Toronto Maple Leafs

[lucafen4]

Ivan Barabanov?

And I too also think the Leafs need to work on their top LW. Kerfoot shouldn't be slotted there.

I also am curious how strong Carlo Colaiacovo's sources are because he said yesterday that P.Kane would waive his NTC to only NYR and Leafs. He has yet to indicate that's something he'd do, but if Toronto can take advantage of the situation.... I dunoooooo.

Player's don't comment publicly where they'd like to go.
Leafs would need a 3rd team involved. Perhaps Anh or Arz. -- Kane only owed $2.9m in actual cash this season. So financially, this might be something either team would consider.
Chi eats 50%, Anh eats 25% and sends Comtois along with his $2.75m cap hit

The more I look at the Leafs bottom 6, the more I'm convinced Dubas is going to make multiple acquisitions. He HAS to

Let's compare most likely opponents of the 1st two rounds:

TB
Colton - Paul - Maroon
Namestnikov - Bellemare - Perry

Bos
Foligno - Coyle - DeBrusk
Greer - Frederic - Smith

Tor
Engvall - Kampf - Jarnkrok
Aston-Reese - Holmberg - Anderson/Steeves/McMann/Simmonds

Leafs top 2 lines can go head to head with either team.

Two of the three 3rd lines can score - The Leafs have the one that can't.
Boston provides a nightmarish matchup currently.
Esp. if they decided t play Zacha & DeBrusk with Foligno on the 3rd line - Be a quick series. That is a second line for some teams.

TB has serious size that will plain outmuscle the Leafs 3rd line. Paul dominated game 7.

Fourth lines create horrible matchups - Aston-Reese can be a high calibre defending F, but needs help.


They need 2 mid-six forwards to push Engvall & Kampf to the 4th line & a top 6 winger.
A 4th line of Engvall - Kampf - Aston-Reese...
looks a lot better than currently listed above.

I don't trust Holl with hard minutes & Timmins has shown he's not ready for them.
Sandin can be - he was when the IR was full in the fall.

So queue up two additions on D.
I expect Benn to get more playing time on the bottom pair down the stretch to hold home ice.

Right now I don't trust Rielly in the last 5min of a game.

They may need too many depth pieces to really have a shot of winning two rounds

[lucafen4]

Just to update the comparisons:

Colton - Paul - Maroon
Namestnikov - Bellemare - Perry

Bos
Foligno - Coyle - DeBrusk
Greer - Frederic - Smith

Tor
Engvall - Acciari - Kerfoot
Aston-Reese - Kampf - Jarnkrok

Would love to see Engvall play like he did vs. Montreal on a game in - game out basis.

[2014olympicgold]

Ya the problem with Engvall is he can't do that game in-game out lol. Every yr we see it and want that but get stretches he's absent. However, last yr, there was the stretch at the end of the yr and into the playoffs he played well. Maybe (hopefully) that's what he is, he turns it on at this yr time of the yr.

[2014olympicgold]

Leafs Lines Guesses:
Bunting-Matthews-Marner
JT - ROR - Nylander
Engvall - Kampf - Jankrok
Kerfoot/ZAR - Acciari - Lafferty
* I'm thinking if you can move Engvall/Kerfoot for someone you think about it. You hold onto guys for depth if a trade isn't there. Kerfoot is a surprisingly good 4th line guy. Nothing happens when he's on the ice, and he's high effort. He's not paid like a 4th liner, but he does have value there for me.

Rielly - Brodie
Gio - McCabe
Sandin - Liljegren
Holl/Timmins/Benn
* You can mix and match so much with Brodie and McCabe playing off wings, and having 2 RHD as your extras. They'll just flip through Sandin/Lilj/Holl/Timmins/and Gio likely. Gio you need to change the locks on the arena to have him not play, but I think he needs to rest up. Guys 39yrs old and he's HEAVILY needed.

[2014olympicgold]

Also, if the Leafs plan on activating Murray, they need $1.8m in space to do so. Sending Woll down, that turns into just over $1m. Sending anyone down would likely get claimed who has that $1+m salary.

This is also the Leafs who can find a way to LTIR skip their way to the playoffs. They were in this issue to start the season, and it ended up working itself out.

[lucafen4]

Holl at $2M seems the most likely 'odd-man out' With 9 1-way D contracts & him being the biggest cap hit - covering Murray's cap. It makes sense

Also, he's a right shot at a decent cap hit.
He can play top 4 minutes for most teams. Not saying he's a top 4 Dman, but he can log the minutes decently.

He will give a much larger return than Kerfoot would on the market.
Entirely possible Dubas can squeeze a 2nd and a 5th out of him.

Leafs also have Mete, Kral, Hollowell that got cups of coffee this year down in the A.

Kerfoot, I think too many people look at score sheets and say he's not doing his job.
He does everything with tenacity & speed. He's not big so he doesn't bang, but he is a swiss army knife that Keefe trusts in all situations.
Dubas won't move him unless he absolutely has to.

Engvall, each year he gets better and more consistent.
He's still very inconsistent, yes, but... 230 games into his career is going to set a career high in goals (modest 15)
If you accept Big Man Theory, then you should accept the Leafs need to hang on to him
The dude is 6'5" 220lbs. Two years from his breakout season.
he shows flashes... of utter dominance (Last Montreal Game).

If they move on, I fully expect in three years fans will be complaining the Leafs let another one get away - Marchment vs. Malgin.

Had I to pick a name for the Leafs to add now... it would be Mikey Eyssimont - 750K & 58% CF (3.1 SOG/GM last 10), on a bad Sharks team

[lucafen4]

Player's don't comment publicly where they'd like to go.


The more I look at the Leafs bottom 6, the more I'm convinced Dubas is going to make multiple acquisitions. He HAS to




They need 2 mid-six forwards to push Engvall & Kampf to the 4th line & a top 6 winger.

So queue up two additions on D.
I expect Benn to get more playing time on the bottom pair down the stretch to hold home ice.

Right now I don't trust Rielly in the last 5min of a game.

They may need too many depth pieces to really have a shot of winning two rounds

Well... two bottom six and two additions on D - check and check. x2.
Plus ROR

Really did not think he could check all the boxes in one deadline.
Only losing Sandin & Engvall from the starting roster is pretty amazing.

big old ** because I'm not convinced Dubas is done. Other than maybe replace Murray with a more health-secure back up, I'm not sure what else he could drum up.

[Feenom]

I do think he may be going for a more secure option in net. Murray is a huge question mark and sticks out like a sore thumb back there. I think he gets a pad wearer.

[tweetdrivr]

Korpisalo being held out…

[Feenom]

Three items on my wish list came true:

Lafferty
A Lyubushkin type Dman (Schenn)
Get Engvall the hell outta here

Check, check aaaand check!

- - - Updated - - -

Korpisalo being held out…

Interesting…

[lucafen4]

Three items on my wish list came true:

Lafferty
A Lyubushkin type Dman (Schenn)
Get Engvall the hell outta here

Check, check aaaand check!

- - - Updated - - -



Interesting…

Check and Check - Schenn & McCabe.

both are more capable than Lybushkin was in open ice. Against the boards he was a machine. everwhere else I held my breath

[Feenom]

Check and Check - Schenn & McCabe.

both are more capable than Lybushkin was in open ice. Against the boards he was a machine. everwhere else I held my breath

Oh yea forgot about McCabe. I am so ready for the regular season to be done with.

[Axeman33]

Here's my question to Leafs fans here.

After changing up close to 1/3 of your roster (even though they were already one of the best teams in the league), how confident that your team can beat Tampa Bay at this point? Are you nervous that the pieces put in place will gel? That's a lot of changes for a team that was already doing well.

How confident are you in your goaltending. Sure, you can show me numbers that say how well Samsonov has played so far this year, but playoff pressure is a thing. Samsonov has 8 career playoff games to his name and he's got one win. I get it; different place, different time, but it still needs to be noted.

[2014olympicgold]

I'm nervous that the Leafs did change 1/3rd of their roster in February. But they've already introduced ROR and Accairi and they've experimented with them already. Which is nice.

Lafferty's role should be easy to integrate. Go fast, hit, forecheck.

My biggest worries are McCabe, Schenn, and if they keep Gust. Especially if you want to play McCabe on the off-side. This needs to be heavily watched by Keefe over the next few weeks. But they do have guys like Gio and Brodie that seem to work with anyone on their pairings. But yeah, goodluck tonight vs McDavid if they're playing.

Goalies....It's def a question mark, and the Leafs have dealt with both sides of it. Andersen couldn't handle it with the Leafs, Campbell seemed like he could. At this point I'm numb to that problem lol.

[2014olympicgold]

So Leafs Lines as of now:
Bunting-Matthews-Marner
JT-ROR-Nylander
Kerfoot-Kampf-Jarnkrok
ZAR-Accairi-Lafferty

Rielly-Holl
McCabe-Brodie
Gio-Liljegren

PP1:
Matthews-JT-Nylander-Marner-Rielly
PP2:
Jarnkrok-ROR-Kerfoot-Butning-Gio?

I feel like the D will end up being:
Rielly-Brodie
McCabe-Schenn
Gio-Liljegren
Gust/Timmins with Holl traded.