News Article: Leafs' Offseason Report Card = B+

[showtime8]

Too each their own. IMO, the signing of the Nylander, Matthews, Marner may have the largest impact of any off season activity.

They will have an impact on the cap, but I think we all know what sort of cap hit they are going to be at give or take 500k-1mill. All of those plans are built into the future and not really within this off-season per se. Nylander is likely to get the 6mill that Ehlers got. And if you know that Matthews is going to get a touch more than Eichel & Marner will get around Pastrnak, then plan for those numbers and build accordingly.

The thing the Leafs haven't done this off-season is build their defense. They re-signed Carrick & Marincin & brought in Ozhiganov. To me, that's not enough to justify giving them a high grade. We learned a lot about the defense at the end of last year. Hainsey ran out of gas when the calendar turned to 2018. Don't know if it was injury, too much pk time or age? Gardiner is what he is at this point in his career, but the Leafs have chosen to live with it either way. And they're banking on Zaitsev making a return to form the way he was in the first season with the Leafs. Still too many questions marks up until this point in the off-season. I hope it does change before game 1.

 

[FlareKnight]

I'm pretty sure if the Leafs didn't sign Tavares, the center position would have been the most glaring weakness not the blueline. Matthews, Kadri, a guy from Europe and Gauthier. With Bozak going out the door the Leafs did address their biggest need.

And regardless what you accomplish in the offseason depends on both what you did and what was possible. Otherwise give every other team in the NHL an F for not signing the best NHL free agent in decades. Because if what is reasonable or possible doesn't matter then all those teams failed to add a super star.

The blueline crisis itself is both overblown and has options. You got a bunch of guys who just won an AHL championship, see what they can do. They have signed guys like Ozhiganov. No they didn't add a top pairing Dman. But if that's what they had to do to get any kind of A grade on the offseason...then no team should have one.

 

[ACC1224]

They will have an impact on the cap, but I think we all know what sort of cap hit they are going to be at give or take 500k-1mill. All of those plans are built into the future and not really within this off-season per se. Nylander is likely to get the 6mill that Ehlers got. And if you know that Matthews is going to get a touch more than Eichel & Marner will get around Pastrnak, then plan for those numbers and build accordingly.

The thing the Leafs haven't done this off-season is build their defense. They re-signed Carrick & Marincin & brought in Ozhiganov. To me, that's not enough to justify giving them a high grade. We learned a lot about the defense at the end of last year. Hainsey ran out of gas when the calendar turned to 2018. Don't know if it was injury, too much pk time or age? Gardiner is what he is at this point in his career, but the Leafs have chosen to live with it either way. And they're banking on Zaitsev making a return to form the way he was in the first season with the Leafs. Still too many questions marks up until this point in the off-season. I hope it does change before game 1.

Me too. I don't think they're done.

 

[Havoc]

Draft is part of off-season.

Leafs go back to back on D with their picks.

Leafs management doesn't sleep for a month in order to win the Tavares sweepstakes.

End up with a B+.


Writer must be a U of T prof.

 

[DanM]

This is a funny article.

Yes, I would love to have a 1st pairing stud RHD on the backend, but they are not available. The timing of this article is also silly. We are year #1 into contending, in theory if we can sign all our guys for reasonable contracts, and make smart drafting and depth signings going forward, I think our D prospects will grow into larger roles.

If this was JT's 4th year of his contract, and the D was not improved, and we were selling off assets (not drafting well) I would be worried at that point.

 

[The Assclown]

Any time you add a premier player like JT for nothing but money you have automatically made your team much better. In fact, I’d say with his addition, the Leafs are the most improved team this offseason.

 

[Buds17]

Didn't see the grades given to other teams, so I'm lacking that info for sake of comparison. Perhaps it's graded tougher to accomplish more/grander things as a playoff team compared to a non-playoff team, as that might theoretically require less work needed to upgrade the team. I'd argue Tavares was the single biggest offseason move, but maybe the opinion is other team(s) did more cumulatively.

Just the same, it's an opinion and an on-paper evaluation. The Capitals didn't make waves in the previous offseason, and yet they emerged as the Cup champs when all was said and done.

 

[al secord]

Sorry Augello, but signing Tavares alone deserves an A+.

Thanks for the heads up. I should've known from the OP that it isn't worth reading. The guy who called up Andy Frost after games like the rest of the drunks is considered a reputable writer?

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Thanks for the heads up. I should've known from the OP that it isn't worth reading. The guy who called up Andy Frost after games like the rest of the drunks is considered a reputable writer?

“MIKE IN BUFFALO HOW ARE YA TONIGHT!?!?”

 

[Nineteen67]

Harshest assessment I've seen of our D on here yet.

That’s kinda catchy....

 

[X66]

I really don't see how you can't give them at least an A for landing Tavares lol.

I agree that I wish we got more on the back-end, I was all in on CDH, but it's not like we HAVE to fix the D this summer, and internal options/different deployment might be the answer.

This is how I take in the off-season when looking at out vs in:

OUT:

Big Loss: JVR

Meh: Bozak, only because this was offset by the Tavares signing, we basically replaced Bozak with a franchise center, lol.

Additions by subtraction: Komarov, Polak and Martin

IN:

Huge Win: Tavares, history has shown players at this level signing as a UFA lead to things like Cups and Finals appearances.

Meh: Ennish, Jooris McAdam


The fact that Bozak/JVR/Komarov get paid a combined 15 mil and Tavares only gets 11 is a another huge win.

 

[A1LeafNation]

what team doesnt have a hole.

we are still top 12 in ga

 

[Al14]

Adding Tavares alone should warrant an A. JMHO.

 

[ottomaddox]

Thanks for the heads up. I should've known from the OP that it isn't worth reading. The guy who called up Andy Frost after games like the rest of the drunks is considered a reputable writer?

I never introduced this article as being written by a reputable writer.

Are you one?

Can you link is to your reputable writing?

 

[ACC1224]

If Mike in the Basement gives the Leafs an 'A' , it doesn't garner any attention.

 

[ottomaddox]

If Mike in the Basement gives the Leafs an 'A' , it doesn't garner any attention.

I might argue that any grade other then an A+ is going to garner anger, hostility, dismissal, and a shot at a writer's reputation. I would even say that an honours/A++/5 gold stars still wouldn't satisfy most fans.

 

[Cor]

If Mike in the Basement gives the Leafs an 'A' , it doesn't garner any attention.

Not everything is a ploy to get attention.

Sometimes these writers are just wrong

 

[Notsince67]

Maple Leafs offseason report card: Toronto lands John Tavares, but still has holes to fill

Best quotes:


"The signing of Tavares is a home run for Toronto and could vault them to serious contender status in the Eastern Conference, but the club did not address their thin defensive corps, which could keep them from getting past either Tampa or Boston in the Atlantic Division.

The Leafs still have nearly $14 Million in available cap space, which could mean that adding a top four blueliner will be something that they try to do before the trade deadline."

They didn't sign Polak, JVR and Bozak. Defense looking forward to a much better year

 

[ACC1224]

I might argue that any grade other then an A+ is going to garner anger, hostility, dismissal, and a shot at a writer's reputation. I would even say that an honours/A++/5 gold stars still wouldn't satisfy most fans.

Disagree. While any ranking right now is premature IMO, I don't think anyone would give an A+ when there is still a little work to do.

 

[Notsince67]

“MIKE IN BUFFALO HOW ARE YA TONIGHT!?!?”

Hello Norman...

 

[The Best Leafs Ever]

Just replacing Romanuk alone gets them a solid A+.

 

[ACC1224]

Just replacing Romanuk alone gets them a solid A+.

The Leafs didn't do that, believe it was Sportsnet

 

[The Best Leafs Ever]

The Leafs didn't do that, believe it was Sportsnet

Same thing since the company is owned by the same owners anyway.

 

[lifelonghockeyfan]

Maple Leafs offseason report card: Toronto lands John Tavares, but still has holes to fill

Best quotes:


"The signing of Tavares is a home run for Toronto and could vault them to serious contender status in the Eastern Conference, but the club did not address their thin defensive corps, which could keep them from getting past either Tampa or Boston in the Atlantic Division.

The Leafs still have nearly $14 Million in available cap space, which could mean that adding a top four blueliner will be something that they try to do before the trade deadline."

Don't know where you come with fantasy figure of 14m. You have to add Nylander's salary. Then if you don't want to have any carryover bonuses from 2018/19 into the following year, that's another 4.5m. For the Leafs to be eligible to not carryover the bonuses, Horton's salary of 5.3m has to the roster.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Disagree. While any ranking right now is premature IMO, I don't think anyone would give an A+ when there is still a little work to do.

I'd personally give it an A+. While there is work to do, that will be done over time. Whether it is prior to training camp, or a few weeks in the season. The fact that the Leafs landed one of the biggest free agents in NHL history, giving them a 1-2 combo of Matthews/Tavares, and moves them more into the Stanley Cup conversation -- that is enough for me.

Trading for or signing a 4th d-man just wouldn't move the needle enough for me to garner this off-season an even greater success. Tavares alone was enough for me.