Is Bozie easily replaceable?

[Nithoniniel]

- Bozak is 14th overall for penalty-killing time among all-time Leaf forwards. People forget how he's been used in the past.

- How many times have you seen fans crying to put JVR on the 1st line? That Kadri would be so much better off with JVR? Really, it rarely
happened. It's always been a case of what to do with JVR? Power-play? Great, but as the league seems to get faster and faster, he's a boat
anchor 5-on-5. The fact is, a coaching decision has to be entirely wrapped around exploiting JVR's strengths while minimizing his weaknesses.
The whole question of why Matthews was getting 2nd line PP time? JVR. Offensive zone face-offs? JVR. And Bozak? Try and get him
the puck so he can score and maybe at the end of the day we can just hope to break even.

- Very reasonable contracts. It's amazing how many times Bozak's performance has been put up against players making massively more.
If anything, Bozak's contract level has allowed the Leafs to go out and add real A-grade players. It's the Leaf's management that has failed
Bozak his entire career. While Bozak has stood in front of the hippo fart that the Leafs media and fan circus is, Joffery Lupul has been
earning more then $1,000,000 per season. A seasoned labourer on a construction site making $25/hr tackling jobs that are usually reserved for
$38/hr trades-person is an asset.

2009-2011: $875,000
2011-2013: $1,500,000
2014-2018: $4,200,000

Going forward? I think Bozak is a smart hockey player. Unshackled from his make-do role with JVR, I think what is expected of him could
be changed. In 2014-2015, he was hitting twice as much and at the time put up the most Takeaways a Leaf had ever done. (Only recently being
passed by Marner and Matthews, tied with Nylander) Personally, I think it would be a huge mistake for Bozak to resign with the Leafs. On the
open market he can get more money. Hockey-wise, the Leafs need to rebuild at least half their blue-line and need to diversify how they produce
offense so they can't be shut-down. However, if Bozak wanted to come back at the right price, think he could come in more of a two-way player
then a lot of fans would expect. Think he could play a defensive game while making some plays to wingers like Connor Brown. However, usually
when an older player changes their game in such a fashion, fans jump all over them. If you're not scoring, you're useless in many fan's eyes.

A few comments on this:

1) Bozak has been used on the PK, but if you look back his actual performances shorthanded were not very good. Hence why they stopped using him there.
2) I don't think it's necessarily fair to put the even strength woes on only JvR when him and Bozak have been joined at the hip.
3) JvR have nothing to do with Matthews PP usage. They are not competing for the same roles.

He has been a good player on a good contract for us though. But I don't understand why this discussion seem to be one side tearing down his strengths and the others excusing away his weaknesses. Like most players in the league, he's got a bit of both. He's really smart, a decent skater, and a superb passer with good vision. He's also, in my opinion, a rather lousy transition player with spotty defensive work. I think individual analytics are not kind to him when it comes to defensive work, if you look at micro stats and heat maps and such.

Ultimately, I don't think the discussion on retaining him or not will matter. He's got a good enough resume to get a contract as a scoring line center somewhere, and I think we'll be outbid even if we want to keep him.

I will say that I believe he can redefine his game though. That's a good point. I'm just not sure if that really changes all that much for us.

 

[The Apologist]

A few comments on this:

1) Bozak has been used on the PK, but if you look back his actual performances shorthanded were not very good. Hence why they stopped using him there.
2) I don't think it's necessarily fair to put the even strength woes on only JvR when him and Bozak have been joined at the hip.
3) JvR have nothing to do with Matthews PP usage. They are not competing for the same roles.

He has been a good player on a good contract for us though. But I don't understand why this discussion seem to be one side tearing down his strengths and the others excusing away his weaknesses. Like most players in the league, he's got a bit of both. He's really smart, a decent skater, and a superb passer with good vision. He's also, in my opinion, a rather lousy transition player with spotty defensive work. I think individual analytics are not kind to him when it comes to defensive work, if you look at micro stats and heat maps and such.

Ultimately, I don't think the discussion on retaining him or not will matter. He's got a good enough resume to get a contract as a scoring line center somewhere, and I think we'll be outbid even if we want to keep him.

I will say that I believe he can redefine his game though. That's a good point. I'm just not sure if that really changes all that much for us.

But I don't see a lot of people denying his weaknesses in the thread. It's usually the case here with him. Most of this thread has been two or three of us shooting down baseless statements and or pointing out his strengths. I do see one guy who pointed out JVRs weaknesses.

I do see a whole lot of tearing down though. A lot 'yeah but that doesn't matter, anyone can do that.' to any strength or positive anyone points out.

 

[Pookie]

I’m sorry I can’t resist.

“When you have a Centre who needs... good linemates to do his thing...”

Weren’t you leading the charge to have Komarov taken off another Centre’s line because that Centre had just 2 points in 20 games?

And weren’t you amongst the first to jump for joy once this massive slump was broken while playing with Marner and credited this move with the improved production?

Yep. It was you.

Let’s revisit that quote: “When you have a Centre who needs... good linemates to do his thing...

Maybe it’s not worth it after all?”

It’s been a couple of days @IPS.

I’m going to infer we have agreement on the above.

Glad we have reached agreement and appreciate your concession on Kadri needing good linemates to do his thing at this point in his career.

Thankfully, this dumb 42 V 43 debate is now settled.

 

[IPS]

A few comments on this:

1) Bozak has been used on the PK, but if you look back his actual performances shorthanded were not very good. Hence why they stopped using him there.
2) I don't think it's necessarily fair to put the even strength woes on only JvR when him and Bozak have been joined at the hip.
3) JvR have nothing to do with Matthews PP usage. They are not competing for the same roles.

He has been a good player on a good contract for us though. But I don't understand why this discussion seem to be one side tearing down his strengths and the others excusing away his weaknesses. Like most players in the league, he's got a bit of both. He's really smart, a decent skater, and a superb passer with good vision. He's also, in my opinion, a rather lousy transition player with spotty defensive work. I think individual analytics are not kind to him when it comes to defensive work, if you look at micro stats and heat maps and such.

Ultimately, I don't think the discussion on retaining him or not will matter. He's got a good enough resume to get a contract as a scoring line center somewhere, and I think we'll be outbid even if we want to keep him.

I will say that I believe he can redefine his game though. That's a good point. I'm just not sure if that really changes all that much for us.

His hockey IQ is one thing I could never knock. He knows where to pick his spots effectively.

 

[Pookie]

But I don't see a lot of people denying his weaknesses in the thread. It's usually the case here with him. Most of this thread has been two or three of us shooting down baseless statements and or pointing out his strengths. I do see one guy who pointed out JVRs weaknesses.

I do see a whole lot of tearing down though. A lot 'yeah but that doesn't matter, anyone can do that.' to any strength or positive anyone points out.

I see the same.

He has been the most consistent playoff performer we have had but we also seem to acknowledge that the future will be different.

A role is certainly acknowledged and envisioned. Long term deals are not desired and certainly a lower cap hit has been a common theme.

What’s weird is the tearing down and discounting of leadership for some reason.

All players have downward trends. This is recognized in most parts of this board. The question is what’s the best use going forward.

There is no available asset to recover if he walks.

 

[Ziggdiezan]

A few comments on this:

1) Bozak has been used on the PK, but if you look back his actual performances shorthanded were not very good. Hence why they stopped using him there.
2) I don't think it's necessarily fair to put the even strength woes on only JvR when him and Bozak have been joined at the hip.
3) JvR have nothing to do with Matthews PP usage. They are not competing for the same roles.

He has been a good player on a good contract for us though. But I don't understand why this discussion seem to be one side tearing down his strengths and the others excusing away his weaknesses. Like most players in the league, he's got a bit of both. He's really smart, a decent skater, and a superb passer with good vision. He's also, in my opinion, a rather lousy transition player with spotty defensive work. I think individual analytics are not kind to him when it comes to defensive work, if you look at micro stats and heat maps and such.

Ultimately, I don't think the discussion on retaining him or not will matter. He's got a good enough resume to get a contract as a scoring line center somewhere, and I think we'll be outbid even if we want to keep him.

I will say that I believe he can redefine his game though. That's a good point. I'm just not sure if that really changes all that much for us.

Bozak's passing and vision always get overlooked. Glad you mentioned it. Makes so many great passes every year that if Mitch Marner made them there would be pages in the GDT talking about them