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Leafs' Prospect/Marlies Discussion Thread!

I said not long ago that we should pencil him in to take a spot on the third pairing, but was told he was 2-3 years out.

This is great. And it cements Carlo's fate if they believe he can make the jump. Even if not, they have to move out Carlo, but this makes it even more of a certainty.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
If Benoit and Myers can be mainstays all season, he can hold onto the spot.
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Mainstays on one of the worst bluelines in the league. The point this season is to not be that. I'm higher on his chances than I was a month ago, but the truth is still that typically, the only 20 yr old defender prospects who are good enough to play on a decent or better team are the elite guys taken in the top 10.
 
That's not to say that there aren't several more 20 year d that are good enough to get bottom pair duty, but simply don't because most coaches are ageists. But yeah, for that reason alone, it's an uphill battle. Coaches feel safer with known shit entities like Benoit vs volatile, but clearly better, kids. Predictability comforts coaches even if players are predictably shit.
 
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Preston said:
That's not to say that there aren't several more 20 year d that are good enough to get bottom pair duty, but simply don't because most coaches are ageists. But yeah, for that reason alone, it's an uphill battle. Coaches feel safer with known shit entities like Benoit vs volatile, but clearly better, kids. Predictability comforts coaches even if players are predictably shit.
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Well then hopefully we hire a coach that just plays the best players.

But even then I think there is something to be said about having a young prospect play a ton of minutes in the AHL to ripen a bit.
 
The tough part is the roster construction piece. Our problem is that we shouldn't be leaving a top 4 spot open for Tanev, and if we don't, that 3rd pairing spot is what the kid would be aiming at.

The right play imo is to fill the top 4 (Raddysh + Durzi, Spence, etc), push Tanev back to the 3rd pairing/PK specialist guy which Danford slots into pretty perfectly when Tanev eventually dies. In the interim, Danford plays an expanded version of that heavy usage role with the Marlies.
 
Not gonna believe that the injury has dropped Tanev from elite shutdown matchup D all the way down to coddled 3rd pair guy until i see it.

Especially not when these playoffs featured

Karlsson (36) 28:37
Doughty (36) 25:13
Carlson (36) 24:03
Letang (38) 23:50
Schmidt (34) 21:39
Spurgeon (36) 21:01
McNabb (35) 20:52
Myers (36) 19:41
McDonagh (36) 19:39
Ekholm (36) 19:27
Cole (37) 18:49
Burns (40) 18:10
 
zeke said:
Not gonna believe that the injury has dropped Tanev from elite shutdown matchup D all the way down to coddled 3rd pair guy until i see it.

Especially not when these playoffs featured

Karlsson (36) 28:37
Doughty (36) 25:13
Carlson (36) 24:03
Letang (38) 23:50
Schmidt (34) 21:39
Spurgeon (36) 21:01
McNabb (35) 20:52
Myers (36) 19:41
McDonagh (36) 19:39
Ekholm (36) 19:27
Cole (37) 18:49
Burns (40) 18:10
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I mean, kind of crucially, Tanev has never been as good as most of that list at any age. Then, Tanev is older than almost everyone on that list. Now, throw in that he played 11 games last year and in those games some people (you included) were worried that he may have lost a step.

The last time Tanev was a good matchup D was 18 months ago, which is measured in dog years at his age.

Also, no one said that you had to coddle him. Put him with OEL on the 3rd pairing and give them 16 minutes a night in solid usage. But if you wait until you see it, it's too fucking late to upgrade the top 4 and our blueline sucks again. There's no reason to rely on him to 20 minutes a night anymore, we were 18th in xGA the last time we built a blueline that way and it "worked". Stop thinking like Brad and let's try to be better.
 
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