The Official 2026 Off-Season Thread: Revenge of the Nerds

[Preston]

Bell better start looking at setting up in another city now that Eddie holds everything in Toronto if they want TSN to be worth anything. They should probably do something smart and pivot to Vancouver and work behind the scenes to get a MLB and NBA team there. They're hooped in Toronto.

View: https://x.com/JeffVeillette/status/2051735032780267649?s=20

CJ is largely full of shit but I've definitely noticed the folks at Sportsnet being far kinder to the leafs than tsn recently.

 

[leafman101]

Oh no a Leafs homer network? How will we ever get great honest content like “John Chayka has 7 computer terminals and every Leafs RFA will get an offersheet”?

Who cares

 

[worm]

Fwiw, here's AFP's projections on the top of the UFA market for defenders:

Andersson, Rasmus		VGK		RD	R	29	UFA		7	$9,021,527.27	8.67%
Trouba, Jacob		ANA		RD	R	32	UFA		4	$6,505,672.73	6.26%
Carlson, John		ANA		RD	R	36	UFA		3	$6,154,200.00	5.92%
Raddysh, Darren		TBL		RD	R	30	UFA		4	$5,327,771.43	5.12%
Ferraro, Mario		SJS		LD	L	27	UFA		4	$5,015,920.00	4.82%
Blankenburg, Nick		NSH		RD	R	28	UFA		3	$4,405,142.86	4.24%
Klingberg, John		SJS		RD	R	33	UFA		2	$4,391,400.00	4.22%

Seems cheap for a good RD

 

[axlsalinger]

and the baggage out of Phoenix mostly seems to be made up nonsense with Chayka being one part human shield for shitty ownership and one part human sacrifice on the alter of the OBC who hated him because young nerd calculator hockey isn't played on a spreadsheet didn't pay his dues!

I've never seen an incoming Leaf GM have to walk the gauntlet of fire like he did yesterday. Well spoken and articulate for an extremely stressful reveal.

I mean if you got sanctioned by the league for multiple violations, suspended and lost picks, and essentially blackballed to the point where you had to work at Wendy's instead of even being 2nd Assistant to the Vice-Assistant Nerd of an NHL team, then yeah you probably will have to answer some questions upon your return, and be prepared for a little turbulence.

Yesterday was over the top, but we shouldn't give this guy a full free pass, either. The TSN stuff is legit weird though, I mean it does make sense for them to be irritated if Rogers is treating them like 2nd class citizens. Which they absolutely should not be doing, but Rogers will Rogers.

 

[BG]

The Berube situation is weird. His role was elevated last season as a key decision-maker along with Tre.

Berube's fingerprints are all over last season too, he'll need to answer for the roster decisions he had influence over, and basically be pushed back down to the coach's office - if.. if he is to coach next season.

All that said, he's an easy fire.

 

[hockeylover]

View: https://x.com/sidseixeiroshow/status/2051747508213215702?s=20

 

[MyNameIsJonas]

View: https://x.com/sidseixeiroshow/status/2051747508213215702?s=20

Imagine taking anyone with that set up seriously.

 

[hockeylover]

View: https://x.com/KKurzNHL/status/2051751801825685885?s=20

 

[Feyd]

Treliving GM of the Year!

 

[thehabhater]

View: https://x.com/sidseixeiroshow/status/2051747508213215702?s=20

This is how fertilizer is spread.

 

[axlsalinger]

View: https://x.com/RadioBrent/status/2051679296767312127?s=20

 

[Preston]

The best part about tsn being shut out is that dreger is officially a useless "insider." He was so disconnected during the entire GM hiring process. Elliotte and Kypreos of all people got all of the legit info. RIP child molestor..

 

[thehabhater]

The best part about tsn being shut out is that dreger is officially a useless "insider." He was so disconnected during the entire GM hiring process. Elliotte and Kypreos of all people got all of the legit info. RIP child molestor..

Well, Rogers owns both the Leafs and Sportsnet so...

 

[Feyd]

View: https://x.com/amato_mike/status/2051739579007308138

 

[worm]

View: https://x.com/reporterchris/status/2051610843817685170

Media is in a frenzy right now, flood the zone with as much negative bullshit as possible and see what sticks (and sells clicks). I'm so old I remember when CJ was actually a respected hockey reporter, before he went down the crypto-bro grifter path.

Hard to blame him. No money in being honest/good.

 

[Preston]

I just did the lottery 10,000 times and the Leafs kept their pick 4,190 times. Now I truly understand what their odds are!

 

[Leafin']

If the lottery is rigged I really hate being on the wrong side of bettman here.

Are there bets out there for whether we keep the pick? I feel it’s pretty likely.

 

[MyNameIsJonas]

Watch Florida win the lottery

 

[worm]

Watch Florida win the lottery

No

 

[MindzEye]

I mean if you got sanctioned by the league for multiple violations, suspended and lost picks, and essentially blackballed to the point where you had to work at Wendy's instead of even being 2nd Assistant to the Vice-Assistant Nerd of an NHL team, then yeah you probably will have to answer some questions upon your return, and be prepared for a little turbulence.

Yesterday was over the top, but we shouldn't give this guy a full free pass, either. The TSN stuff is legit weird though, I mean it does make sense for them to be irritated if Rogers is treating them like 2nd class citizens. Which they absolutely should not be doing, but Rogers will Rogers.

That's a fair point, my only counter argument there is that what we've seen isn't a "little turbulence" and more of a full blown, highly unprofessional media hissy fit. Answering/asking questions is fine, but I don't recall him being asked about literally any of the specific issues he received punishments over. That's more or less my issue with this media coverage. It's all very high schoolish. There's no actual examination of the "scandals" and just a broad acceptance that he's shit because "I asked all of my sources & they hate the guy".

I've taken the time over the last day or gather together and read more or less everything publicly available about all of the scandals and my takeaway is that the punishments were all political.