July 28th, 2021. Excited or Scared?

Excited or Scared?


  • Total voters
    166

deprw

Registered User
Mar 7, 2010
1,403
784
We're literally in the JFJ phase right now in case that isn't clear.

I don't know who is delusional, maybe you? After JFJ and that retool we were years away from competing and needed full rebuild. If we want to start over now, we have tons of options. After JFJ we were on barebones and hadn't anything than deadweight. Any day you can trade away Matthews, Marner and Nylander. You can get rid of Tavares, Muzzin, Brodie and Rielly. We have zero untradeable contracts. Kessels buyout will run out after next season, so we have no burden on anyway.

Islanders have 6million dead capspace for next season and ten million to fill out their roster. As many bluechip prospects we have. Buffalo has 1st pick, but they have 1st line center that don't want to play for them, 10 years without playoffs, Jeff Skinners contract. Florida has one season with Barkov and Bobrovsky as burden contract, they have two better goalies already.

What's really wrong at the moment? We don't have cap flexibility we would like, but if we want to start over. We can do it any day. I'm not sure if we really want to, because drafting and building our roster over and over again might not get us better players than we have already.

JFJ phase... Come on!

Sorry I ruin the party. I think on this scale I'm more excited than scared.
 

nuck

Schrodingers Cat
Aug 18, 2005
11,440
2,506
None of the Leafs outbound FAs will make them worse than a first round playoff casualty by not resigning. They don't have the cap space to add anyone impactful from outside either so its hard to get too hopeful about anything positive. They may however resign Zach and Freddy to deals that will be a burden to the next management team unless they sign for fire sale prices and go injury free for the term. I am mostly just hoping they don't do anything stupid and somehow get through "unscathed". FA market is a proven minefield and the Leaf's budget assures they will be fishing in the ditch again.

A win for me would be Zach signing elsewhere for a contender and Kyle doing something sensible with the little cap space they might gain. Nothing exciting there, just not screwing up.
 

rumman

Registered User
Sep 10, 2008
13,987
10,197
I’m actually rooting for the leafs to miss the playoffs so I can hear Shanny and dubie give exit interviews on how they are doing a great job and making great strides!
Can you imagine the tripe they will spew once their plan is proven flawed…….again. :popcorn:
 

HoweHullOrr

Registered User
Oct 3, 2013
11,652
2,242
I don't know who is delusional, maybe you? After JFJ and that retool we were years away from competing and needed full rebuild. If we want to start over now, we have tons of options. After JFJ we were on barebones and hadn't anything than deadweight. Any day you can trade away Matthews, Marner and Nylander. You can get rid of Tavares, Muzzin, Brodie and Rielly. We have zero untradeable contracts. Kessels buyout will run out after next season, so we have no burden on anyway.

Islanders have 6million dead capspace for next season and ten million to fill out their roster. As many bluechip prospects we have. Buffalo has 1st pick, but they have 1st line center that don't want to play for them, 10 years without playoffs, Jeff Skinners contract. Florida has one season with Barkov and Bobrovsky as burden contract, they have two better goalies already.

What's really wrong at the moment? We don't have cap flexibility we would like, but if we want to start over. We can do it any day. I'm not sure if we really want to, because drafting and building our roster over and over again might not get us better players than we have already.

JFJ phase... Come on!

Sorry I ruin the party. I think on this scale I'm more excited than scared.

Why are we worried about these other franchises? There's lots of good teams in the Eastern Conference.
 

deprw

Registered User
Mar 7, 2010
1,403
784
Why are we worried about these other franchises? There's lots of good teams in the Eastern Conference.

Just trying to get some perspective, since someone said that this is JFJ phase. We are far from it.
 

LeafSteel

GO LEAFS GO!!!
Mar 5, 2014
5,762
8,681
Toronto
I feel nothing, and to be honest, for the first time in my 40+ years of being a Leaf fan, I actually don't care about what they do in the season either.

After this last pathetic showing, I'm completely turned off by this group and their approach to the game. They either can't take it to playoff level performance, or they won't, so why should I care about or get excited about a regular season that means nothing and leads to nothing?

They will tinker and make small adjustments to the roster, but they won't address the elephant in the room that Marner and Matthews again didn't rise to the occasion and that Keefe did absolutely nothing to adjust and put us in a position win.

Fire Keefe and hire Boudreau, and my eyebrow might go up. Otherwise, I don't expect to give much of a crap about what the Leafs do from now until the playoffs, if they qualify.....
 

HarryLime

Registered User
Jun 27, 2014
4,853
2,589
Halifax
I feel nothing, and to be honest, for the first time in my 40+ years of being a Leaf fan, I actually don't care about what they do in the season either.

After this last pathetic showing, I'm completely turned off by this group and their approach to the game. They either can't take it to playoff level performance, or they won't, so why should I care about or get excited about a regular season that means nothing and leads to nothing?

They will tinker and make small adjustments to the roster, but they won't address the elephant in the room that Marner and Matthews again didn't rise to the occasion and that Keefe did absolutely nothing to adjust and put us in a position win.

Fire Keefe and hire Boudreau, and my eyebrow might go up. Otherwise, I don't expect to give much of a crap about what the Leafs do from now until the playoffs, if they qualify.....
Same. I hope they sign Babcock or Cherry just to make life miserable for the prissy "stars". I want a full metal jacket coaching staff to either drive these cowards away or change them as men.
 

keonsbitterness

Registered User
Sep 14, 2010
35,305
18,633
south of Steeles
Same. I hope they sign Babcock or Cherry just to make life miserable for the prissy "stars". I want a full metal jacket coaching staff to either drive these cowards away or change them as men.
An 87 year-old Cherry as coach? You'd need paramedics as assistants.

Cherry was famous for making life buddy-buddy with his players, not miserable. Harry Sinden hated that.
 

Clark4Ever

What we do in hockey echoes in eternity...
Oct 10, 2010
11,689
8,360
T.O.
I feel nothing, and to be honest, for the first time in my 40+ years of being a Leaf fan, I actually don't care about what they do in the season either.

After this last pathetic showing, I'm completely turned off by this group and their approach to the game. They either can't take it to playoff level performance, or they won't, so why should I care about or get excited about a regular season that means nothing and leads to nothing?

They will tinker and make small adjustments to the roster, but they won't address the elephant in the room that Marner and Matthews again didn't rise to the occasion and that Keefe did absolutely nothing to adjust and put us in a position win.

Fire Keefe and hire Boudreau, and my eyebrow might go up. Otherwise, I don't expect to give much of a crap about what the Leafs do from now until the playoffs, if they qualify.....

Understandable. I am not at the point that I can honestly say I don't care about the off season or regular season, but as for the current regime and core, it's absolutely playoff success or bust at this point.

If we don't show tangible improvement next season, there has to be drastic changes to personnel throughout the organization.
 
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keonsbitterness

Registered User
Sep 14, 2010
35,305
18,633
south of Steeles
Understandable. I am not at the point that I can honestly say I don't care about the off season or regular season, but as for the current regime and core, it's absolutely playoff success or bust at this point.

If we don't show tangible improvement next season, there has to be drastic changes to personnel throughout the organization.
If fan resentment at home games approaches pre-rebuild levels, they won't have a choice.
 

UglyPuckling

Registered User
May 14, 2021
1,330
688
Just trying to get some perspective, since someone said that this is JFJ phase. We are far from it.
Perspective is good. If we are using perspective, the most important point should be zero playoff rounds won over the last 5 years. I use 5 years as that's when Matthews was drafted.

The other part of perspective that's important is that five years into a rebuild (call it whatever you want), a team should be able to have some playoff success. Magnify that with the fact that the divisions were realigned and we were the strongest team (based on previous year's standings) in a division where the other teams did not finish in the top 1/3rd of the standings, and this should have been recipe for success.

If we using perspective, all of the above equates to failure.
 
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PromisedLand

I need more FOOD
Dec 3, 2016
43,156
55,884
Hogwarts
Can you imagine the tripe they will spew once their plan is proven flawed…….again. :popcorn:

Dubas: "It's a process" ... yea then anybody can be GM and spew out this BS that it's a process and whenever, if ever, team has success then go... "see I told you"; I mean a hobo can do that

Shanahan: "I expect our young leaders to take discounts so we can keep the team togeher..." ohhh its past that I forgot, I am getting senile. Yea... whatever dubas says... we believe, we are gonna do it with thsi group; I am awesome

Marner: I didn't do anything wrong, I played awesome

Keefe: "yea... I believed that changing nothing will work. I believed that doing the same thing again and again will lead to sucess even if it didn't before. I am not sure about your last question. What does last change or home ice advantage or line matching mean?

Dubas (finishing touches): adjusting his fake glasses "I am awesome, My plan is awesome. You are stupid; it is about corsi, spreadsheets and now coding in the stats world". What do you mean heart? Everybody's got one. I don't understand your question.
 

Mess

Global Moderator
Feb 27, 2002
87,055
12,173
Leafs Home Board
Understandable. I am not at the point that I can honestly say I don't care about the off season or regular season, but as for the current regime and core, it's absolutely playoff success or bust at this point.

If we don't show tangible improvement next season, there has to be drastic changes to personnel throughout the organization.

I agree this is definitely a make or break upcoming season for the Leafs.

Leafs have so little cap space today to impact significant change, and seem too committed to proving everyone else wrong, that there doesn't appear to be many changes coming from last years roster to next years.

All the pressure is on management as they're the ones that should be scared, its their jobs on the line because without concrete improvement beyond piling up meaningless regular season team and individual points it will all come down to playoff results now.

Some would have said it was final 4 or bust this past season already, so now this team is on borrowed time.
 

Arzak

Registered User
Mar 27, 2019
1,846
1,503
It's hard to cheer for someone who doesn't bother to give 100% effort.

Pathetic, you can tell me be glad we have so many stars, but I wanna puke when I hear everyone talking about how talented Leafs are... stop talking about this team like they are still teenagers.


This is who they are as hockey players and humans.
 
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deprw

Registered User
Mar 7, 2010
1,403
784
Perspective is good. If we are using perspective, the most important point should be zero playoff rounds won over the last 5 years. I use 5 years as that's when Matthews was drafted.

The other part of perspective that's important is that five years into a rebuild (call it whatever you want), a team should be able to have some playoff success. Magnify that with the fact that the divisions were realigned and we were the strongest team (based on previous year's standings) in a division where the other teams did not finish in the top 1/3rd of the standings, and this should have been recipe for success.

If we using perspective, all of the above equates to failure.

We didn't talk about that. No one said that we haven't lost five years a row first round. Just said that team building wise we have all routes open for future, if we want to.

Learn to read.
 

UglyPuckling

Registered User
May 14, 2021
1,330
688
We didn't talk about that. No one said that we haven't lost five years a row first round. Just said that team building wise we have all routes open for future, if we want to.

Learn to read.
The last sentence is pure irony.

I framed my entire post around one thing and just one subject = "perspective". The "big picture" is the perspective and the theme of my post, and that should have been pretty clear to someone who read the post. I couldn't care less what you were discussing with someone, but seeing as you mentioned perspective, that's what I wanted to and did talk about.

We have some routes open to us, not all.

We don't have cap to add good free agents. Sure, we can trade, but that requires the loss of a good player to get another good player back. What does one step forward and one step back usually result in? And we have a dearth of picks because we've traded a bunch of them away.

I'll say it again "perspective"!!!
 
Last edited:

deprw

Registered User
Mar 7, 2010
1,403
784
The last sentence is pure irony.

I framed my entire post around one thing and just one subject = "perspective". The "big picture" is the perspective and the theme of my post, and that should have been pretty clear to someone who read the post. I couldn't care less what you were discussing with someone, but seeing as you mentioned perspective, that's what I wanted to and did talk about.

We have some routes open to us, not all.

We don't have cap to add good free agents. Sure, we can trade, but that requires the loss of a good player to get another good player back. What does one step forward and one step back usually result in? And we have a dearth of picks because we've traded a bunch of them away.

I'll say it again "perspective"!!!

Did I say this isn't frustrating or results are good? Nope, they aren't, but in overall our whole team has trade value. Marner has bad contract cap wise, but it would be easy to trade because team with internal cap would care about real dollars. Dubas got rid of our garbage contracts.

We can't add any big name UFAs but I don't know if there is any that would instantly make us better. Hamilton will be overpriced. Next season it's more about internal growth for us and because of flat cap that's same story for some other contenders.

Results aren't good, but team value wise our organization is in decent shape. We lack draft picks, so we cannot use those for trades, but that's price of our deadline.
 

PromisedLand

I need more FOOD
Dec 3, 2016
43,156
55,884
Hogwarts
Another feather in Shanahan+Dubas cap. :facepalm: FML

E5TDX-kUcAEmm2q
 
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UglyPuckling

Registered User
May 14, 2021
1,330
688
Marner has bad contract cap wise, but it would be easy to trade because team with internal cap would care about real dollars. .

The one thing about the Marner contract that could give pause to a team with financial (cash flow concerns) constraints is the signing bonuses which are large. I don't know how big of an impact that is, but an owner who has lost a lot of money over the last 2 years (COVID economics) might be a little more shy about paying out more cash before revenue from ticket sales has even started to come in. I mean those kind of players want players that play versus LTIR players unless insurance is footing the entire bill for the player's salary. The other thing about rebuilding, cap constrained teams is that they generally prefer building with prospects and ELC players. They also would have noticed how inept and ineffective Marner has been in recent playoffs which might be a factor in their thinking as well, and there will be lots of free agents and other trade targets.
 

Gabriel426

Registered User
Jun 30, 2015
16,934
10,577
I think in general Leafsnation are done with excitement on UFA signings and stuff. Who cares if a big name gets traded or sign by the Leafs, winning PLAYOFFS SERIES Is the only thing that matters.
 
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Racer88

Registered User
Sep 29, 2020
10,792
10,546
I don't know who is delusional, maybe you? After JFJ and that retool we were years away from competing and needed full rebuild. If we want to start over now, we have tons of options. After JFJ we were on barebones and hadn't anything than deadweight. Any day you can trade away Matthews, Marner and Nylander. You can get rid of Tavares, Muzzin, Brodie and Rielly. We have zero untradeable contracts. Kessels buyout will run out after next season, so we have no burden on anyway.

Islanders have 6million dead capspace for next season and ten million to fill out their roster. As many bluechip prospects we have. Buffalo has 1st pick, but they have 1st line center that don't want to play for them, 10 years without playoffs, Jeff Skinners contract. Florida has one season with Barkov and Bobrovsky as burden contract, they have two better goalies already.

What's really wrong at the moment? We don't have cap flexibility we would like, but if we want to start over. We can do it any day. I'm not sure if we really want to, because drafting and building our roster over and over again might not get us better players than we have already.

JFJ phase... Come on!

Sorry I ruin the party. I think on this scale I'm more excited than scared.
Can you please name some of these blue chip prospects
 

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