specialist.
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Great post.
 
Gleason will be at best a third pair defender for us. He can fill in as a second pairing defender for a limited time, but if you're looking for some super fast puck mover who can pot a ton of goals, he's not going to make you happy.
If you're looking for an experienced dman who is no slower than Fraser but doesn't make anywhere near the same number of mistakes he does, you'll be happy with him. He's not very fast; he's not the best puck mover, but he can give the opponents fits trying to get around him in the defensive zone.
 
Funny if true:

One report today suggested that Rutherford started out by asking for Jake Gardiner in return for Gleason.
 
I heard that Nashville is really weighing in on the future of rinne coming back healthy. With Bernier being now the number one who hangs up if nonis offers Kadri Reimer and franson/gunnarson for weber?

Of course, the second weber would become a leaf he would instantly be the most overrated defenseman in the league.
 
JackBurton said:
We should just let Liles play and he can show what he can do.
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I find it interesting that some are saying Liles couldn't crack this lineup for two years, when he's better than at least two that did. Maybe he told Carlisle to GFH or something. Gleason is barely an upgrade of Fraser. He's Fraser with experience and more hockey sense.
Had Randy played Liles instead of Fraser all this time, we'd have been far better off. I hope Gleason can cover for Franson's errors...
 
i think we need to actually watch this guy play. i've read scouting reports that cites his skating as a STRENGTH, and if you watch some highlights on youtube.. he looks like a strong skater.

maybehe has slowed down in the past 2 years or so. if he hasn't, though, then everybody here is completely wrong about him.
 
mbow30 said:
i think we need to actually watch this guy play. i've read scouting reports that cites his skating as a STRENGTH, and if you watch some highlights on youtube.. he looks like a strong skater.

maybehe has slowed down in the past 2 years or so. if he hasn't, though, then everybody here is completely wrong about him.
Click to expand...

Hurricanes fans complain that he can't skate anymore and hasn't been the same guy in the past few seasons. For whatever it's worth.
 
Hoss said:
I heard that Nashville is really weighing in on the future of rinne coming back healthy. With Bernier being now the number one who hangs up if nonis offers Kadri Reimer and franson/gunnarson for weber?

Of course, the second weber would become a leaf he would instantly be the most overrated defenseman in the league.
Click to expand...
Trading either Bernier or Reimer before the end of this season would be a mistake, unless a good backup is coming back in the deal. Behind our two NHL starters, we've got absolutely nothing in the system, so we'd be royally screwed if Bernier got injured or slumped.

I also don't see why Nashville would be interested in trading Shea Weber.
 
Gleason's always been a good skater and it was his primary strength if you look at the scouting reports back when he was drafted in 2001.

He may have slowed down or lost a stride or two in the past two or three seasons though.
 
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