The Star: Farm futures: Five Marlies that could play a role with the Maple Leafs

[danny90]

There are likely 400 guys in the AHL that are 27 or younger that you can toss onto a 4th line in the NHL in a pinch.

Not only do the Leafs not have a lot of kids, but the problem they're all in the Kyle Dubas vision many small well below NHL size in the mold of Denis Malgin.

View attachment 714044

View attachment 714045

View attachment 714046

View attachment 714049

View attachment 714050

View attachment 714051

View attachment 714054

View attachment 714057

View attachment 714058

View attachment 714060

& My favourite Leaf prospect Leafs acquired from the pick from the Kadri trade.

View attachment 714056

The Leafs are not going to put together a team full of smurfs here after watching how big and physical teams like Florida and Vegas are playing.

Florida big and physical?

 

[Dreakmur]

Florida has the smallest roster in the NHL currently.

Do they actually? This is their lineup by height.

6'2" - 6'4" - 6'2"
6'2" - 6'1" - 5'11"
6'3" - 6'1" - 5'11"
5'9" - 6'4" - 6'1"

6' - 6'
6'4" - 6'5"
6' - 6'

Only Nick Cousins, Anthony Duclair, and Ryan Lomberg are shorter than 6'.

 

[PROUD PAPA]

A fresh topic that should be a nice break from the mud slinging/doom and gloom fests that dominate the first page.
Thank you @Ianturnedbull.

 

[Mess]

Florida big and physical?

Are you not watching the way Tkachuk, Bennett and Gudas are playing at one point Florida was leading the playoffs in hits.

Leafs almost get swept by the Panthers because they couldn't get the net nor play in heavy traffic and generate any greasy goals and then I see a prospect pool full of 5-9 170 lbs forwards and Dman and think boy this is exactly what was missing when Gudas lines them up and knocks them into tomorrow.

Leafs at the TDL tried to address size, strength and physicality and that was far from successful against the Panthers, but we don't even have prospects to replace the likes of them stylistically.

We have Matt Knies and those are the kinds of Leafs prospects I would drool over and see a bright future over if they had a bunch of powerforward types, but sadly in Leafs prospect pool he is the outlyer. IMO

 

[All Mod Cons]

You're so dishonest.

Leaves out the next column which would shine Sandin in a bad light... typical

To be fair, people used to use +/- but the analytical twitter bloggers went f***ing ballistic. It's now hard to know when they can be used or not.

 

[Mess]

I'm a staunch non-Sandin guy. I firmly believe whatever offensive inflator was responsible for Erik Gustafsson in Washington (PP time in Carlson's absence, more ice time than you'd get on a team that can't afford the defensive trade offs) is the same that boosted his numbers post trade.

Sandin will be a good player, but I'm pretty happy to have the Boston first rounder as currency and he's not a fit for me. Gio is toast too.

I wasn't the biggest fan of him personally either, but he was lot better as a younger player that proved he could play at the NHL level .. Leafs don't have a lot of these in the prospect pool. IMO

Sandin was a successful 1st round selection, so it will be interesting to see with a new GM now how that 1st round pick is used and they will forever be linked to see how this comes out.

At time of the 2018 draft I was hoping for K'Andre Miller wouild fall to the Leafs but the NYR #26 traded up in front of Toronto #25 to take him

These are the types of players that would be good filling out an NHL roster.

 

[Mess]

Holmberg ideally challenges for a full time lineup spot come game 1

I agree with Leafs having 7 UFA forwards it would seem Holmberg would have an inside track to an NHL roster spot next year perhaps replacing Kampf or Acciari depending on if they return or not. I liked Holmbeg's game when he was up with the Leafs.

 

[Stephen]

I wasn't the biggest fan of him personally either, but he was lot better as a younger player that proved he could play at the NHL level .. Leafs don't have a lot of these in the prospect pool. IMO

Sandin was a successful 1st round selection, so it will be interesting to see with a new GM now how that 1st round pick is used and they will forever be linked to see how this comes out.

At time of the 2018 draft I was hoping for K'Andre Miller wouild fall to the Leafs but the NYR #26 traded up in front of Toronto #25 to take him

View attachment 714080

These are the types of players that would be good filling out an NHL roster.

Yep, that was a guy I was interested in as well. Big 6'5" defenseman who could skate like the wind and ranked in the 20s? Where do I sign up?

I even said maybe we can trade up to get him since we actually had the Dominik Bokk pick at 25.

Rangers traded the 26th pick and 48th pick to move up.

Meanwhile we had the 25th pick and ended up trading down to 29th pick. But at least we go Simeon Der-Arguchitsev right?

 

[keonsbitterness]

To be fair, people used to use +/- but the analytical twitter bloggers went f***ing ballistic. It's now hard to know when they can be used or not.

Mess uses it when it backs up his point and avoids it when it doesn't.

 

[Mess]

Yep, that was a guy I was interested in as well. Big 6'5" defenseman who could skate like the wind and ranked in the 20s? Where do I sign up?

I even said maybe we can trade up to get him since we actually had the Dominik Bokk pick at 25.

Rangers traded the 26th pick and 48th pick to move up.

Meanwhile we had the 25th pick and ended up trading down to 29th pick. But at least we go Simeon Der-Arguchitsev right?

Little did we know at the time our new GM was about to start his Soo Greyhound collection with Sandin in the 1st and Hollowell in the 4th.

 

[Mess]

Mess uses it when it backs up his point and avoids it when it doesn't.

I was talking about Sandin outscoring any of the new guys post TDL.

Here are the new guys +/- for the Leafs in the playoffs if that helps you, but I don't think its going to.

 

[shaner8989]

Holmbergs a lock
McMann is a total bizzsaw. Need him in the lineup
Steeves is meh
Hirvonen could be great but not ready yet
Niemela will be sick but needs a full year or 2 in the A

 

[keonsbitterness]

I was talking about Sandin outscoring any of the new guys post TDL.

Here are the new guys +/- for the Leafs in the playoffs if that helps you, but I don't think its going to.

View attachment 714090

If you want to play that game, what were Sandin's playoff stats this year?

 

[notbias]

To be fair, people used to use +/- but the analytical twitter bloggers went f***ing ballistic. It's now hard to know when they can be used or not.

Mess constantly uses them when it fits his narrative. I don't think they are a good stat, but when you have such a bad +/- in such a short time, there may be something there.

Are you not watching the way Tkachuk, Bennett and Gudas are playing at one point Florida was leading the playoffs in hits.

Leafs almost get swept by the Panthers because they couldn't get the net nor play in heavy traffic and generate any greasy goals and then I see a prospect pool full of 5-9 170 lbs forwards and Dman and think boy this is exactly what was missing when Gudas lines them up and knocks them into tomorrow.

Leafs at the TDL tried to address size, strength and physicality and that was far from successful against the Panthers, but we don't even have prospects to replace the likes of them stylistically.

We have Matt Knies and those are the kinds of Leafs prospects I would drool over and see a bright future over if they had a bunch of powerforward types, but sadly in Leafs prospect pool he is the outlyer. IMO

You need to draft top 15 to get Knies types usually.

Glad you brought up hits, seems like hitting a lot is not a good thing.

I also think Gudas made one hit all series against us and it was illegal.

Bennett didn't really make any clean hits either.

Tkachuk was hit as much as he hit.

McCabe was probably the best hitter in the playoffs from what I've seen.

 

[francis246]

View attachment 714042

Bobby McMann was an undrafted player that is about to turn 27 years old in 2 weeks .. He is already older then the 3 Amigos.

Is this really the Leafs version of "Play the Kids"?

He recorded 1 assist in 10 games with the Leafs last year as a fill in.

Same people said the same shit about Marchment. You don’t know what you have until you give them extended looks. McMann looks like a decent player.

Thank Christ the Dubester was an excellent drafter. Not many teams can reel off a list like that.

Most of those guys were not drafted. So again, to have a lot of college UFA’s pushing to make a roster is good. And that list doesn’t include guys who aren’t playing with the Marlies.

 

[danny90]

Are you not watching the way Tkachuk, Bennett and Gudas are playing at one point Florida was leading the playoffs in hits.

Leafs almost get swept by the Panthers because they couldn't get the net nor play in heavy traffic and generate any greasy goals and then I see a prospect pool full of 5-9 170 lbs forwards and Dman and think boy this is exactly what was missing when Gudas lines them up and knocks them into tomorrow.

Leafs at the TDL tried to address size, strength and physicality and that was far from successful against the Panthers, but we don't even have prospects to replace the likes of them stylistically.

We have Matt Knies and those are the kinds of Leafs prospects I would drool over and see a bright future over if they had a bunch of powerforward types, but sadly in Leafs prospect pool he is the outlyer. IMO

Florida is not a big and physical team. The leafs were leading the playoffs in hits during the first round at one point as well. Acciari, Schenn and McCabe are still up there with Acciari leading the league still.

Leafs almost got swept because of once in a lifetime goaltending performance and high percentage finish. Matthews probably got his wrist injured with a blocked shot and despite dominating play on both ends Marner couldn’t convert. Nylander drove play as well and the series was overall much closer than it seemed by looking only at the box score.

 

[DarkKnight]

Steeves? Man.

Trading away all those picks is catching up with us.

 

[PanniniClaus]

I agree with Leafs having 7 UFA forwards it would seem Holmberg would have an inside track to an NHL roster spot next year perhaps replacing Kampf or Acciari depending on if they return or not. I liked Holmbeg's game when he was up with the Leafs.

View attachment 714083

I think he is the direct replacement for Kampf.

 

[PanniniClaus]

Florida is not a big and physical team. The leafs were leading the playoffs in hits during the first round at one point as well. Acciari, Schenn and McCabe are still up there with Acciari leading the league still.

Leafs almost got swept because of once in a lifetime goaltending performance and high percentage finish. Matthews probably got his wrist injured with a blocked shot and despite dominating play on both ends Marner couldn’t convert. Nylander drove play as well and the series was overall much closer than it seemed by looking only at the box score.

Do you mean that Marner was dominant on both ends or the Leafs? Marner was exceptional in round 1 on the PP. In round 2 if you wanted plays to die... you got the puck to Marner.. He looked slow, small, feeble and without a lick of confidence.. Nylander was exceptional in round 2. So exceptional that Keefe couldn't find a role for him on PP1... I'm going down a rabbit hole now. Treliving must clean house and hire the right man.

 

[TheRumble]

I am absolutely amazed that following a series where we allowed Florida to score 80% of their goals on the rush and a Vegas team that was the least penalized team in the league that beat the Stars mostly on the rush that people here still think that the Leafs need to get tougher and less skilled. Carolina, one of the most dependent teams in the league on dump and chase offense, got swept by Florida.

This team needs more speed and guys who can score in transition and generate rush offense. Less speed is the last thing we need.

I can't believe anyone here watches this team, sees Brodie, Hall, Giordano, McCabe getting burned on the rush and thinks to themselves that we lack toughness.

Absolute insanity.

 

[aingefan]

I think guys are sleeping on Pontus. Guys made good adjustments throughout his career, smart, talented two-way player, and developed himself enough to be the playoff mvp in the sel.
I think Bobby Mac should be in the 4th line mix. Because he’s earned it and it’s the right message to the system.
Roni and Topi are tracking well.

 

[justashadowof]

Holmberg, McMann and Steeves are all potentially nice serviceable bottom 6 (probably 4th line) bodies on ELCs. I had hoped to see Niemela look too good for the AHL the way defenders like Ian White and Anton Stralman did immediately. Not quite that but he is promising. I'm not sure what Hirvonen is supposed to be: too small to be a grunt, not in a major scoring role on his Finnish team yet, in limited viewing there's a Nic Petan vibe to him.

 

[LeafGrief]

Shades of Robbie Earl and Luca Caputi

Holmberg looks like a bottom six player. McMann has some jam to his game, but looks more like an AHL'er than anything. I literally cannot remember Steeves doing anything, AHL'er for sure.

Hirvonen and Niemela are still 100% prospects and while Niemela sounds interesting, I have very little expectations for a 21 year old defenseman. I figure he's a Marlie this year. Not going to pretend I know anything about Hirvonen, but I'm not holding my breath.

That said, Knies and Woll both showed a lot of promise, so complaining about our prospects while we just graduated a top6 power forward with sky high potential is a bit silly.

And shout out to Nick Robertson, who is fully an underdog now. Good luck to him, he's still got 20g winger potential if he can ever stay healthy.

 

[Cams]

It's easy to pick an choose isn't it? Complaints about Dubas picks, but only listing the smaller guys isn't very productive. What about Knies, Kral, Minten, Kokkonen, Holmberg? All these guys are 6ft or more.

Also.....don't teams going for it trade away picks/prospects, or are people advocating for a perpetual rebuild?

 

[PanniniClaus]

I am absolutely amazed that following a series where we allowed Florida to score 80% of their goals on the rush and a Vegas team that was the least penalized team in the league that beat the Stars mostly on the rush that people here still think that the Leafs need to get tougher and less skilled. Carolina, one of the most dependent teams in the league on dump and chase offense, got swept by Florida.

This team needs more speed and guys who can score in transition and generate rush offense. Less speed is the last thing we need.

I can't believe anyone here watches this team, sees Brodie, Hall, Giordano, McCabe getting burned on the rush and thinks to themselves that we lack toughness.

Absolute insanity.

We do lack toughness but i agree, we looked like we were skating in quicksand save for Nylander and bursts of Lafferty.. Knies of course until he got hurt.