McCabe has been exactly what we needed on the back-end. Essentially a slightly worse Muzzin, but for $2mil for the next 2 seasons how can anyone complain?
Lafferty has been solid, good fit in the bottom 6. Had a nice sauce yesterday on ZAR’s 2nd goal of the night.
Mccabe and Acciari are exactly what this team needed, fearless and hard to play against. Leafs didn't need more soft skill, the have it in spades. It was tiresome watching leafs stars and goalies get pushed around and no push back, along with opposing teams having no fear to play vs leafs. And that carries to the postseason. Against the leafs you didn't need to worry about going into a corner to retrieve a puck or worry about being too close to leaf goalies or even about having your head down a couple seconds too long to retrieve a puck. With McCabe, Schenn, Acciari we've already seen some opponents pay the price for this. Aho took a solid hit from Schenn last night, and we saw him manhandling a player out of Samsonovs crease after a whistle, we seen McCabe standing up to Myers for Tavares after he took a big hit and standing up for Brodie vs E.Kane in Edmonton. In the past there was no response from Leafs after these plays.
Engvall is a UFA and we wouldn't be able to afford him next year. So I'm glad we got a pick instead of losing him for free like Mikheyev, Hyman and the past.
Leafs also have Nick Robertson, Knies, Holmberg, McCann, Steeves who will be looking for permanent roles on the big team next year.
If anything the success of players on other teams is a credit to Dubas and his management. He drafted Sandin, he traded a player before his contract was unmoveable (Johnsson) for Anderson, he also traded Kapanen for a first around the same time, he held onto Engvall until he couldnt afford him. And he still has a bunch of depth players (that he signed as UFAs or drafted) like the ones he shipped out and better waiting in the wings. And the players he got in return for his trades have looked pretty damn good thus far.
