TSN: Leafs projected early defensive pairings already set.

[BillyD]

Rielly will be playing top pairing with Phaneuf by the all-star break. Mark my words, a lot of you aren't prepared for how good this kid is.

I have been collecting every rielly rookie card I can get my hands on this summer

 

[Bullseye]

I'm hoping for the first game of the season it's:

Gardiner - Phaneuf
Rielly - Robidas
Polak - Franson

Assuming no trades (I'd love to trade Franson...)


Been preaching this for a while, gives us 3 pairings that have offense and defense. Not to mention we don't have any 2 bad skaters on the same pairing which is a positive too. Also has size and physicality in each pairing.

Agreed! This is the most balanced line-up combos

 

[Hockey Talker29]

in "TH: Gardiner In The Mix" Simmons report that...

"My understanding from talking to the people I've spoken to today is that Jake Gardiner will play with Stephan Robidas to start next season."

"Captain Dion Phaneuf is likely to play with Roman Polak"

"Which leaves Cody Franson and Morgan Rielly as the third pair"

Phaneuf - Polak
Gardiner - Robidas
Rielly - Franson

Good just be TSN trying to get some summer news out there, but sort of interesting.

Considering that this is exactly what I would do if I was in charge, I approve.

 

[Hockey Talker29]

Why did the Leafs go out of their way to trade for right hand shot Polak and sign RH shot Robidas to get balance among the defense putting players on thier strong shooting side only to go back and play 2 LH shots together (Gardiner & Phaneuf) and 2 RH shot together (Franson and Polak)?

It defeats the entire purpose of trying to balance out the RH an LH shooting dmen if you don't pair 1 RH shot with 1 LH shot in each pairing.

They traded LH shot Gunnarsson to acquire RH shot Polak just to play Polak on the left side and opposite to his normal position.

A lot of people are ignoring the commons sense embedded behind the moves. One of Polak or Robidas will play with Phaneuf.

I'd like Robidas for Gardiner, because it would finally give Gards a competent partner, and provide tons of veteran experience to help round out his game.

 

[Nithoniniel]

A lot of people are ignoring the commons sense embedded behind the moves. One of Polak or Robidas will play with Phaneuf.

I'd like Robidas for Gardiner, because it would finally give Gards a competent partner, and provide tons of veteran experience to help round out his game.

Except there's not much sense in getting Robidas to mentor the kids, then play him with Dion, or with trading Gunnarsson for someone less fitted to play the top pairing, someone they also named a #5.

 

[Budsfan]

in "TH: Gardiner In The Mix" Simmons report that...

"My understanding from talking to the people I've spoken to today is that Jake Gardiner will play with Stephan Robidas to start next season."

"Captain Dion Phaneuf is likely to play with Roman Polak"

"Which leaves Cody Franson and Morgan Rielly as the third pair"

Phaneuf - Polak
Gardiner - Robidas
Rielly - Franson

Good just be TSN trying to get some summer news out there, but sort of interesting.

Could you please post the link with the TSN article I can't seem to find it.

Thanks

This Sun article is saying this...

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/02/jays-bautista-should-have-expressed-dissatisfaction-privately

THIS AND THAT

The Leafs plan to allow Morgan Rielly to find his place, rather than push him too far, too soon, in his second NHL season. Too many young defencemen regress in their sophomore year. Rielly is expected to start on the Leafs third pair alongside Cody Franson. And he will get power play time. The other projected pairings are Dion Phaneuf with stay-at-home Roman Polak and Jake Gardiner learning from veteran Stephane Robidas. Which means Phaneuf moves back to left defence instead of playing his off side ... If you do the math, the Leafs will be paying Daniel Winnik, Mike Santorelli, David Booth and Petri Kontiola $5 million for the coming season, which translates to half a million less than the Florida Panthers are paying David Bolland ... Some misinformation on Winnik’s signing, attributing it to the Leafs front office signing of Kyle Dubas, has been out there. The truth: The Leafs started negotiating with Winnik on July 1. On that date he wanted too much money for their liking. When he came down to $1.3 million, the Leafs made a deal with him. The negotiations started before Dubas joined the Leafs organization ... Keep hearing that fired Leaf Claude Loiselle is a legitimate candidate to replace the man who fired him, Brendan Shanahan, at the NHL head office ... Fired Dave Poulin has told people that the best conversation he had with Shanahan was the one in which he got fired. Poulin pretty much knew he was getting fired. Before that, they hardly spoke at all.

 

[Hurt]

Imagine if they decide to give him top 4 minutes

Well, I'm thinking they'll stick him on PP2 at least so he could be getting top 4 minutes overall.

 

[Hotlanta]

He had one season where he played on average 21 mins a night the rest were 19 mins to 18 mins.


That really does not scream to me top pairing. If we are having to shelter Franson for him to be effective who is going to get those extra mins? Robidas and Gards?

A top pairing defender like Phaneuf, Chara, Suter, Campbell, Weber, Hamonic, Seabrook, McDonagh/Girardi or Bouwmeester are considered minute eaters because they play top PP, top PK and top pairing even strength. Outside of Suter & Campbell, most of these players average around 23-25 minutes a game. These players also average anywhere from 3-5 minutes on the PP a night. So if we assume Polak will be no where near the PP, I see no reason he cannot have been or in the future play the top pairing even strength while still averaging around 20-21 minutes.

Phaneuf - 3 MIN PP, 4 MIN PK, 17 MIN EVEN = 24 MIN
Polak - 0 MIN PP, 4 MIN PK, 17 MIN EVEN = 21 MIN
Gardiner - 3 MIN PP, 0 MIN PK, 19 MIN EVEN = 22 MIN
Robidas - 0 MIN PP, 2 MIN PK, 19 MIN EVEN = 21 MIN
Rielly - 3 MIN PP, 0 MIN PK, 12 MIN EVEN (SHELTERED) = 15 MIN
Franson - 3 MIN PP, 2 MIN PK, 12 MIN EVEN (SHELTERED) = 17 MIN

We can easily shelter Franson and Rielly. This is even an exaggeration, Phaneuf & Polak could easily take a couple less minutes even strength as teams tend to utilize their 3rd and 4th line more, and Rielly's minutes should increase as the season progresses.

 

[Sundinisagod]

I think they will start the season like this:

Phaneuf / Polak
Gardiner / Robidas
Rielly / Franson

...but in no time at all Gardiner will bump Polak at out of the top pairing

Gardiner / Phaneuf
Rielly / Robidas
xxx / Polak

xxx is the lhd we trade Franson for.

 

[Community]

A lot of people are ignoring the commons sense embedded behind the moves. One of Polak or Robidas will play with Phaneuf.

I'd like Robidas for Gardiner, because it would finally give Gards a competent partner, and provide tons of veteran experience to help round out his game.

No, their just focusing on another line-up that seems to have common sense on it too.

Just because we have 3 LHD and 3 RHD, doesn't mean we have to pair the LHD with RHD. Especially because that means we'll have to pair 2 OFD with each other at some point in the line-up unless we make a trade/sign/marlie gets called up.

Most people would say it is common sense to play a rookie with a good defensive player (aka Rielly with Robidas/Polak) instead of playing him with a horrible defensive player like Franson.

 

[Mess]

No, their just focusing on another line-up that seems to have common sense on it too.

Just because we have 3 LHD and 3 RHD, doesn't mean we have to pair the LHD with RHD. Especially because that means we'll have to pair 2 OFD with each other at some point in the line-up unless we make a trade/sign/marlie gets called up.

Most people would say it is common sense to play a rookie with a good defensive player (aka Rielly with Robidas/Polak) instead of playing him with a horrible defensive player like Franson.

Nothing preventing Gardiner and Robidas being paired together and Rielly and Polak at least than you still have 1 LHs and 1 RHs.

Perhaps Franson is being shopped for Dion's new partner or being moved to promote Granberg.

 

[gravyface]

August 5th, and a coach who won't announce his goaltender a night before, tries to keep his roster a secret as long as he can, has announced his defensive pairings for the season? All this before he has seen them play a shift together. LOL.

Simmons is such a tool.

This.

But at least it gives us something to talk about.

I do recall Nonis (pre-Dubas) talking about finding partners that complement each other vs. ranked pairings; to this, I agree with and that's really the domain of the GM, to put the best players available in place for the coaches to use as they see fit.

 

[Mad Dog Tannen]

in "TH: Gardiner In The Mix" Simmons report that...

"My understanding from talking to the people I've spoken to today is that Jake Gardiner will play with Stephan Robidas to start next season."

"Captain Dion Phaneuf is likely to play with Roman Polak"

"Which leaves Cody Franson and Morgan Rielly as the third pair"

Phaneuf - Polak
Gardiner - Robidas
Rielly - Franson

Good just be TSN trying to get some summer news out there, but sort of interesting.

This makes a lot of sense.

1. Takes away defensive responsibility from Dion, allowing him to focus on offense.

2. Allows Gardiner to continue to grow and learn from a vet Robidas

3. Shelters Rielly on the third pairing, allowing him to gain confidence and work on defensive responsibilities. Also, grow the chemistry he had with Franson last year.

All three of these pairing are awesome, IMO.

 

[gravyface]

I think they will start the season like this:

Phaneuf / Polak
Gardiner / Robidas
Rielly / Franson

...but in no time at all Gardiner will bump Polak at out of the top pairing

Gardiner / Phaneuf
Rielly / Robidas
xxx / Polak

xxx is the lhd we trade Franson for.

If Dion is going to play his weak side (right-side), then his partner needs to be an upgrade for these D pairings to make any sense to me.

This is why I figured that Phaneuf would be on the left side with Robidas because that's an upgrade over Phaneuf/Gunnarsson.

 

[Stephen]

Where is Granberg in the whole equation?

 

[FriedEgg]

Don't saddle Morgan with Franson. Hopefully Franson is gone and Granberg and Percy can battle out for that spot.

 

[JackJ]

Polak top pairing lol

 

[Mystifo]

As per some blues fan who watched him play last season.

We never tried that here (because we have Pietrangelo so therefore we needed a lefty to be paired with him) but I really don't think it'd be a great idea to be honest. Polak just doesn't have the puck moving skills that seem to be necessary in today's game. He's not good with the puck. He is pretty good defensively, but that was on the 3rd pairing so he wasn't exactly facing top competition here. He's best when we can just play those lower minutes and focus on being physical on the opposition.

I'm not sure what Toronto's options are. Polak can be good on the 2nd or 3rd pairing, but I think he might be overmatched on the top line against elite players. This is pretty much just a prediction though because again we haven't seen it so I'm not basing it on anything other than my opinion.

He was behind Petro and Shatty so he was buried a little bit, however I don't see him being able to handle top pairing minutes

So it could be being buried behind depth but they seem to agree that his skill set is not optimal for top pairing mins.

 

[Community]

Nothing preventing Gardiner and Robidas being paired together and Rielly and Polak at least than you still have 1 LHs and 1 RHs.

Perhaps Franson is being shopped for Dion's new partner or being moved to promote Granberg.

I'm fine with that, but I doubt we'll be able to find a decent partner for Phaneuf without creating another hole somewhere else.

 

[ponder]

I like the idea of everyone playing on their strong side, and I think it's been obvious this summer that it's our coaching staff's preference too (as it is with most coaching staffs). However, I don't like Rielly/Franson. This part I'm cool with:

Phaneuf - Polak
Gardiner - Robidas
Rielly - xxx

But that xxx needs to be a defensive dman, not Franson.

 

[LeafalCrusader]

Ideally we move Franson for a Lefty and go with

Gardiner Phaneuf
Rielly Robidas
______ Polak

 

[dimi78]

Isn't that what Carlyle has been doing this whole time. Setting Phaneuf and Gunnarsson against the toughest assignment leaving the other D to play more sheltered easier minutes?

There was no easy minutes for the entire Maple Leafs... The team from top to bottom spend way too much time defending as appose to playing in the offensive zone thus the poor puck possession numbers team wide. It's not the TOI that burned out Phanuef and company.It was the way they were structured to play that burned them out... That's the number 1 thing this team needs to change rope & dope isn't winning hockey.... if they don't at the very least even out the amount of time they spend in the offensive zone vs the amount of time they spend defending there will be no improvement regardless of who's with who or their TOI.

A big huge part of the problem that faces Carlyle in why I would have fired him is that I don't think he's capable of change. The Philosophy needs to change from oh we need to shutdown Crosby, Stamkos, Ovie etc. into forcing those types of players into playing defense. They can't score on you when you have the puck playing them in their own zone forcing them to defend.

You guys with these adv. stats can't distinguish what the real hard minutes are. hard minutes isn't about the talent level of competition you face while on the ice. These are NHL players out their spend too much time defending you will get scored on from just about any line rather it be the top line or 4th line. Hard minutes is playing in the defensive zone and the Leafs as a team just about lead the league at that rope & doping.

 

[hatterson]

Really not a fan of Polak on the top pairing or Rielly with Franson.

 

[yubbers]

That is just awful.

Phaneuf / Robidas
Polack / Gardiner
Reilly / Franson

 

[Sundinisagod]

If Dion is going to play his weak side (right-side), then his partner needs to be an upgrade for these D pairings to make any sense to me.

This is why I figured that Phaneuf would be on the left side with Robidas because that's an upgrade over Phaneuf/Gunnarsson.

Wasn't Robidas quoted as saying he was brought in to play with Rielly or Gardiner? For that reason I have him on the 2nd pairing, and Polak in the 1st pairing is a stretch according to St Louis fans, so that leaves Gardiner as the best partner for Dion imho.