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The ****ing 2017-18 Season

BeLeafer said:
I find Buffalo giving a guy who has yet to put together a ppg season an 8 year, 10 per contract a bit concerning.
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How else are you going to get him to stay in Buffalo. If there's a common theme between his contract and McDavid's, it's that it takes a lot of money to convince young stars to want to be a part of 3rd tier organizations in 5th tier cities.
 
Jeremy said:
Ray Ferraro says Leafs better suited to win a Cup before Oilers. Calls Matthews generational and that there are less questions in our lineup than the Oilers. Says we're deeper and have more organizational depth to handle any injuries. Goaltending about equal. We have more cap flexibility going forward as well.

In another segment (I won't post points) Button chooses Oilers while Jeff O'Neil says Leafs.
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Button is a tool, but I have a hard time giving someone too much shit for betting on Connor McGretzky.

With that said, if they don't win this year, they're going to have some cap tap dancing to do going forward. Maroon's breakout has been huge for them and this is the last year of a 1.5M dollar deal. If he pops 20+ again he's going to cost 4-5 million with some term...and if he doesn't, well that's a whole other problem as he and Lucic are their #1-2 LW's. If Ryan Strome bounces back and pops 40-50+ points he'll be looking for a longer term deal for a lot more than the 2.5 million he currently makes...and if he doesn't, again same problem for a team that just isn't deep on the wings. They really, really need Puljijarvi to pan out, and Darnell Nurse not being a tire fire would help a lot too.

On the blueline they're locked in to a pretty mediocre top 4 for the next 4 years.

Prospect pipeline is basically Puljijarvi, Yamamoto, and Ethan Bear with any sort of reasonable upside, maybe Berglund stashed over in Sweden turns into something, maybe Caleb Jones turns into something. That's about their system....so there isn't a lot of impact help coming down the pipe to fill in their lack of depth that is likely getting worse next year.

Yeah, it's hard to look at what they've got and then what we've got and pick them as more likely to win.
 
MindzEye said:
Button is a tool, but I have a hard time giving someone too much shit for betting on Connor McGretzky.

With that said, if they don't win this year, they're going to have some cap tap dancing to do going forward. Maroon's breakout has been huge for them and this is the last year of a 1.5M dollar deal. If he pops 20+ again he's going to cost 4-5 million with some term...and if he doesn't, well that's a whole other problem as he and Lucic are their #1-2 LW's. If Ryan Strome bounces back and pops 40-50+ points he'll be looking for a longer term deal for a lot more than the 2.5 million he currently makes...and if he doesn't, again same problem for a team that just isn't deep on the wings. They really, really need Puljijarvi to pan out, and Darnell Nurse not being a tire fire would help a lot too.

On the blueline they're locked in to a pretty mediocre top 4 for the next 4 years.

Prospect pipeline is basically Puljijarvi, Yamamoto, and Ethan Bear with any sort of reasonable upside, maybe Berglund stashed over in Sweden turns into something, maybe Caleb Jones turns into something. That's about their system....so there isn't a lot of impact help coming down the pipe to fill in their lack of depth that is likely getting worse next year.

Yeah, it's hard to look at what they've got and then what we've got and pick them as more likely to win.
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Gotta like our management and coaching more than their's too.
 
Pittsburgh is the only team that scares me, and they're not that far from Sid and Gino starting to go downhill.
 
Actually, let me correct myself, the Oilers do scare me a bit bc of McTop10AllTime but I like how we matchup against them.
 
BeLeafer said:
This team keeps making the right moves (although not perfect, obviously). I quite like that they've gone with Borgman to start the season on the bottom pair. Rosen looked increasing out of his depth as the preseason wore on. Dermott, I would have preferred, but a tad more seasoning never hurt a 20 year old blueliner.

Borgman brings a physical presence the Leafs blueline was lacking without Polak, and he was by no means ideal. Borgman looks to have Polak's physicality but much better puck skill.

Hainsey also grew on me as the preseason went on. I think the blueline will be significantly better than last year.
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I'd be pretty surprised if it wasn't, barring injuries.

Hainsey should be an upgrade on Hunwick, and like you say, Borgman seems like a younger, more mobile version of Roman Polak. And if we do run into any injuries, Calle Rosen, Travis Dermott (and potentially Roman Polak) should be an upgrade on the likes of Martin Marincin or Alexey Marchenko.

There's also a reasonable expectation you'd see continued improvement from Morgan Rielly & Nikita Zaitsev.
 
LeafGm said:
I'd be pretty surprised if it wasn't, barring injuries.

Hainsey should be an upgrade on Hunwick, and like you say, Borgman seems like a younger, more mobile version of Roman Polak. And if we do run into any injuries, Calle Rosen, Travis Dermott (and potentially Roman Polak) should be an upgrade on the likes of Martin Marincin or Alexey Marchenko.

There's also a reasonable expectation you'd see continued improvement from Morgan Rielly & Nikita Zaitsev.
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I can see Reilly taking a step forward this year. That ankle injury really slowed him down for a portion of the season.
 
MapleLeafBlueJayBoy said:
Wow dude, sorry I upset you. Was only kidding.
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I'm not upset, bro. Having some fun too.

Let's have some more fun ...

Hey LeafGM, how are your efforts going to become LeafGM? I remember you saying that was your goal many years ago.

LGM is next after Lou! :smilewinkgrin:
 
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Jeremy said:
From the guy named MapleLeafBlueJayBoy
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MindzEye said:
How else are you going to get him to stay in Buffalo. If there's a common theme between his contract and McDavid's, it's that it takes a lot of money to convince young stars to want to be a part of 3rd tier organizations in 5th tier cities.
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A fair point that I overlooked. Yeah, Buffalo for a decade. Ugh.

This is something the current management has done a great job of fixing -- making Toronto a much more attractive place to play hockey. The players seems to genuinely enjoy being here and they've been attracting nice free agent signings (thinking Zaits, Borg, Rosen, as much as Maleau).

There's a good article about Borgman over on the athletic. Here's what he had to say:

More than a half-dozen were thought to be interested, but Borgman said it was always going to be Toronto. There was opportunity there.

“It felt like the best choice, the best option for me,” he said. “It was not a hard decision actually.”
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LeafGm said:
There's also a reasonable expectation you'd see continued improvement from Morgan Rielly & Nikita Zaitsev.
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I sometimes think it's time to give up on Rielly having the big breakout season where he firmly establishes himself as an elite blueliner. Then I remember he's still just 23. Funny thing is that Gardiner had this kind of breakthrough last season. It was a gradual thing but the last half of last season and playoffs really put him on another tier.

Zaitsev is the bigger unknown or concern for me. He got a big mulligan for any wobbles last year, given his first year on the smaller ice. Now he's got a big fat contract and will need to live up to it. How he responds is going to be important for the long-term health of the Leafs blueline.
 
Looks like the Jets are going to sign Ehlers to a 7-year deal at $6M per season this morning.

There's another good comparable for Nylander, to go along with Pastrnak.
 
BeLeafer said:
I sometimes think it's time to give up on Rielly having the big breakout season where he firmly establishes himself as an elite blueliner. Then I remember he's still just 23. Funny thing is that Gardiner had this kind of breakthrough last season. It was a gradual thing but the last half of last season and playoffs really put him on another tier.

Zaitsev is the bigger unknown or concern for me. He got a big mulligan for any wobbles last year, given his first year on the smaller ice. Now he's got a big fat contract and will need to live up to it. How he responds is going to be important for the long-term health of the Leafs blueline.
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It's pretty easy to forget just how young Rielly is. Because he was drafted by Burke, and broke into the league at 19 years of age, it does sometimes feel like he's an old vet deep into his NHL career.

It's also to forget that most top-end defenseman aren't freaks that dominate the league as teenagers. In fact, more often than not, they don't really break out until they're Reilly's age or older. Victor Hedman, Oliver Ekman-Larsson & Duncan Keith are three such players that come to mind, off the top of my head.
 
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