Oilers and Leafs: same needs

[CHunter]

Those two franchises can count on tremendous talents up front but desperately need to solidify D’s and get a #1 goalie....they could be on the hunt of the same players (I.e Seth Jones, one of Columbus G, etc)....looking forward to see what Holland and Dubas will do but these are teams that need to make some drastic changes....

[tweetdrivr]

I disagree. Neither should do anything drastic. The Leafs were without their #2 center for all but 10 mins of the series. And they lost their best D for the most important game. The Leafs need their superstars to grow up a little more. I thought Campbell was pretty good overall. He was not why they lost the series. But yes, I don’t think he’s an NHL starter. The Oilers have far more issues. Particularly scoring depth. The contrast between McDavid/Draisatl and the rest of the Fs is stark. Their D outside Nurse and the one dimensional UFA Barrie is bad. Smith is also not an NHL starter. The Oilers have many needs. The Leafs have a few. Neither needs to go blowing it up.

[2014olympicgold]

I disagree. Neither should do anything drastic. The Leafs were without their #2 center for all but 10 mins of the series. And they lost their best D for the most important game. The Leafs need their superstars to grow up a little more. I thought Campbell was pretty good overall. He was not why they lost the series. But yes, I don’t think he’s an NHL starter. The Oilers have far more issues. Particularly scoring depth. The contrast between McDavid/Draisatl and the rest of the Fs is stark. Their D outside Nurse and the one dimensional UFA Barrie is bad. Smith is also not an NHL starter. The Oilers have many needs. The Leafs have a few. Neither needs to go blowing it up.

I'm close to this, except I think the Oilers D isn't terrible for the future.

Bouchard, Brogerg, Larsson, Nurse, Klefbom (if he comes back). They need to address it in FA though. They have a ton of cap, so they can address it pretty quickly, but it will take away from their need for secondary scoring.

Both have a need at secondary offensive pieces. Leafs will lean heavy on the guys like Robertson, Anderson, maybe Hallander, and the ability the sign FA guys cheaply. The Leafs will have an easier job getting the 1mill guys than Oilers. The Leafs will likely be going after the same offensive pieces this offseason like Hyman, Hoffman, maybe talking about Hamilton (Leafs obviously would need more moves to take that seriously), and maybe guys like Haula and Riley Nash too.

[Axeman33]

The Oilers have plenty of needs and have the cap space to address some of them this off-season. They also have some very good pieces in their minors coming along. Their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield was awesome this season and their top line of Benson, McLeod and Marody were all in the top 10 for scoring. They also have some other nice forward pieces coming along in Holloway and Lavoie. As mentioned, there's D help in the pipeline as well. Stuart Skinner was a dominate AHL goalie. He led the league in mins played and wins. There's help coming in the system before we even start to talk about the cap space. That's where these two are different. The Leafs dont have much cap space to improve on what they have unless they start making trades. The Oilers have deficiencies but also, for the first time in the Ken Holland era, can start to address them.

I do expect a lot of big changes for the Oilers this off-season going into next year. They have their core pieces but the assisting cast will look different than last season I think. They will bring back some of the guys from last year but there will be changes, you can bet on that. I am curious how this will work out for Edmonton.

[rataylor22]

I strongly disagree that the Leafs and Oilers have similar needs.

[lucafen4]

Carey Price
Reg Season
2.64 .901

Playoffs
2.22 .932

Jack Campbell
Reg Season
2.15 .922

Playoffs
1.81 .934

Goaltending isn't the Leafs problem.

It's not offence.

It's forward depth.

The Habs game plan after game 1 was simple - keep Matthews & Marner line in check and we believe our 3rd/4th lines can outplay Tor's top 2 lines.
Proof - Keefe started Foligno on the 4th line in Game 7.

You're seeing the value of a strong bottom 6 from the Isles v. Bruins series. This is where the $40m on 4 forwards hampers the Leafs.

Even if Travis Boyd would have cleared waivers - his speed would have helped the 4th line.

The praise in the series should go to Montreal's team defence. they pressed matthews & marner hard & gave no space.
I'd flip the channel & watch another game and wonder how all the other teams top lines had so much more time and space.
It was desperation. AM, MM started trying to do more and more vs. less and distribute. Well done Mtl. D.

[Invictus]

@lucafen4

You also saw it in the Jets/Oilers series too. Limit McDavid/Draisatl = win.

Having 40m in 4 players is going to hurt even more if one of them goes down.

[rataylor22]

Neither's team's issue is that they are paying their stars too much (although Toronto is collectively paying their top 3 F $3-4M too much, maybe a little more).

The problem in Edmonton is they're spending way too much money on players who cannot contribute anything. Neal, Kassian, Chiasson, Russel, etc. They play players with McDavid and let them rack up points, and then pay them for those seasons and move them away from McDavid. You still have McDavid factoring in on 60%+ of ALL Edmonton goals. Dude just needs some depth that actually doesn't suck.

The problem in Toronto (and all Canadian markets) is the Canadian media landscape and the "200 Hockey Men" have broken everyone's brains and made everyone believe in statements like teams have "Too Much Offense" and "Theres 20 players I would trade for before Taylor Hall". Just completely braindead thinking. Basically every move Dubas has made over the last calendar year is to satisfy the 200 Hockey Men, Simmonds, Foligno, Nash, Bogosian, Thoornton, and it still didn't work.

[kovalchuk17]

I strongly disagree that the Leafs and Oilers have similar needs.

i thought about getting into details but ill just quote this and call it a day haha

[Invictus]

Neither's team's issue is that they are paying their stars too much (although Toronto is collectively paying their top 3 F $3-4M too much, maybe a little more).

The problem in Edmonton is they're spending way too much money on players who cannot contribute anything. Neal, Kassian, Chiasson, Russel, etc. They play players with McDavid and let them rack up points, and then pay them for those seasons and move them away from McDavid. You still have McDavid factoring in on 60%+ of ALL Edmonton goals. Dude just needs some depth that actually doesn't suck.

The problem in Toronto (and all Canadian markets) is the Canadian media landscape and the "200 Hockey Men" have broken everyone's brains and made everyone believe in statements like teams have "Too Much Offense" and "Theres 20 players I would trade for before Taylor Hall". Just completely braindead thinking. Basically every move Dubas has made over the last calendar year is to satisfy the 200 Hockey Men, Simmonds, Foligno, Nash, Bogosian, Thoornton, and it still didn't work.

Leaf's have 58m cap dedicated to Forwards alone whereas Habs it's 40m Oilers 50m.
Top 2 teams imo: TBL: 59m COL: 55.4m

Leaf's seem to be at the right spot, anymore and you are going to have holes in other areas.
With the cap there's always going to be weaknesses different team make up can exploit better.

[lucafen4]

Leaf's have 58m cap dedicated to Forwards alone whereas Habs it's 40m Oilers 50m.
Top 2 teams imo: TBL: 59m COL: 55.4m

Leaf's seem to be at the right spot, anymore and you are going to have holes in other areas.
With the cap there's always going to be weaknesses different team make up can exploit better.

Aves do have the benefit of paying MacKinnon & Landeskog combined, Austin Matthews salary.

[Invictus]

Aves do have the benefit of paying MacKinnon & Landeskog combined, Austin Matthews salary.

I forgot too about TBL free Kucherov things.

So Leaf's are seemingly too top end (forward) heavy. You are working a bit under the constrains of what you're given.