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The Mother-fucking goddamn Off-season Thread

Core 4 is MR, not JT…

Call it core 4, core 5 whatever. No one in this group looks or sounds exhausted and more importantly furious at losing. They are in a comfort zone that MUST to be broken up.

I don't want to give up Matthews, I don't think captain going away shakes things up enough, leaves me with Marner, MR and Nylander.

Nylander has shown up for us here and there and has decent contract. Besides I don't think trading him shakes things up enough.

It's got to be MR or Marner. I'd lean to Marner with his pedigreen and possibilities.

I won't say if this doesn't happen I am "out"; but if they bring back the same group, I am not spending my time watching what will be meaningless regular season games night in and night out. It'd be another season of waiting for the playoffs.
 
Marner is the "easiest" one to trade because he's signed for two years.
 
Keep trying to think of hypothetical trades where it would make sense to move Marner or Nylander, and its very hard to come up with even an unrealistic one, never mind a realistic one.

Maybe you trade them for a legit top pair dman, but is Boston giving you McAvoy? Hughes? Heiskinen? None of those guys would ever be traded. Would you trade one for a good selke calibre center? Hischier? Point? But same, those guys aren't getting traded.

I am sure you could get a guy like Lafreniere or Wright, but why?

The only player I can think of that we could realistically get, and has the talent and upside to maybe be worth it, and the team might actually move them is Byram. But thats a massive risk given his injury history and lack of resume at this point.
 
Keep trying to think of hypothetical trades where it would make sense to move Marner or Nylander, and its very hard to come up with even an unrealistic one, never mind a realistic one.

Maybe you trade them for a legit top pair dman, but is Boston giving you McAvoy? Hughes? Heiskinen? None of those guys would ever be traded. Would you trade one for a good selke calibre center? Hischier? Point? But same, those guys aren't getting traded.

I am sure you could get a guy like Lafreniere or Wright, but why?

The only player I can think of that we could realistically get, and has the talent and upside to maybe be worth it, and the team might actually move them is Byram. But thats a massive risk given his injury history and lack of resume at this point.

There is always players available to trade. Who saw the Calgary trade coming?

My stands is that this core cannot win. If they can't find good short term value, blow it up. You are wasting time and assets if you go back with this group with their NMCs coming.

Shake it up now or blow it up and start over again.
 
It was widely known that Tkachuk was available though. It didn't really come out of nowhere. The return was surprising I guess, but everyone knew he wanted out.

The equivalent this year is Dubois, but not quite the same ring to it.
 
Looking around the league, and the best Tkachuk like players whose contracts are expiring the next few years and could maybe be available are Nylander and Marner.
 
Looking around the league, and the best Tkachuk like players whose contracts are expiring the next few years and could maybe be available are Nylander and Marner.

If they can't find a star player, then turn Marner into a bunch of playoffs tested marginal 1st, 2nd, 3rd liners and or offensive top 4 dmen etc.

I know that is a huge No No around here but if you start with the assumption that this core CANNOT win in the playoffs no matter what, we have little choice.

Trade for another star, turn into a multiple pieces to add depth, or blow it up.


If you disagree with the assumption, then trading a Marner for marginal players makes no sense at all. But if you don't think this group can win, it must be explored.
 
I don't think there is any inherent reason auston-mitch-willy can't win together tbh.

I think our tactics are junk for the playoffs and we've misallocated a fair chunk of cap space, leaving our forward lineup thin in some very important spots.

I'd like to see that fixed before we trade any of them for any sort of 4 quarters for a dollar bullshit
 
I don't think there is any inherent reason auston-mitch-willy can't win together tbh.

I think our tactics are junk for the playoffs and we've misallocated a fair chunk of cap space, leaving our forward lineup thin in some very important spots.

I'd like to see that fixed before we trade any of them for any sort of 4 quarters for a dollar bullshit

Agree with that but with Marner 's NMC coming shortly, team has to make a call.

It's now or never when the comes to the core given their contract status.
 
I'll say one thing.. The sample for me is large enough that I don't hate the idea of trading ONE of them. An 11m dollar winger can't do what he has done throughout his playoff career if you expect to win. The fact that he hasn't even been able to drive a line is deeply concerning and it ain't just small sample stuff. I would support trading one of them, not all 3. And I think the best option is Marner.. If the return makes sense of course.

I get not being emotional or not overreacting bla bla bla... But at a certain point the sample becomes enough to justify some change. And I think it's time to make some hard decisions on that. Continuing to run it back is arguably more ballsy at this point I think because we have nearly enough data to be fairly confident that this mix in the playoffs doesn't work.
 
I don't think there is any inherent reason auston-mitch-willy can't win together tbh.

I think our tactics are junk for the playoffs and we've misallocated a fair chunk of cap space, leaving our forward lineup thin in some very important spots.

I'd like to see that fixed before we trade any of them for any sort of 4 quarters for a dollar bullshit
I'm coming around to this too
 
I don't start with that assumption. If they can beat this era's dynasty, and the core 4 carried the Leafs to that, they can beat anyone.

Not to say that I wouldn't trade anyone, but if the return doesn't make sense you just can't. And its hard to find a deal where the return makes sense for both teams. That was my original point. What is the deal that makes sense?
 
I don't start with that assumption. If they can beat this era's dynasty, and the core 4 carried the Leafs to that, they can beat anyone.

Not to say that I wouldn't trade anyone, but if the return doesn't make sense you just can't. And its hard to find a deal where the return makes sense for both teams. That was my original point. What is the deal that makes sense?
I don't think Tampa is a very good hockey team. And it required a lot of luck to beat them.

But yes, we're on the same page because I wouldn't trade him to just to trade him either. But I think you have to explore it in a very serious way, otherwise you're kinda doing it wrong. I don't know what the deal would be or if there's even one out there, but to be so rigid as to say you can't trade anyone is not the best way to manage this group of players.
 
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