leafman101
Well-known member
I wonder how much we'd have to give another team to get them to use a compliance buyout on Liles.
i think nonis deserves a lot of credit for what he did this summer.
the liles contract was not movable. full stop. the deal wasn't his doing. and in a year where a guy like ryan whitney is on a PTO, with the depressed cap, you aren't going to find a suitor for liles at $3.8mn. at least, without taking on any salary which the leafs could not do.
i don't like the clarkson deal. that's a lot of money to pay for a guy with his skillset. he won't be a 30 goal guy in toronto, either -- the bottom line is that with lupul and kessel in the fold he won't see the 3:30 of pp time he saw last year (1/3 of his goals over the past two seasons have come on the powerplay). and if he isn't scoring 30 he flat out isn't a $5+ mn player. even if he is scoring 30 he isn't.
but the thing that i like about this off season is that nonis managed to improve the roster from last year despite losing nearly $7mn in cap space. that isn't easy to do -- especially when you have $2mn in totally dead weight.
this team is deeper, faster and bigger than last year. they are better in goal, they are better up the middle, they are better on the wings. replacing grabovski and macarthur with bolland and raymond is a terrific swap. bolland is a pretty big defensive and physical upgrade over grabovski, and the offense is a wash (grabo and macarthur combined for 36 points last year; raymond and bolland combined for 39)... combined, bolland and raymond earn less than grabovski would have earned.
as for the kadri signing -- it had to be a bridge deal. they need every penny they can muster next year to re-sign kessel, phaneuf and reimer, plus deal with the fact that bolland, mcclement and kulemin are all pending ufas. it would have bene nice to save a mil or two per on a long term kadri deal, but the extra $3-4mn next year would have hurt.
Don't think they're faster, but they are tougher. I also don't think they are necessarily better up the middle, on the wings, or even in goal.
going cheap bridge with the RFAs is the safe move, at least. Not necessarily the best move, and we're still in a situation where none of our top-5 players are signed longterm.
So Burke was at the game last night.
No doubt he would love to get his hands on some of the players he brought in to Toronto.
So Burke was at the game last night.
No doubt he would love to get his hands on some of the players he brought in to Toronto.
I think the most likely one that he would get is Reimer if it ends up being Bernier outperforming him. Just last night getting pulled almost seems to have started the process, with his expression on the bench and his comments after the game about knowing we'd come back and wanting to be in the net when it happened. On that point, he has to flat out play better than he did in the second period last night if we wants the opportunity to stay in the net. But I could totally envision the Bernier/Reimer competition ending up with Reimer pissed and on the outs, and Burke seeing an opportunity to repatriate him and take him to Calgary, which the Leafs might do in the offseason rather than resign him as an RFA. Not saying it will end up that way, because Reims can certainly put up an awesome season and make the future cloudier, but no doubt Burke would love to swipe a depreciated asset away for nothing and let him rise to glory there, just as he is trying with Colborne.
The goaltending could very well end up being a wash. I remain very concerned about what this does to Reimer. Confidence is a big part of performance and his can't be too high after they made that move. He will likely see a notable drop in performance this year. Bernier is unproven. Looks great so far, but it's two games.
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Reimer is exactly the type of backup this team needs. Don't get rid of him.