Is this version of Maple Leafs better then last year

[pspot]

More balanced for sure
Probably better overall
Still need to be a bit heavier upfront

 

[TheGroceryStick]

I'm glad most are saying we are better.

The way outsiders were stating that we took a step back.... when considering the minuses and additions, made me cringe.

Not going to get into how literally all our young guys are better players, being one year older. (Even if marner gets less points, I think he contributes as a whole more)

I think the subtractions were just as important to have the loss than what was filling the holes.(and I think we filled those holes fine) If that makes sense....

Kadri needed a change... liked the guy, but it was time.
Marleau needed to be replaced....
Brown was stagnant on the 4th line...

Gardiner to Barrie is a positive without even explaining it
Ceci slotting in where Hainsey is fresh air.
Not to mention having a graduating marlie looking poised.

The only thing I hoped for..and I probably should get off that thought. I really wanted a SOB that can play hockey. Listening to players , if you have a guy you can look down the bench and know hes going to war for you... it means something.

 

[PuckMagi]

Forwards Lost: Kadri, Ennis, Marleau, Brown
Forwards Added: Kerfoot, Spezza, Mikheyev, (Timashov)

Defense Lost: Gardiner, Hainsey, Zaitsev
Defense Added: Barrie, Ceci, (Sandin)

I put Sandin and Timashov in brackets because we had them last year and could have used them if we wanted.

I think we're better on defense but worse up front. If we used Marleau and Brown on the 4th line last year, we would have been a lot better. So a big problem with last years roster was how Babcock used the players. The roster this year is better because the line combinations will be better.

 

[Kubus]

In theory, yes. We look better on D, and in net(backup). Also the kids are another year older which hopefully means another year better. We now have to see how it all comes together on the ice.

 

[Deebo]

Leafs are overspending the Cap ceiling by $10.5 mil (Horton and Clarkson LTIR) this year to fit Marner and needed to deal Marleau with a 1st to resign Marner.

Last season the Leafs under spent the cap ceiling by a significant amount on last years roster, because they needed to save $4-5 mil free cap under-spending the cap ceiling for rookie bonuses to be applied against last year without any carryover penalty.

Also are potentially renting Muzzin for this season at the cost of 1st round pick and 2 former 2nd rounder prospects.

So comparing apples to apples the Leafs are spending +$15 mil more this year on players this year vs last and also spent 2 X 1st round picks to create this team.

So this team better be better than last year because you're spending far more cap $$ and more rental players at the cost of high pick and prospects.

So the answer is a rather captain obvious YES, but there are also reason why that is.

One high pick given up were to fix Lou's terrible Marleau contract.

Muzzin wasn't rental like the 2 2nd rounders Lou gave up for his actual rentals (a few weeks of regular season + 1 playoff) for 4th liners.

But of course, you know all this, and you only bring up past GMs mistakes when it wasn't Lou or Nonis who made those mistakes.

 

[Joey Hoser]

Nowadays everybody uses "then" instead of "than". It's so weird I actually found out this year that it isn't a typo but it's actually more common these days. At least in here.

Even bigger mind blow is that how in earth did Leafs upgrade their roster when Marner's rookie contract switches to 11M contract. That's insane.

Matthews' contract didn't kick in until this year either.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Just looking at the bigger parts, we're better for getting rid of Marleau and Kadri, almost regardless of who replaces them, and Gardiner/Barrie will likely be a wash at worst.

The rest, once Hyman is back, it's probably a small net improvement in overall talent.

 

[Joey Hoser]

Gee, I don't see how they are better. Forwards and goalies the same value. But IMO, they are worse on defence.
Lost three NHLers and only got two return.

You don't think Rielly, Muzzin, Barrie and Ceci are better than Rielly Gardiner, Hainsey and Zaitsev?

Ok.

 

[ACC1224]

You don't think Rielly, Muzzin, Barrie and Ceci are better than Rielly Gardiner, Hainsey and Zaitsev?

Ok.

I wish they could have kept Hainsey for the bottom pair but other than that the back end is much better.

 

[Menzinger]

Not only is there no $$ to upgrade...there are zero roster spots available on this super-team! This team, with it's best lineup, is a 20 man roster...with no margin for addressing D2D injuries. Of course they look better on paper, but at the expense of moving from a 23 man NHL roster to a 20 man roster.

Maybe a better assessment of whether this team is better than last year, or not, is to remove one of Ceci, Hyman, Kerfoot, Kapanan, Johnsson...and then replace them with 2 cheaper players, so there is at least 1 extra body. Because it seems extremely unlikely to me that this house of cards can continue for very long, once Dermott and (maybe he's asked to stay on LTIR a bit longer?) Hyman.

Fyi

 

[Mrs Garrett]

Leafs last year+Cloris Leachman
Leafs this year=me

 

[Blanche Blanche]

I agree on all of the above. The one thing that is significantly worse this year is the 3rd and 4th line.

This was the 3rd and 4th liners to start last year

Leivo-Kadri-Brown
Johnsson-Lindholm-Kapanan

today it looks something like

Mikheyev-Kerfoot- Moore
Thimashov-Gauthier-Spezza

Team is top heavy which may be fine in the regular season, that 3rd and 4th will struggle in the playoffs and there is no $$ to do any upgrades at the deadline.

Leivo - Kadri - Brown and its Variants were a waste. Even Kappy was part of it at times during last season to no avail.

Leivo barely had ice time.
Kadri was still on his honeymoon and bunged up plays left right and centre.
Brown is the skate hard guy, but does nothing with puck.

We saw this all season, consistently with these 3 players no matter where they were on the lineup. Kappy who has some talent, needs an outlet for his 200Mph breakaways.

Mikheyev looks promising and is actually crashing the net hard enough more than most leafs last season. His play IQ seems strong.
Kerfoot is probably better than Kadri in the way that he is not on a honeymoon haze and messes up plays. Probably invigorated from being in obscurity, to spotlight in Toronto.
Moore has the ability to move in the lineup due to his tenacity. Hes a lil more vicious than AJ, Kap and Nylander.

3rd line I would argue isn't worse. Mikheyev looks promising (Better then Leivo), Kerfoot can likely achieve the same as Kadri (becasue Kadri was playing 3rd line minutes) and Moore I like more than Brown.

4th line won't get a ton of ice time (even less in the playoffs)

100 % man

 

[KuleminFan41]

As long as Matthews/Tavares stay healthy we should be better. Last year Kadri did well in the top 6 when Matthews went down.

If it happens again this year, we'll see how Kerfoot/Nylander hold up.

It kind of depends on what you mean by well. Kadri had 9 points in 14 games, which sounds good but he had 2 points in the final 7 games before Matthews came back. Kerfoot gives you about the same type of numbers Kadri typically gives you barring those 2 30 goal seasons, which no one truly knows if Kadri will be capable of that again.

 

[lifelonghockeyfan]

You don't think Rielly, Muzzin, Barrie and Ceci are better than Rielly Gardiner, Hainsey and Zaitsev?

Ok.

Nope. Ceci and Gardiner are about equal. Don't get fooled by Barrie's point total. He did a lot of that on the PP. Gardiner had less PP cause Reilly manned the left point and Marner the right side.
Zaitsev and Ceci...even at best for this year. Zaitsev played heavy PK minutes
Muzzin? He was with the last year.
So has Hainsey been replaced by any one as good as him? I don't see it yet, unless Sandin surprises, Hainsey allowed his partner Reilley to play recklessly and Hainsey played heavy PK minute.

 

[yubbers]

This Oilers staff introduction is awkward

 

[EXTRAS]

Trevor moore only played like 25 games last season

 

[Leaf4Life79]

At 35 years old, this is the best Leafs team of my lifetime, by a big margin.

92/93 Leafs we're pretty awesome, but I am 40 so you may have been a tad too young to remember that team,but that was a totally different game back then compared to now that you wouldn't get away with, yes, we have an absolute SKILLED team right now, we can do it if we stay healthy for sure!

 

[seanlinden]

I totally agree with you but you forget to mention Mikeyehev as he is going to be big part this season, I am not sure how big a difference is between Spezza and Marleau (but please keep in mind the cap hit for Spezza is $700 K vs $6.25 M that we were paying Marleau), also I believe Nylander is going to be way better this season then he was last year

It's very challenging to compare hindsight to projection... especially after 1 game.

Let's not forget, last year to start we also had Par Lindholm & Josh Leivo... one highly touted european UFA, and a young guy who finally seemed primed to break in as a 20 goal guy.

Nylander should be way better than he was last year, but the possibility for regression amongst other players is certainly out there.

On the downside...

Hainsey +30 last year big minutes/injury free/solid/reliable/PK specialist
Ceci/Barrie consistent minus players year after year / far from reliable in the D end

Who replaces steady Eddie Hainsey?

That is a major concern when it comes to this year's leavs.

To me, that's the one major gaffe from this offseason -- letting Hainsey walk. At $3.5m for 1 year, I don't understand why you'd let him go in favour of Cody Ceci at $4.5m.

 

[seanlinden]

I agree on all of the above. The one thing that is significantly worse this year is the 3rd and 4th line.

This was the 3rd and 4th liners to start last year

Leivo-Kadri-Brown
Johnsson-Lindholm-Kapanan

today it looks something like

Mikheyev-Kerfoot- Moore
Thimashov-Gauthier-Spezza

Team is top heavy which may be fine in the regular season, that 3rd and 4th will struggle in the playoffs and there is no $$ to do any upgrades at the deadline.

QFT... and the problem becomes even more pronounced once Johnsson ended up on the Matthews line, with Marleau on the 3rd.

That 3rd line of Marleau-Kadri-Brown was undoubtedly expensive, but it was a great 3rd line, especially for our approach of rolling 4 lines, and trying to beat teams with our depth. There's some upside in the 3rd line this year, but nowhere near the expectation that we could have had from Kadri and Marleau.

 

[thewave]

Leivo - Kadri - Brown and its Variants were a waste. Even Kappy was part of it at times during last season to no avail.

Leivo barely had ice time.
Kadri was still on his honeymoon and bunged up plays left right and centre.
Brown is the skate hard guy, but does nothing with puck.

We saw this all season, consistently with these 3 players no matter where they were on the lineup. Kappy who has some talent, needs an outlet for his 200Mph breakaways.

Mikheyev looks promising and is actually crashing the net hard enough more than most leafs last season. His play IQ seems strong.
Kerfoot is probably better than Kadri in the way that he is not on a honeymoon haze and messes up plays. Probably invigorated from being in obscurity, to spotlight in Toronto.
Moore has the ability to move in the lineup due to his tenacity. Hes a lil more vicious than AJ, Kap and Nylander.





100 % man

Miky and Moore look a lot more promising to me than AJ and Kappy. So far all I see them do is buzz around, they're like hornets on ice but don't really do a whole lot. Moore and Miky look like they do the same but with purpose and some intent and 10x the determination.

I could see Moore and Miky being in the top 6 complimenting already strong wings from Nylander and Marner. Kappy and AJ may actually have more time and space 2 L3 with Kerfoot to and be more productive out there. Problem, we paid them 3m+

 

[Leafsfan74]

I'm 52 and this is the best team I've seen.

Let's just light this candle and get on with it.

I'm a little younger but I agree. Watched the 92, 93' teams and early 2000's, which were good, but not deep teams. From the standpoint of pure talent combined with youth, this is the best team on paper in my lifetime.

You have the horses that on any given night you can beat any team in the league if both teams are playing optimally. Just want it more than the other team and carry this into the post-season, and it will be a deep run.

 

[Polaris1010]

After one game this season, the Leafs have a strange looking team.

There is the top line, Marner-Tavares-Hyman

Then there is the 1st line, Nylander-Matthews-Hyman/Mikheyev.

After that, there are two 4th lines.

Don't knock it. The 4th line got 2 goals of the dump it in go chase it crash the net and bang it in like a Gary Roberts.

The defense looks like a work in progress, like it is every year under Babcock.

Martin Maricin looked decent last night, except for the play where he got sticked in the mouth and lost his stick allowing the other team to score. Crap like that always happening to Marty.

Free Marty!

 

[notDatsyuk]

QFT... and the problem becomes even more pronounced once Johnsson ended up on the Matthews line, with Marleau on the 3rd.

That 3rd line of Marleau-Kadri-Brown was undoubtedly expensive, but it was a great 3rd line, especially for our approach of rolling 4 lines, and trying to beat teams with our depth. There's some upside in the 3rd line this year, but nowhere near the expectation that we could have had from Kadri and Marleau.

Kadri and Marleau were horrible at even strength! Their stats look not too bad until you take out the PP, then you realize they scored one more ES goal and three fewer assists that Komarov and Filppula, in almost 20% more ice time. Along with that, despite not being a real 'checking line', they were a combined -8, compared to +37.

 

[moon111]

Kadri and Marleau were horrible at even strength! Their stats look not too bad until you take out the PP, then you realize they scored one more ES goal and three fewer assists that Komarov and Filppula, in almost 20% more ice time. Along with that, despite not being a real 'checking line', they were a combined -8, compared to +37.

I went through all of Komarov's and C.Brown's goals and they had more assists from Nylander then Kadri. Kadri's an awesome solo act, but in many ways, see him lacking vision which raised players around him. Not sold on Kapanen's vision either. When they have the puck, it's more like a watching a rugby player on skates. Barrel through, simple clean passes to obvious outlets.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Leafs were better with Bozak and JVR and Komarov
Those were the days