Toronto Maple Leafs

[ericdaoust]

Neuvirth is already their 2nd best goalie. The issue his how often he's injured, even as a backup. If the idea is to give Andersen fewer games it might not be possible if you're depending on Neuvirth.

[lucafen4]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Sparks win the back up job in camp.

[Mr. Guru]

I would be.

Sparks is no good.

[Mr. Guru]

I bet you Sparks goes unclaimed when the leafs waive him this year.

[Godin]

Good move. Toronto needs a quality back up and I believe Neuvirth is a way better option than Sparks who I don't believe will be back in the NHL. He just isn't an NHL goalie.

[fungchen3]

Neuvirth is a decent tender... he just can't stay healthy for 2 periods.

[lucafen4]

Personally, I think the transition from workhorse AHL tender to rarely used NHL back up was one that Sparks did not adjust to last year.
He had a rhythm with the Marlies that didn't exist in 18/19.
It's up to him to put the work in this summer - mostly on the mental side - to improve as a back up.
As hard as he worked in the summer of 17/18 to prepare to be the Marlies #1 - I feel confident he'll be much improved as the back up this year.
One bad season of 20gp isn't enough to write him off completely

[DusterDave]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Sparks win the back up job in camp.

Traded to Vegas. Will he backup Fleury or will Subban?

[tweetdrivr]

Traded to Vegas. Will he backup Fleury or will Subban?

Probably a camp decision...

[Godin]

Traded to Vegas. Will he backup Fleury or will Subban?

Back up? I doubt he will be 'back up' from the AHL.

[fungchen3]

In case anyone is wondering... or cares... Tyson Barrie is going to wear #94 for the Leafs.

[mounD]

In case anyone is wondering... or cares... Tyson Barrie is going to wear #94 for the Leafs.

that's the number of points he is going to score when he takes over PP1

[fungchen3]

that's the number of points he is going to score when he takes over PP1

You think he takes Rielly's job on PP1? Or do the Leafs roll 2D on the PP... a la, Kaberle and McCabe?

[mounD]

You think he takes Rielly's job on PP1? Or do the Leafs roll 2D on the PP... a la, Kaberle and McCabe?

Nah I was kinda just joking around. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Leafs use a 3F-2D setup, but it's interesting to get into what that would look like. Ostensibly the personnel would be something like: Tavares, Marner, Matthews, Rielly, Barrie. But who goes where is the interesting part. Marner has typically operated as the QB and distributor along the right wall and he's not a one timer option in that position. He would feed cross ice passes to Matthews on the left wall, or to Kadri in the bumper spot, or Tavares down low. With Barrie in the mix, perhaps he could take Matthews spot on the left wall as a one-timer option?

In this scenario, you have the 1-3-1 setup with Rielly up high on the point; Marner along the right wall directing traffic; Barrie roving the left side as a shooting option; Matthews in the bumper spot replacing Kadri and sticking with JT down low. I'm not sure that's the optimal approach, as your only real one-timer option is Barrie (or Rielly at the point). I'm not certain the slot/bumper spot would be the best deployment for Matthews, as his wrist shot even on the strong side where he had to corral the puck before releasing was a deadly option. We've all seen the beautiful toe drags. Tavares is going to effective in his position regardless. Overall, this setup is pretty close to what the Leafs used last season, although there is a bona fide one-timer option with Barrie subbing along the left wall. This PP is similar to Leafs PP1 deployments last season in that there aren't really one-timer options to speak of.

What if we assume for a second the Leafs run a completely different PP1 setup, using 4F-1D with Barrie-Marner-Nylander-Matthews-Tavares. Here's what that could look like: Barrie would be out high at the point as a RH shot, but instead of his typical right wall position, Marner and Matthews would swap spots so that each player would be a one-timer option on his off side. Marner would have the options for cross-ice feed to Matthews for one-timer, move down low to Tavares, into the slot/bumper to Nylander, or back to the point to Barrie. Admittedly, Rielly might work better in this setup just because he would be a one-time shooting option from Marner from the left wall whereas Barrie would not. The added benefit here, though, is that Barrie and Matthews can exchange one-timer options on the right wall. In addition, Matthews would not only have an option as a primary shooter, but he could send passes to Marner cross-ice for one-timer, into the slot to Nylander in sort of a Brayden Point role for a one-timer, back to Barrie at the point for a one-timer, etc. So not only would you have Marner able to run the left side -- AND actually represent a shooting option so defenses couldn't just block out his favorite passing lanes -- the right wall options would also be incredibly deadly. Tavares would, as usual, just be doing his thing regardless.

I think we're going to see some changes with the Toronto powerplay units, but it really wouldn't surprise me to see Barrie utilized a lot with the PP1.

[lucafen4]

Traded to Vegas. Will he backup Fleury or will Subban?

Apparently Dubas reads Dobber and took exception to my post... Wow, that took Nano-seconds for me to eat that word sammich.

Sparks finds himself in a real battle for back up job in Vegas now. Cant think Vegas is really happy with Subban's .902 svpct... couldn't win to save his life on the road last year.
Would potentially land him an extra 10-15 games.

I think the job is Neuvirth's to lose TBH. When healthy, he's a much better G than Hutch.

I don't like either option for the whole season though, appears to be another 65 game season for Fred-Ex.

---

Leafs now have $10.55m in cap space to sign Marner today - since they can move both Horton & Clarkson to LTIR this summer if Marner signs.

This number increases to closer to 11.5m later on - once Dermott (well not really) But Hyman's contract gets pro-rated for his 2mth IR stint as he recovers from his injury. There's some cap-recapture for the Leafs there. We really get into the nitty-gritty of Cap details figuring that all out.