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

Chayka spoke to Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne recently, and opened up about the latest trade buzz surrounding Rielly. “With regards to Morgan, we’re talking about a really good defenceman,” stated Chayka. “For us, where we’re at, and where we’re trying to go, he’s been a leader, longest-tenured Leaf, nothing but total respect for him. But again, we’ll continue to look to improve the group and consider everything, but, I’d say at this juncture, Morgan’s a big part of this.

We’re going to continue to explore some things. We had some discussions around the draft, we had discussions around free agency, but, these things are hard.”
“It’s hard to forecast exactly what could fall, and certainly, we think we have some good stability through our lineup now. If we can add difference makers, I think we should always be trying to do that. And, it does feel like there could be some more liquidity in the market in these July/August months, so we’ll keep adding.”


I like the “Morgan’s a big part of this” line. Hope he’s not bullshitting.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
You’re an old goalie coming in for the last couple of years of your career. He’s a first overall franchise player who will likely be a Leaf his whole career or close to it. Let the kid start out with his own number.
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lol
you don't think bob has earned that? and thats how you want gavin to start off his career by trying to strong arm a 2 time vezina/2 time cup winning goalie into keeping his number?
that seems like a marner move.
 
Kritter said:
lol
you don't think bob has earned that? and thats how you want gavin to start off his career by trying to strong arm a 2 time vezina/2 time cup winning goalie into keeping his number?
that seems like a marner move.
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I don’t advocate for any strong arming. Gavin offered, Bob should’ve declined and said keep it kid, hope it brings you two cups like it did for me.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
You’re an old goalie coming in for the last couple of years of your career. He’s a first overall franchise player who will likely be a Leaf his whole career or close to it. Let the kid start out with his own number.
Click to expand...
This argument is so backwards it's honestly shocking that you're trying to make it, much less being even the slightest bit upset over it.

Bob is a 2-time Stanley Cup champion, 2-time Vezina Trophy winning goalie, 16-years in the league. McKenna is a rookie. Of course he's going to offer the # to the vet, and his comments suggest he doesn't really care. In other words, you care more about it than he does.

Plus goalies are generally superstitious, so it makes more sense for the rook to give it to the vet. Bob will give him a Rolex or something and it's just a complete no-brainer.
 
UWHabs said:
The other part of going out to get a 38 year old #1 goalie, you have to expect that he'll drop off the next few years. You're sort of throwing your eggs in the basket that you think the team is going to be a legit cup contender this season. Maybe it makes sense, try to make the push on Matthews' current deal, before Rielly drops off more, and so. But it's banking a lot on a very fast turnaround.
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Gonna be some kind of omelet when that goddam basket hits the ice.
 
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