r/leafs • u/AutoModerator • 18h ago
Discussion Daily Free Talk / Armchair GM Thread
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u/Drew_You_To_91 Knies 2h ago
I’ve started to notice something about this sub early on in this season. I think the almost 10 year playoff streak created a really predictable pattern in this sub and the vibes in here would usually be awesome from October to January and then slowly the doomers would start popping out once the games got meaningful and when the playoffs came around cause they knew they could save their negativity for April/May. However once that streak broke last year now you’re seeing so much negativity and so many people writing off a team 9 games into the season because there’s no guarantee they can use their negativity later on in the year and have it fuel as much discussion.
I’m seeing people in this sub get ratio’d for still having optimism about a team with 73 games to play, if 9 games was all it took for you to lose your spark with this season then I feel bad for you. Everything is so black and white now it’s crazy, it’s like you either have to hate everything about the team or love everything about it. Sure I get it, it’s Reddit but it was not this bad even last year when things started rough.
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u/thisisananalusername Knies 3h ago
I miss Jake Muzzin, wouldn’t have made a diff for the last like 3 years but still.
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u/Training_Service_700 3h ago
Yall , mckenna to “insert literally anyone on team Canada mens roster” is gonna be insane at the Olympics . We may lose , but we still win .
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u/ProfessionalWafer829 3h ago
He'll have to learn how to win a board battle if he wants to make an Olympic team
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u/slevin07rocket 5h ago
Thoughts on whitecloud and Cole? What’s realistic trade prices and do you want either? Or who do you have in mind for realistic defense upgrades?
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u/JimothyC 59m ago
Cole does not move the needle at all, hes old as shit
I think the Leafs either swing for the fences on Nikishin or Edvisson or stand pat. Doing another Carlo trade just doesnt seem worth it but Leafs are low on options. Not many assets and Danford is a year away as far as internal options go.
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u/BmaninKtown Tavares 4h ago
I’m sure they would want danford or a first down the line for one of those guys.
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u/pazzonash 6h ago
I forgot they have Stanley playing on the islanders . He likes taking cheap shots on us.
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u/ilovetrouble66 Tavares 9h ago
Hildebeast is playing for Tampa today and let in a stinker after only 4 shots
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u/Training_Show_4600 10h ago
Daily reminder that Auston Matthews has more goals than Ovechkin did at the same age with less games played ;)
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u/Electronic_Rain_6063 9h ago
I wonder how that Ovechkin guy did afterwards
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u/DataDude00 8h ago
Ovechkin had insane production on the back half of his career. Matty needs to get back to 60 goal levels to chase Ovi
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u/postmodern_lasagna 11h ago
I think Nylander and Marchenko are much better on their strong side. Looks like Hiller has noticed that too because tonight is the first game that both will be playing RW in the same game. But now they have another righty in Roslovic at 1LW.
It’s a bit odd to me. The whole thing reminds me of how we galaxy brained the lineup last season to satisfy how we wanted to deploy our 4C in Scott Laughton and wasted the early part of the season that could have been used to develop chemistry. Analysts and even Chayka mentioned that an aspect of Knies for Marchenko was about getting stronger on RW and we had a surplus at LW with Knies, Cowan and McKenna. I’ve loved Roslovic’s play, don’t get me wrong. But I feel like they shouldn’t be galaxy braining it and just play people where they’re strongest. Cowan and McKenna at LW. Nylander and Marchenko at RW. Matthews and Tavares at C. You can always give Paul an extra shift at top 6 LW for defending leads. Because playing Sissons with McKenna is frankly a waste of everyone’s time. Could even do this for now while JT is out.
McKenna-Matthews-Nylander
Cowan-Paul-Marchenko
Groulx-Sissons-Roslovic
Duhaime-Blueger-MacEwan
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u/shadowpenguin29 10h ago
Hiller mentioned in an interview that he actually prefers wingers to play on their off-side. There are pros and cons to this (seen by the myriad of wingers who do this like Kucherov, Panarin and Kane) so it’s not a completely unfound idea, but just having your stars in their most comfortable spots is always going to yield better results.
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u/Madden04MichaelVick 7h ago
It depends on the winger. Some wingers are actually better on their off hand - Old Man Ovi is one. Some are amazing on either, Prime Ovi. Some suck on their off hand - Kasperi Kapanen is one guy I remember being particularly bad when played on the Left side here. I think that's one of the reasons why he didn't last.
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u/Substantial_Mud_357 11h ago
Are all the D in the AHL so bad they can't upgrade some of our guys.
Like our NHL D are aging out, I know our AHL guys are there for a reason, but atleast by being younger is there anything there?
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u/papa_miesh 3h ago
The backend needs a lot of work, no surprise, but I am surprised a guy like Rafai doesn't get more time. He plays with an edge and the D needs that. Having Stetcher, Rielly and Blankenburg all in seems like a recipe for disaster. Especially when Tanev is already out as well
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u/Hrenklin 11h ago
How deep do you think the leafs were when they started gunning for cups? They ultimately were fairly shallow in the prospect pool
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u/Madden04MichaelVick 7h ago
I'd say this team probably really began going for it in 18-19 when they signed Tavares and actually at the time, they were thought to have a great prospect pool.
- Liljegren
- Sandin
- Kapanen - hadn't become a full time player yet
- Andreas Johnsson
- Sean Durzi
- Woll
- Travis Dermott
And they also had a bunch of guys that nobody was talking about but unironically became some of their best players: Mason Marchement, Trevor Moore. Both undrafted free agents.
Most publications ranked them around 5-10th in the prospect pool rankings in that time. It also serves as a reminder that having a high end prospect pool doesn't mean much as having 1 high end talent. Around the same time, the Flyers had the 1st or 2nd ranked prospect pool in the league.
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u/Hrenklin 6h ago
The leafs didn't bottom out enough and stack themselves with as many 1sts as a rebuild should. Half of those picks didn't last in the league.
We got some exciting hockey, but we didn't have a prospect pool like Montreal, or Anaheim, or San Jose, Chicago. Imagine 4 years of selling everything off that not bolted down. Get completely over stocked in draft picks and prospects before going for it.
Now this season, another retool, we got exciting hockey, but now we have 2 massive holes in our line up because eof injuries and almost no way to fill it.
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u/TinyGiant122 11h ago
Nothing significant enough to play them over the aging guys. Danford, Chadwick, and Borgesi probably aren’t ready, Villeneuve is out for the season, and Rifai, Mermis, and Myers aren’t better than what we have
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u/BlastingBegins 12h ago
Not that McKenna should be handed anything, but it's absolutely pathetic that his linemates are Groulx and Sissons. What are we doing here?
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u/123jazzhandz321 11h ago
I'd rather try Groulx at center even if only for a bit, he's had zero success this season as a winger, you'd hope he'd be able to replicate some of his success down the middle.
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u/SalaciousPandaPart3 TROYS BOYS 12h ago edited 12h ago
In-laws are here for a week starting tomorrow, wife got hand foot and mouth from the baby... I need the boys to win tonight please for the love of Christ.
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u/ilovetrouble66 Tavares 9h ago
Omg have heard that’s awful! Hope everyone is feeling better soon
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u/SalaciousPandaPart3 TROYS BOYS 8h ago
Thanks! So far not too terrible to be honest but knock on wood
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u/Substantial_Mud_357 12h ago
lol foot in mouth from the baby? Hand, foot and mouth disease you mean?
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u/SalaciousPandaPart3 TROYS BOYS 12h ago
Lol yes, edited. Point being it is going to be a long, loooong week so would be cool to kick it off on a high note.
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u/Lumini_317 12h ago
I was really hoping to see McKenna and Cowan playing together again. They looked great last game.
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u/gotridofsubs 12h ago edited 9h ago
Im attempting to manifest Drew Doughty demanding a trade to Toronto so that we could get him for nothing like Kane and Panarin did
Also, not as the full solution, but im 100% serious about looking at bringing Luke Schenn back
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u/TinyGiant122 11h ago
Fixing our aging blueline with geriatric dmen is a bold strategy cotton
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u/gotridofsubs 10h ago
Listen bold strategies worked for Peter La Fleur. Maybe the secret is having a pirate though
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u/SalaciousPandaPart3 TROYS BOYS 12h ago
Is our current line up of old, damaged players past their prime not old and damaged and past their prime enough? Lol
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u/Generallyspeaking11 13h ago
Now that McKenna and Hiller have both come out and said it had nothing to do with his play and he legit forgot to play him, will people believe it? Or is it still 4D chess to punatively bench McKenna and have nobody know it?
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u/TheRC135 13h ago
Does it matter if we believe it?
I'm not really sure how the coach forgetting about Gavin fucking McKenna, especially when he's already down a forward and needs to start blending lines, is any better than throwing a winnable game just to teach the kid a lesson when he wasn't even having a bad game.
There's only 12 forwards to keep track of. It's incompetent coaching that almost certainly cost the team an easily winnable game either way.
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u/GoblinDiplomat 13h ago
I hope it's not "I legit forgot to play him." Could there be a worse explanation?
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u/j0c1ef25 13h ago
What’s going to be more stressful to watch tonight? The Leafs needing a must win and playing a solid 60 minutes or looking at the out of town scoreboard
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u/SenorEquilibrado 13h ago
While the standings are obviously important, we've had slow starts even under Keefe where the fanbase was passing out pitchforks and torches until the boys put together a great November.
So, for now, I'm still mostly concerned with watching the team develop its new identity without worrying too much about what the rest of the division is up to. Plenty of time for that in a few months.
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u/Samurai1221 13h ago
This team is under contract for next year, i think it might be a good idea to put all of our focus on making trades, picks, and free agency signings focused on retooling the defense for next year. Build vibes and strucrure this year.
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u/SensitiveEffort1906 13h ago
Minten would be perfect right now. Trades like that is why Brad will never get another GM job ever again.
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u/Nylanderthal88 13h ago
Then we wouldn't have McKenna
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u/OriqinalGangstaa 13h ago
We can't make this claim. Leafs would've still been a bottom 5 team with Minten. He's good but not a gamebreaker.
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u/DougFordsGamblingAds 12h ago
So Minten is good, but also wouldn't result in the team getting more wins?
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u/ArthurSnooper 13h ago
The odds of everything going the exact same is pretty small. The odds of having Minten and McKenna are so low I've just moved on.
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u/VitaminTea 13h ago
They wouldn’t have won McKenna if they were one spot higher or lower in the standings
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u/RenderingTheVoid 13h ago
As horrendous as Brad was, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets another shot in the NHL. It seems that teams love to recycle the same guys over and over.
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u/ESF-hockeeyyy 15h ago
Guessing Brisson gets the call. Maybe even Luke Haymes.
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u/correct_eye_is Palmateer 13h ago
Looks like Bo Groulx is on the 3rd line and MacEwen still on the 4th
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u/ESF-hockeeyyy 13h ago
They still will have to make a call up if Tavares is week to week and Joshua still isn’t ready.
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u/BloodBatman 12h ago
Isn't Miles Wood with the team right now as well? Hes a winger though so idk if he'll get in
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u/scoutforfantasy 15h ago
With JT just listed as week to week I re-watched the tape on his injury and it looks like it was his right knee getting hyper extended. Hopefully it’s just a sprain not a torn soft tissue injury. As the recovery can go from 2-4 weeks to 6-12. He was looking so fast and fit this year and was driving that line. Between him and Tanev down, my concern now is no matter what moves GM makes, this team may be off to a rough start and 1 blue liner likely can’t fix it.
Paul becomes 2C and stretcher fills in for Tanev. Stretcher been doing great but is not a Tanev replacement. Not sure there is a Tanev replacement in the market right now either. Blanks looked good so far but OEL and Blanks are two offensive defencemen and we saw what that means in your own zone.
I am interested to see how the team rebounds from this. Thoughts to the players and hope for quick recoveries.
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u/ilovetrouble66 Tavares 14h ago
Paul has NOT been playing well and IMO is just a temp replacement for Tavares- he is not a better 2C than JT. I don’t think they make any trades for forwards but we cannot roll with this D core EVEN WITH Tanev healthy
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u/scoutforfantasy 14h ago
I agree. I think Marchy and Cowan can drive that line and let him just finish his hits and battle for net front position though don’t need much else out of Paul at 2C right now’.
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u/Actual_Cobbler_6334 16h ago
“Should have traded Knies for a top 4 D!”
Not only is Marchenko an absolute stud, you can only acquire what is available. You can’t just tell people to trade a good young defensemen because that’s what you need, lmao.
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u/123jazzhandz321 13h ago
The only young quality defencemen that were traded this offseason were Simon Nemec, Olen Zellweger, and Bowen Byram. Nemec and Byram have been brutal thus far, and I don't think Zellweger would have made sense if Rielly was brought back as well.
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u/VitaminTea 13h ago
I take your point, but there are two very obvious young defencemen on the trade market right now. Can’t say for sure that Detroit or Carolina make those trades, but people aren’t being especially hypothetical in this case.
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u/HowieFeltersnitz 15h ago
Nah pretty sure trades are like shopping at the grocery store. Just scoop your preferred player off the shelf, put them in your cart, and head to the checkout /s
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u/GavMcKennasBurner 15h ago
You don't win through the wing, the Leafs top 4 point producing wingers this year may outscore Gretzky and Lemieux's wingers during their cup runs, but we also may miss the playoffs considering we basically have the worst defense in the league (Philly would be better than us the moment they fire Toch).
But I guess this is what most fans want considering McKenna+Cowan are untouchable and we can't double trade and move out Marchenko. Doesn't get more Leafy to have something that breaks league records offensively and be a borderline playoff team simultaneously.
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u/Actual_Cobbler_6334 15h ago
Elite wingers absolutely can win you games, and a borderline playoff team isn’t proof the formula doesn’t work if the real issue is defensive structure and goaltending. You don’t dismantle elite scoring to fix the defense; you build around it.
I know for a fact Marchenko’s hatty pissed you off last game. Hilarious.
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u/GavMcKennasBurner 15h ago
Do you understand how teams are built? HINT: It's not through the wing.
And I know we were both mad when we wasted it, but only one of us wants to do something to improve the team to where hat tricks and 3 goal leads don't get wasted. The other wants to sit on his hands, accept having the worst defense in the league and cry when others suggest improving that D.
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u/TheGapInTysonsTeeth 14h ago
Tell that to Washington.
Then go shut the hell up. Because you're embarrassing yourself
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u/SilentBarracuda659 15h ago
And lest we forgot, Marchenko’s new contract doesn’t kick in until next year. So we could still trade him this year if a stud D becomes available and it will effectively be like we traded Knies for a D.
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u/GavMcKennasBurner 15h ago
They should shop him 100%, our team build is basically running Werenski/Hughes/Dahlin or Sorokin/Shesterkin/Swayman or Barkov/Matthews/McDavid/Drai on one team and wondering why the other aspects of your team suffer. Well maybe move off of your beyond strength to address a weakness?
You don't win through the wing, we're beyond loaded on the wing and Marchenko's value is sky high this year due to the 3.8 cap hit.
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u/Luffy_party 17h ago
Excited for the game and to see what nothing burger we move onto next.
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u/Svalbard38 17h ago
Owen Sound made an interesting trade earlier this week, they’ve moved Panthers prospect Cole Zurawski to Kingston for picks. My first thought was “great, Owen Sound are tearing it down and Harry Nansi can finally get off that sinking ship”, but Owen Sound’s GM says this shouldn’t be interpreted as a signal to the market, and it’s more because Zurawski wasn’t able to knock anyone, including Nansi, off the first line, and they’d rather recoup value on Zurawski and open up space for a younger player.
I hope he’s just bluffing and he’s open to moving Nansi though, I’ve watched a bunch of Owen Sound over the past couple of seasons and while they’ve had a bunch of players I like individually (Mbuyi, George, Zurawski, plus Nansi and McCue from our prospect pool), they just don’t have it as a team. I’d really like to see Nansi moved to a good team to see what he brings to a contender. On the other hand though, it’s encouraging that he’s got such a strong hold on a first line spot that they’re making moves around him.
Also in the OHL last night, Brody Pepoy had a hat trick! I might have to start watching more Saginaw games for this kid, he’s off to a good start.
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u/vancouver2222 17h ago
I hate what Jim Hiller did the other day but I think what's worse is if he starts making reactive decisions based on fan / media sentiment. You can't run a hockey team by committee let alone by fans.
Maybe Hiller needs a bit of feedback from Mats or Chyka but I hope he doesn't start second guessing every decision or coaching from a place of fear. If that's going to happen I'd prefer if they fire him outright.
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u/DataDude00 14h ago
Hillers decision to bench McKenna was just awful and there is no other way about it
Leafs were already short benched with the forward group and he took his youngest and freshest player out of the equation which hurt the team more than anything
On top of that I don’t want to start benching our prized prospect at every minor mistake he makes while vets like Rielly and Stetcher are getting turnstiled on the back end all night
If we are trying to coach accountability enforce it evenly not just pick on the kid
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u/Jaded-Gur-5717 18h ago
I had a dream last night that we lost in OT to the San Jose Sharks but for some reason we played them at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh and the whole crowd was yellow
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u/epic_taco_time Cowan 59m ago
How much could Jiricek cost?
1.5x2 on the Flyers. he's 23, expires RFA and they've been pairing him with I believe Benoit but has been putting up positive relXGF and relCF so far. Not a huge piece and won't fix our D but maybe there's some juice in those grapes