MapleLeaf4ever
Registered User
Just as the title says, If you were the GM what would your plan be?
Personally my plan would be nothing to drastic, other than trading off Clarkson purely for cap reasons. The leafs have the cap room, provided the cap does increase to $73m as its supposed to, to resign the 3 big RFA's (Bernier, Franson and Kadri) all in contracts between $4m and $5m. They can also sign Santorelli to roughly $3m and Winnik for roughly $1.5m. Unfortunately this leaves less than $700k for the 12th forward and no room to carry extra players in case someone gets hurt. If Clarkson is moved, even if we have to retain the max 50% salary then the leafs would have an additional $2.6m for depth players. It's not much but it's enough that guys like Kozun Levio Nylander Panik and Percy can fill spots on the teams depth positions. More than 2/3rds of the league still has a compliance buyout, 9 teams have cap space and a compliance buyout. Florida currently has Cap room and a compliance buyout along with an owner who is willing to pay money. Maybe sending a prospect such as Loov or a second round pick could take on Clarkson. There is also the connection in Calgary with BB. Deryk Engelland coming back for an ordinary buyout helps them dump a bad contract. The flames may decide not to use the compliance buyout right away as Clarkson as he could fit into Hartley's system and with the hardworking players in Calgary he could find rejuvenation. All this assumes that Calgary is not one of the listed teams for his MNTC. As it is right now if Clarkson cannot be moved Gardiner is the easiest player to replace with Stu Percy ready to jump in, as much as it pains to see a guy like him go. I say this because Kessel is an elite talent, Bozak and Kadri are the teams only real Centre depth, and after JVR and Lupul the team really doesn't have much for reliable scoaring. Lupul also brings great off ice assets and JVR is signed to a sweet contract that makes him too good to trade for cap room. You won't get value for Jake however, but he is the easiest of the bunch to replace should a Clarkson deal prove too difficult to make.
The next move I would make is addressing coaching. Again Carlyle is not the sole problem with this team however his system does not fit the group of players he is working with. The system named "the swarm" relies on having strong defensively responsible players. Leafs have high talent that love to skate and are far from being defensively responsible. Moving away from this system that only works for teams such as Boston LA Nashville (under Bary Trotz) and NJ can only help. Furthermore it would do wonders for Jake Gardiner. Not that I think he dislikes Carlyle, I don't get access to the dressing room so how would I know, but that I think he is the player most affected by this system. If he begins to become the player we all know he can be and play the way he did during the Boston series, then this makes Phanuef expendable for assets to address other areas and offer more cap room. Dan Balsyma I don't believe anybody fualts for what's happened in the past with Pittsburgh, much of that blame is on Ray Shero for not supplying Balsyma with sufficient wingers for Crosby and Malkin and letting the defence fall to shambles. This isn't to say that I wouldn't take Babcock but I'm not getting my hopes up for him. The move is too risky for Babcock's legacy and if he wants to win he's better off where he is. Other name's that could be in the mix are Steve Spott who coached quite an offensive system in Kitchener, knows the players and seems to have a good rapport with them. Pual Maclean who is a very good coach and his firing shows how detrimental an owner like Ryan Melnyk can be to the team. Finally Todd Mclellen could be on the chopping block if San Jose blows another playoff series, and every team should jump on him if it happens.
Lastly is the development of young players and movement of roster players. I touched on how if Gardiner bounces back that makes Phanuef expendable to save salary and bring in assets. The same can be said about Tyler Bozak. The leafs currently do not have a ton of depth at the centre position, however if Nylander develops into a top 6 forward capable of playing Centre then that makes Bozak expendable. Holland is a cheaper option on the third line and McKegg, Carrick, and Gauthier all can develop into reliable 4th line options. Then with the assets brought in through Bozak and Phanuef and potential Free Agent Signings similar to Santorelli's additional options could exist.
To sum up my plan, I'm not changing much to the roster. Anyone who looks at the roster and does not believe this team is not one of the top 5-10 teams talent wise is kidding themselves. I do believe a great deal of their current woes is related to systemic problems and speed on the top defensive pairing and lack of reliability from Jake Gardiner. We know the team has good goaltending, we know we have Riemer for at least another year, so a backup does not need to be addressed for Bernier until then. Developing our younger talents such as Kadri, Gardiner, Nylander, Percy and Rielly along with continuing to produce players like Levio or potentially Conner Brown (Guy's who can play between the second and third lines) and pick up players such as Kozun, MacArthur, Panik, Raymond, Santorelli and WInnik through FA signings, trade and Waiver Wire will help make the team competitive as early as 2-3 years from now optimistically.
Finally a brief overlook of drafting choice's. This year there looks to be a whole heap of Centres at the top and in the middle. This draft class looks even better than the 2013 one even. Grabbing an additional player there to increase the depth would be a great idea. Another Option is there seems to be a few RHD in the first round that could end up as solid choices to replace Robidas when the time comes. Also a big need that the team needs to address is finding a big fast Power Winger to play top 6 mins (These guys can be found in the late first through the second round (see Burrow's, Brown, Lucic Kesler ect.)
So that's mine, what's yours?
Personally my plan would be nothing to drastic, other than trading off Clarkson purely for cap reasons. The leafs have the cap room, provided the cap does increase to $73m as its supposed to, to resign the 3 big RFA's (Bernier, Franson and Kadri) all in contracts between $4m and $5m. They can also sign Santorelli to roughly $3m and Winnik for roughly $1.5m. Unfortunately this leaves less than $700k for the 12th forward and no room to carry extra players in case someone gets hurt. If Clarkson is moved, even if we have to retain the max 50% salary then the leafs would have an additional $2.6m for depth players. It's not much but it's enough that guys like Kozun Levio Nylander Panik and Percy can fill spots on the teams depth positions. More than 2/3rds of the league still has a compliance buyout, 9 teams have cap space and a compliance buyout. Florida currently has Cap room and a compliance buyout along with an owner who is willing to pay money. Maybe sending a prospect such as Loov or a second round pick could take on Clarkson. There is also the connection in Calgary with BB. Deryk Engelland coming back for an ordinary buyout helps them dump a bad contract. The flames may decide not to use the compliance buyout right away as Clarkson as he could fit into Hartley's system and with the hardworking players in Calgary he could find rejuvenation. All this assumes that Calgary is not one of the listed teams for his MNTC. As it is right now if Clarkson cannot be moved Gardiner is the easiest player to replace with Stu Percy ready to jump in, as much as it pains to see a guy like him go. I say this because Kessel is an elite talent, Bozak and Kadri are the teams only real Centre depth, and after JVR and Lupul the team really doesn't have much for reliable scoaring. Lupul also brings great off ice assets and JVR is signed to a sweet contract that makes him too good to trade for cap room. You won't get value for Jake however, but he is the easiest of the bunch to replace should a Clarkson deal prove too difficult to make.
The next move I would make is addressing coaching. Again Carlyle is not the sole problem with this team however his system does not fit the group of players he is working with. The system named "the swarm" relies on having strong defensively responsible players. Leafs have high talent that love to skate and are far from being defensively responsible. Moving away from this system that only works for teams such as Boston LA Nashville (under Bary Trotz) and NJ can only help. Furthermore it would do wonders for Jake Gardiner. Not that I think he dislikes Carlyle, I don't get access to the dressing room so how would I know, but that I think he is the player most affected by this system. If he begins to become the player we all know he can be and play the way he did during the Boston series, then this makes Phanuef expendable for assets to address other areas and offer more cap room. Dan Balsyma I don't believe anybody fualts for what's happened in the past with Pittsburgh, much of that blame is on Ray Shero for not supplying Balsyma with sufficient wingers for Crosby and Malkin and letting the defence fall to shambles. This isn't to say that I wouldn't take Babcock but I'm not getting my hopes up for him. The move is too risky for Babcock's legacy and if he wants to win he's better off where he is. Other name's that could be in the mix are Steve Spott who coached quite an offensive system in Kitchener, knows the players and seems to have a good rapport with them. Pual Maclean who is a very good coach and his firing shows how detrimental an owner like Ryan Melnyk can be to the team. Finally Todd Mclellen could be on the chopping block if San Jose blows another playoff series, and every team should jump on him if it happens.
Lastly is the development of young players and movement of roster players. I touched on how if Gardiner bounces back that makes Phanuef expendable to save salary and bring in assets. The same can be said about Tyler Bozak. The leafs currently do not have a ton of depth at the centre position, however if Nylander develops into a top 6 forward capable of playing Centre then that makes Bozak expendable. Holland is a cheaper option on the third line and McKegg, Carrick, and Gauthier all can develop into reliable 4th line options. Then with the assets brought in through Bozak and Phanuef and potential Free Agent Signings similar to Santorelli's additional options could exist.
To sum up my plan, I'm not changing much to the roster. Anyone who looks at the roster and does not believe this team is not one of the top 5-10 teams talent wise is kidding themselves. I do believe a great deal of their current woes is related to systemic problems and speed on the top defensive pairing and lack of reliability from Jake Gardiner. We know the team has good goaltending, we know we have Riemer for at least another year, so a backup does not need to be addressed for Bernier until then. Developing our younger talents such as Kadri, Gardiner, Nylander, Percy and Rielly along with continuing to produce players like Levio or potentially Conner Brown (Guy's who can play between the second and third lines) and pick up players such as Kozun, MacArthur, Panik, Raymond, Santorelli and WInnik through FA signings, trade and Waiver Wire will help make the team competitive as early as 2-3 years from now optimistically.
Finally a brief overlook of drafting choice's. This year there looks to be a whole heap of Centres at the top and in the middle. This draft class looks even better than the 2013 one even. Grabbing an additional player there to increase the depth would be a great idea. Another Option is there seems to be a few RHD in the first round that could end up as solid choices to replace Robidas when the time comes. Also a big need that the team needs to address is finding a big fast Power Winger to play top 6 mins (These guys can be found in the late first through the second round (see Burrow's, Brown, Lucic Kesler ect.)
So that's mine, what's yours?