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

If we want to learn from the Bob situation, we should probably know that there may not be leaks in the Leafs' boat, but when you're widely out there on something in the league, word will spread regardless. Now I think all this Rielly stuff probably is true and that Chaykes will not rest until he ditches him, the same approach as he took with Carlo, for whatever the best is that he can get. Hopefully Rielly fucking blocks him at every turn. And then the frustration of not being able to move Rielly probably causes him to focus even harder on moving Knies, which leads to disaster.

I have no trust in this guy now. He has to build it back up from scratch.
 
part of the leafs problem in the past has been lack of depth scoring. Next year the leafs could very realistically have 7-8 20 goal guys.

roslovic has scored as many goals each of the past two years as macelli in the past two combined.

And wtf is wrong with adding Austin’s butt buddies?
 
Dunno if this is meaningful but per edge stats Bob was <50th percentile on sv% on slot shots, but >80th on slot saves. May suggest Florida was really really bad defensively last year…
 
LeafOfFaith said:
And this Sissons at $4.25m thing is frying my wires. I can't get over it.
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When I initially saw that deal, my brain tried to process it as being a two year deal for a TOTAL of $4.25M. Which...would still suck, because paying a fourth line center even as much as $2.1M per year on a multi-year deal is dumb.

But oh god, was it so much worse than that...
 
hockeylover said:
Most of the contenders I think?

Not unreasonable to expect one second line quality guy added if you’re spending 20m I don’t think.

Like quite a few of them went for maybe a million more than Sissons and Roslovic.
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I don’t think that’s right

7th highest scoring fwd:

Col: Parker (35 pts)
Buf: benson (43 pts)
Tb: bjorkstrand (32)
Mtl: newhook (25)
Bo’s: minten (35)
Ott: Amado (35)
Dal: Benn (36)
Min: Hartman (43)
Car: stankoven (44)
Lv: smth (26 **karlsson missed most of the year)
Edm: Jack (36)
Anh: Mctavish (41)

So a few old guys. A few whose numbers may have been juiced by moving into second line roles at times.
 
Also to get those guys in the 5m range you’re looking at 1-4 more years than they gave to anybody. Lee 3 years. Marchment 6. Jenner 3.

Leafs didn’t absorb much risk into 28-29. I think for obvious reasons
 
mbow30 said:
Also to get those guys in the 5m range you’re looking at 1-4 more years than they gave to anybody. Lee 3 years. Marchment 6. Jenner 3.

Leafs didn’t absorb much risk into 28-29. I think for obvious reasons
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Marchment 5 years, but yeah. His deal I would have taken in this climate, especially if it meant not having the money to sign Sissons. Huge gap between those two players and yet just $2.5M spread.

The other positive spin on things is, we kind of have two first lines. McKenna Matthews Knies and Cowan Tavares Nylander are two amazing sets if they play them that way. Maybe two first lines and two 3rd/4th lines is better than a top 9 of traditional first, second, and third lines.
 
hockeylover said:
Most of the contenders I think?

Not unreasonable to expect one second line quality guy added if you’re spending 20m I don’t think.

Like quite a few of them went for maybe a million more than Sissons and Roslovic.
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View: https://x.com/i/status/2072832736943874154

Just targeting the right guys would have been my preference. You don't have to blow your load on 45 highly replaceable 4th liners on July 1st. There were guys out there that made a lot of sense and if you tried and didn't get them, don't panic sign Brandon Duhaime, who I'm not even convinced is an nhler, for 2.6. Just brutal restraint.
 
Jenner vs Paul is a bit of a tricky comp tho. I think Jenner is better, but his contract is obviously worse. And I'm not sure he's a center anymore.

But then again, it's possible that Paul isn't anymore either. They signed a bunch of guys that can play center kind of sort of, but I'm pretty sure they're all kind of bad at it and at most 4c's or 3rd line W. They have optionality at least. I would have just gone harder after Hayton. And if you miss out it's ok, you don't need to sign 5000 plugs to make up for it. It's not like they all add up to 1 good player, that's not how it works.
 
They can count on roslovic for 20 goals. Maybe Paul as well.

I don’t love the moves and sissons got too much but we’re talking as though they got plugs to fill roles that other teams have 30 goal guys in.

Even hayton…

Past three years (and in his career) he avgs 35 per 82. Sissons is 25.
 
Preston said:
Jenner vs Paul is a bit of a tricky comp tho. I think Jenner is better, but his contract is obviously worse. And I'm not sure he's a center anymore.

But then again, it's possible that Paul isn't anymore either. They signed a bunch of guys that can play center kind of sort of, but I'm pretty sure they're all kind of bad at it and at most 4c's or 3rd line W. They have optionality at least. I would have just gone harder after Hayton. And if you miss out it's ok, you don't need to sign 5000 plugs to make up for it. It's not like they all add up to 1 good player, that's not how it works.
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Sissons is a good fourth line centre. He’s the sort of guy you sign for 2 and giggle about.

Good pk and takes the toughies. Just did it in Vegas.

But 4.25 is nuts.
 
mbow30 said:
They can count on roslovic for 20 goals. Maybe Paul as well.

I don’t love the moves and sissons got too much but we’re talking as though they got plugs to fill roles that other teams have 30 goal guys in.

Even hayton…

Past three years (and in his career) he avgs 35 per 82. Sissons is 25.
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I am not huge on Hayton but come on, it's just a way better bet. He's just way way better under the hood than Sissons. And younger. And not much more expensive.

And I'm not particularly a fan of justifying not getting better players by saying "other teams don't have better players on their third line." Are the leafs just being charitable to those other teams by not trying to be better than them?
 
Preston said:
Jenner vs Paul is a bit of a tricky comp tho. I think Jenner is better, but his contract is obviously worse. And I'm not sure he's a center anymore.

But then again, it's possible that Paul isn't anymore either. They signed a bunch of guys that can play center kind of sort of, but I'm pretty sure they're all kind of bad at it and at most 4c's or 3rd line W. They have optionality at least. I would have just gone harder after Hayton. And if you miss out it's ok, you don't need to sign 5000 plugs to make up for it. It's not like they all add up to 1 good player, that's not how it works.
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The Jenner contract is trash and he's going to be injured a la Stolarz for most of it. Super glad we avoided that since it has term.

And yeah, if Hayton was willing to sign an offer sheet, that was the way to go. As if the Toronto boy would've chosen NJ if presented with both. You basically force Utah's hand to trade with you or walk him to ufa where you'll sign him without giving any draft compensation.
 
mbow30 said:
I don’t think that’s right

7th highest scoring fwd:

Col: Parker (35 pts)
Buf: benson (43 pts)
Tb: bjorkstrand (32)
Mtl: newhook (25)
Bo’s: minten (35)
Ott: Amado (35)
Dal: Benn (36)
Min: Hartman (43)
Car: stankoven (44)
Lv: smth (26 **karlsson missed most of the year)
Edm: Jack (36)
Anh: Mctavish (41)

So a few old guys. A few whose numbers may have been juiced by moving into second line roles at times.
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I mean I’d say a few of these teams could really use better depth or they mighta won already. And a few more aren’t true contenders at all.

For me, Vegas continually adds more and more high quality skilled players every year and we had 20 million dollars and aimed pretty fucking low.
 
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