Whether Lucic/Maroon can play is debatable. There is never a guarantee that some nutbar trying to make a name for himself doesn't take a run at one of the kids but you can bet without Martin the number of attempts will be higher. I only recall Dotchin going knee on knee on Matthews and Sestito elbowing Andy last year as the major cheap sots. I think Kadri gave more cheap shots than the opposition gave the Leafs.
Let's wait and see what the lineup looks like in October to find out who Leaf management agrees with.
Common sense: Hyman.
Babcock: "Anybody but Hyman"
I think this narrative has no substance yet. If Marleau plays up to scratch I'm sure Babcock will slide Hyman down. If Babcock doesn't then we can start saying Babcock's son yada yada.
However if Marleau has no chemistry on that line, it sure wasn't broke with Hyman so why would you force a piece in there that doesn't fit?
I think this narrative has no substance yet. If Marleau plays up to scratch I'm sure Babcock will slide Hyman down. If Babcock doesn't then we can start saying Babcock's son yada yada.
However if Marleau has no chemistry on that line, it sure wasn't broke with Hyman so why would you force a piece in there that doesn't fit?
Which is why my personal thoughts are he Marleau will excel with Marner.I'm not sure what kind of chemistry Matthews/Marleau will have.
They are both shooters though, it may work better on different lines.
40 goal scoring Matthews should be taking the bulk of the shots.
Maybe but if it's for the above reason; that Marleau has no chemistry on Matthews line then it's about what make the best team no?He'll never test it.
Hyman is playing with Matthews from game 1 to season's end. Book it.
I agree. The Leafs rookies played with amazing confidence from the start, and the top 11 Leaf scorers missed a total of 10 games to injury/illness. People are free to assume that Martin had absolutely nothing to do with either of those facts (people who think that Martin's influence on opposing players only occurs when he is the ice) and that Martin's 2.5M salary returned 5 goals and 4 assists, but management disagrees.
How much does an injury to Matthews/Marner/Nylander cost the team? How much would you pay to reduce the chances of such an injury? And it doesn't have to be an injury that results in missing games. How much does 82 games of being worn down by constant crosschecks and other cheap shots cost? How much does it help the team if the stars are getting say 30% less of that? If I were the Leafs I would easily pay 2.5M and 9 minutes a game on the fourth line (it is not like the Leafs are desperate for offense anyway). That Martin played all 82 games last year is a pretty strong indicator of where the Leafs organization stands on this matter.
"Well, we don't get our faces washed very much," Babcock said when asked about Martin's influence thus far. "No one takes advantage of us, so it's kind of nice. If you're a kid, you haven't had to worry about that one bit."
"He just doesn't let anyone get smacked," Babcock said. "It's real simple for us. We've got a bunch of kids; I don't want them getting cross-checked and abused. We haven't had any of that because he looks after it."
"Well, it's huge," Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said last Friday when asked about Martin's impact. "I mean, we don't get slapped around ever. Last year, we got abused."
The easy answer seems to be just slotting Marleau into Hyman's spot
Marleau Matthews Nylander
JVR Bozak Marner
Komarov Kadri Brown
Martin Moore Hyman
We'll see how Marleau fits into the lineup come training camp though or maybe a trade is made.
I think this narrative has no substance yet. If Marleau plays up to scratch I'm sure Babcock will slide Hyman down. If Babcock doesn't then we can start saying Babcock's son yada yada.
However if Marleau has no chemistry on that line, it sure wasn't broke with Hyman so why would you force a piece in there that doesn't fit?
Trapper had a good point that Marleau might not find chemistry with Matthews though as they both like to be the trigger man which brings back Babcock comment that Hyman is on that line because of the lesson he learn from dats and Zetterberg; they want someone to get them the puck because they always want it on their stick.Yeah, I think folks are underestimating how much babcock likes Marleau - his comments after Marleau signed here were absolutely overjoyed
Trapper had a good point that Marleau might not find chemistry with Matthews though as they both like to be the trigger man which brings back Babcock comment that Hyman is on that line because of the lesson he learn from dats and Zetterberg; they want someone to get them the puck because they always want it on their stick.
I think a line of Marleau Bozak and Marner will be really good. We will have a solid 1 2 3 combo punch for the season. All 4 lines will be well balanced and we should be better overall in our own zone.
But then where does JVR go (admittedly via trade would be ideal), because I can't see Babcock wanting to put him beside Kadri and get the toughest usage.
That's the million dollar question.
Pending a trademaybe her slides down?
JVR Kadri Komo?
I think it's awesome we have too many good players to play in the top 9.
While JVR remains a Leaf it would seem that Hyman would be the one that would likely fall out of the top 9 to make room for Marleau.
However it might not have the effect the Leafs hoped in the form of Mathews ES goal production.
Agreed on all points.So Brown goes down to the 4th line?
It's definitely a good problem to have. But if Babcock wants to have a "shutdown" line go forwards (ie how the Kadri line was used last season) I have a hard time seeing JVR be a good fit there.
This discussion is likely a good reason why management tried to trade JVR already this offseason
Asking Marleau to play 1st line minutes at his age when Babcock is going to want to play Matthews line more than last year just doesn't make sense, unless you believe in the fountain of youth. Marleau's on ice time has been trending down the last three years, as has his productivity. What makes anyone think he can magically recapture those minutes? He's gone from 19.35m/game 3 years ago to 17.09 last year. I suspect Babcock will wish to play Matthew's line at least 19 m/game this year, up from his 17.38 last year. Where does Marleau get the legs for a 2 m/g increase at his age? Ok, for a 10 game/20 game period of time, maybe, but over the course of a season I don't see it being viable.
This confuses total ice-time with ES ice time. While Marleau's ES ice time has been falling, it has not fallen dramatically like his overall time has (mainly due to a change from significant PK minutes to none). Marleau's average ES ice time last year was 14:04, which would place him 4th among Leafs' forwards after Matthews (15:05) Kadri (14:19) and Marner (14:17). You might notice that three of them played on different lines, as ice-time differs between linemates due to who goes on first when changing on the fly (generally Matthews, Kadri and Marner) and who goes off first (generally not Matthews, Kadri or Marner). Hyman, Nylander, and Brown all played fewer ES minutes per game last year than Marleau did. McDavid played an average of 17:17 at ES last year - none of his linemates (Maroon, Drai, Lucic etc) came anywhere close to that.
If Matthews increased his ES ice time to 16 minutes, it would not be a problem for Marleau to play alongside him and only play 14.