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

MindzEye said:
If memory serves this has already been discussed publicly. Treliving went to the Marner camp and they didn't want to talk so he didn't formally offer a contract.

This is just more damage control from one of the bigger douches to have played in this market
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Yeah, so this is exactly like him sitting down with TSN before the season and spinning bullshit about how he feared for his safety here due to alleged threats on Twitter.

Meanwhile our loveable mimbo Willy has spent the entire season and off-season putting the lie that by walking around Toronto, going to restaurants, riding public transit, watching Marlies games from the stands, etc.

It’s honestly incredibly pathetic that he and his camp still feel the need to do this kind of image control when he’s four wins away from a Cup with his new team. Just move on with your lives, already.
 
LeafGm said:
Yeah, so this is exactly like him sitting down with TSN before the season and spinning bullshit about how he feared for his safety here due to alleged threats on Twitter.

Meanwhile our loveable mimbo Willy has spent the entire season and off-season putting the lie that by walking around Toronto, going to restaurants, riding public transit, watching Marlies games from the stands, etc.

It’s honestly incredibly pathetic that he and his camp still feel the need to do this kind of image control when he’s four wins away from a Cup with his new team. Just move on with your lives, already.
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Willys new YouTube video is out, he's literally showing up to fast food places to get his own food to bring to the Marlies game to watch his brother. Taking photos with everyone, super chill experiences with everyone. Wholesome shit that comes from being a star in a hockey mad city.

Marner just isn't built for this city. Which is fine, it's not for everyone, but it was evident for years and Shanny did nothing aside from walk him to free agency.
 
lol and of course as time goes on, more comes out of what a disaster Treliving was/is. Absolutely terrified of making any moves or commitments once his handler Shanny was out of the picture.
 
hockeylover said:
the actual guy who got treated pretty crappily here was Willy imo.
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yes-sir.gif


Seriously though, Willy doesn't get nearly enough love from our media. The fans fuck with him heavy though, so in the end that's all that really matters.
 
www.nytimes.com

NHL Mock Draft 2026: Pronman, Wheeler and Bultman play GM and pick Round 1

Max Bultman joined Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler for a three-way mock where they select the players each team should take.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

1. Toronto Maple Leafs: Chase Reid, RHD, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL)​

Reid is, by the slimmest of margins, the best player on my board. The Maple Leafs are in a tough situation, though. They’re in win-now mode despite being a bottom-five possession team this season, so they have a lot of work to do to get back to contending. I think Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg and potentially Alberts Smits could provide more immediate help. I don’t think any of them make an impact in the NHL next season, though. I’m not even sure it’s a smart bet to count on anyone in this draft truly moving the needle by two years out. Reid has the best chance of anyone in this draft to become an impact player at a premium position, even if that’s no sure thing. In the draft, you have to take the long view, not knee-jerk to fill short-term roster holes, and I would bet on the 6-foot-3, highly skilled and mobile two-way defenseman who has at least a chance to become a No. 1 D.

People will argue don’t go against the grain here, it will get you fired, but odds are in Toronto, you’re getting fired quickly anyway, so may as well do what you think is best for the franchise. — Pronman
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2. San Jose Sharks: Carson Carels, LHD, Prince George (WHL)

3. Vancouver Canucks: Gavin McKenna, LW, Penn State (NCAA)​

The Wheeler-led Canucks no longer feel like they lost the lottery as we get our No. 1-ranked player at No. 3 here. This organization is starving for a star, and McKenna remains the brightest star in this class. We’re not going to pontificate about position or beat him up for his imperfections; this is the draft’s biggest talent. — Wheeler
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Feyd said:
McKenna is doing a hit on Overdrive today @ 4:30pm.
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Has McKenna made any public comments since the Leafs won the draft lottery?

If he has, I haven’t seen them. So this should be interesting for no other reason than that. Even if “O-Dog” starts asking him how disappointed he is that he won’t get to play for the great Craig Berube and Brad Treliving.
 
I hate all of this shit. Multiple things can be true at once.

1) Marner had a bad mental makeup for Toronto. This can be blamed on whatever you personally want to blame it on. Fanbase angst? Sure, fill your boots. A fuckwitted clickbait media core constantly searching for the next gotcha bullshit for ad revenue? Absolutely. A conflicted front office that couldn't figure out what they wanted this team to be and didn't support the kids properly? Yeah, 100%. But the kid said dumb shit after dumb shit for years and either pouted or threw a tantrum whenever accountability for poor play was required. Fixing any of the things previously mentioned doesn't change that the shit apple doesn't fall far from the shit tree and we know the level of twat his old man is.

2) #1 is not Marner's fault. This is a tough and awesome place to play, but it does require a certain ability to ignore the noise or else the shit will impact your mental health in the social media era. Whatever it was during previous eras, it's that on crack now. But the rewards of winning here are unlike the rewards of winning anywhere else. You either understand the trade off your making and live with it, or go away.

3) Moving on from Marner was the right thing to do, but we did it very, very poorly. There were multiple red flags along the way that the organization should have taken way more seriously.

4) He's a fabulous hockey player and free from the expectations of Toronto while being surrounded by veteran leaders who have won (instead of the fake ass leadership we surrounded him with over the years), free of the defensive oriented role we jammed him in every spring, he's playing spectacular hockey in the playoffs. He's played this level of playoff hockey for us in short bursts too, don't let the revisionists gaslight us on this.

5) What happened happened and couldn't have happened any other way. The previous regime wasn't going to find a way to win. We needed a complete rethink of the way we looked at the sport and that required us bottoming out. The courage to make bold moves would never have existed without us bottoming out. We fluked the fuck out into a player who will most likely be a better to much better version of Mitch immediately upon bottoming out. Whatever feelings I had about losing a player the quality of Mitch (even setting aside my dislike for how he carried himself in Toronto for years), I'm fucking over it now and we all should be. McKenna > Marner and there would have been no McKenna if Marner had kept his pouty bullshit here for the rest of his career.
 
Pwner said:
www.nytimes.com

NHL Mock Draft 2026: Pronman, Wheeler and Bultman play GM and pick Round 1

Max Bultman joined Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler for a three-way mock where they select the players each team should take.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com



2. San Jose Sharks: Carson Carels, LHD, Prince George (WHL)
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Pornman’s taking his galaxy-braining of our first overall pick even farther than last time.

At least last time the guy he had rated at 1st overall was a consensus top-2 pick. Now he’s trying to manifest us reaching even farther down the draft order.

Also quite a hot-take to say, essentially, that he doesn’t expect either of McKenna or Stenberg to “make an impact” in the NHL next season.
 
I will say if we stupidly pass on McKenna I’d much rather it be for Reid or Carels then for the worse winger because he is a “gritty 200 ft player”.
 
leafman101 said:
I will say if we stupidly pass on McKenna I’d much rather it be for Reid or Carels then for the worse winger because he is a “gritty 200 ft player”.
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I honestly couldn’t care less who they take with the first pick if it’s not McKenna.

If that’s the route they go, I’ll rage-quit this team until Chayka has been fired.
 
leafman101 said:
I will say if we stupidly pass on McKenna I’d much rather it be for Reid or Carels then for the worse winger because he is a “gritty 200 ft player”.
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I honestly don't understand the fascination with a guy generating less offence, but doing it the way less skilled players generate NHL offence. It's as if to them the perfect NHL player is a 60 point guy who gets it deep, gets pucks on net, goes to the net. None of the best players in the league play that way, but the entire scouting industry appears to jerk off to that player profile.
 
LeafGm said:
I honestly couldn’t care less who they take with the first pick if it’s not McKenna.

If that’s the route they go, I’ll rage-quit this team until Chayka has been fired.
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I will also accept a Lindrosesque rape package to trade down.

But yeah. Gimme gimme McKenna.
 
LeafGm said:
Pornman’s taking his galaxy-braining of our first overall pick even farther than last time.

At least last time the guy he had rated at 1st overall was a consensus top-2 pick. Now he’s trying to manifest us reaching even farther down the draft order.

Also quite a hot-take to say, essentially, that he doesn’t expect either of McKenna or Stenberg to “make an impact” in the NHL next season.
Click to expand...

"I’m not even sure it’s a smart bet to count on anyone in this draft truly moving the needle by two years out."

two years!

now he's saying it's one of the worst drafts ever! just because the leafs won the lottery.
 
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