Rumor: Leafs to sign Zack MacEwen of the Gatineau Olympiques? NOPE Canucks

[Canada4Gold]

He'll take Walker's spot, problem solved. I trust Pridham to navigate through the contract limit, they've already shown they are not afraid to offer some of our lower prospects AHL deals.

Not so problem solved since we don't know if they were going to give Walker a contract to begin with, I'm not sure I would have. So he can't take a contract from a guy who wasn't going to get a contract because of the contract limit concerns.

I trust management to stay under the contract limit without any real causalities, but here's how you do that. Don't have wasted contracts on prospects with no real NHL potential because you thought they did for 2 months a year ago. Moore and Kaskisuo were the 2 guys we signed last year. Moore is doing ok in the AHL but I don't think either has an NHL future, we probably want those 2 spots back right about now.

Is it a death sentence that we're screwed with contract space if we sign this guy? No, of course not, but adding him to the 2 last year, add another one, then add 2 in 2018 and suddenly you've got up to 6 spots wasted in hopes that 1 maybe works out? But all 6 probably don't.

I'm not saying don't sign anyone for free, but when you've got buckets of prospects coming in like we currently do after accumulating loads of picks you have to be very liberal with who you sign for free as there's not many spots available. They better be damn sure they absolutely love this guy for him to be a barely PPG overage forward to potentially waste 3 years of a contract spot for him.

As I currently count we're got 8 UFA's I don't want back. Smith, Robidas, Polak, Hunwick, Laich, Michalek, Greening, and Campbell. We may want to keep Campbell as the Marlies D won't be that great and he's the captain, and we may need to sign someone like Laich or Smith for an expansion required exposure slot with the required number of games so we don't have to expose Komarov. So lets go with 6 spots opening up. RFA's we can let maybe 3 go? Froese, Corrado, Holl? And 1 expansion guy probably Marincin

So say we've got 39 spots to filled for next year lets say. We can make 11 adds. Bracco, Dzierkals, and Brooks are easy adds. Lets say we bring in 2 of our other drafted guys, whether that's the 3 maybe CHL guys I mentioned last post, or Grundstrom, or Korshkov. Then we need a defenseman, whether that's Shattenkirk or someone else, and probably 2 defenseman because letting Hunwick and Polak go, and proibably losing Marincin we'd only have Rielly, Gards, Zaitsev(when he's signed), Carrick, Marchenko, and maybe call up Valiev or Loov. So 2 defensemen. And I think they'd want to bring in a 4C faceoff type guy in case they still don't think Goat is ready.

So that's 7 adds, leaving 4 spots. Bringing in this guy wouldn't kill us obviously, but I'd want to be careful not to have too much dead weight lying around and every 1 of these guys you bring in has the potential to be 3 year dead weight on the contract limit.

 

[Canada4Gold]

There's no contracts issue.

Coming off the books:
Polak, Robidas, Hunwick, McElhinney, Laich, Michalek, Greening before any deals are made.

We all knew our depth was going to grow to a point where we would start attempting to trade quantity for quality.

We're not far off from that happening.

There's no immediate contract limit issue with us having probably around 4 spots this offseason like I just mentioned, but you can't just go around, "yep free wallet, worth a shot" for every guy there is, or you'll be bringing in your own issues in very short order. You have to be careful not to create your own contract issues, and a overage barely PPG player is bordering on the line of I've got to be careful I don't sign too much future dead weight to create my own problem.

Other teams have contract limits to that they're very near, even if you can find a quantity for quality trade the other team is likely tossing back a couple of their dead weigh contracts to stay under the limit too like we did in the Phil to Pittsburgh trade with Biggs and Erixon.

We've seen the cost to dump 5 of these contracts, it was taking on Grabner's bad contract for a year. I'd rather not have to go about that again.

 

[Barilko14]

Not so problem solved since we don't know if they were going to give Walker a contract to begin with, I'm not sure I would have. So he can't take a contract from a guy who wasn't going to get a contract because of the contract limit concerns.

I trust management to stay under the contract limit without any real causalities, but here's how you do that. Don't have wasted contracts on prospects with no real NHL potential because you thought they did for 2 months a year ago. Moore and Kaskisuo were the 2 guys we signed last year. Moore is doing ok in the AHL but I don't think either has an NHL future, we probably want those 2 spots back right about now.

Is it a death sentence that we're screwed with contract space if we sign this guy? No, of course not, but adding him to the 2 last year, add another one, then add 2 in 2018 and suddenly you've got up to 6 spots wasted in hopes that 1 maybe works out? But all 6 probably don't.

I'm not saying don't sign anyone for free, but when you've got buckets of prospects coming in like we currently do after accumulating loads of picks you have to be very liberal with who you sign for free as there's not many spots available. They better be damn sure they absolutely love this guy for him to be a barely PPG overage forward to potentially waste 3 years of a contract spot for him.

As I currently count we're got 8 UFA's I don't want back. Smith, Robidas, Polak, Hunwick, Laich, Michalek, Greening, and Campbell. We may want to keep Campbell as the Marlies D won't be that great and he's the captain, and we may need to sign someone like Laich or Smith for an expansion required exposure slot with the required number of games so we don't have to expose Komarov. So lets go with 6 spots opening up. RFA's we can let maybe 3 go? Froese, Corrado, Holl? And 1 expansion guy probably Marincin

So say we've got 39 spots to filled for next year lets say. We can make 11 adds. Bracco, Dzierkals, and Brooks are easy adds. Lets say we bring in 2 of our other drafted guys, whether that's the 3 maybe CHL guys I mentioned last post, or Grundstrom, or Korshkov. Then we need a defenseman, whether that's Shattenkirk or someone else, and probably 2 defenseman because letting Hunwick and Polak go, and proibably losing Marincin we'd only have Rielly, Gards, Zaitsev(when he's signed), Carrick, Marchenko, and maybe call up Valiev or Loov. So 2 defensemen. And I think they'd want to bring in a 4C faceoff type guy in case they still don't think Goat is ready.

So that's 7 adds, leaving 4 spots. Bringing in this guy wouldn't kill us obviously, but I'd want to be careful not to have too much dead weight lying around and every 1 of these guys you bring in has the potential to be 3 year dead weight on the contract limit.

I crunched the same math, I wasn't too worried. This guy brings a different element then pretty well any prospect, I think that could be a reason Leafs would look at him. Best case scenario in 3 years, we've just replaced $2.5M Martin with ~$750K MacEwen. 3 year deals typically only apply to CHL overagers, could be a 2 year deal for college free agents, or even 1 year if they burn a year by playing a couple of games.

Either way, just another way to supplement prospect cupboard. Yes they'll likely have to pretty picky in a year or 2 when we may have a bigger cluster of signed prospects.

 

[Harold Ballard]

He'll take Walker's spot, problem solved. I trust Pridham to navigate through the contract limit, they've already shown they are not afraid to offer some of our lower prospects AHL deals.

Walker will not be anything more than AHL depth 7th dman....I'll be surprised if he becomes anything more than that...

 

[Walshy7]

Walker will not be anything more than AHL depth 7th dman....I'll be surprised if he becomes anything more than that...

he is a winger

 

[Harold Ballard]

he is a winger

He can play both....

 

[Walshy7]

He can play both....

im not sure he has played D since his first year in the WHL, he wasn't drafted as a D hunter (I think it was hunter) said so

 

[Northernguy10]

There are 30 NHL teams' scouting staffs constantly looking at players. If at least 5 of them are interested in MacEwen it says something to me. He may never be an NHL player but they are looking at his late improvement and size and projecting that to a "possible" player of the future in their organization. I'm "pretty" sure we have a staff that is constantly looking at : contracts, the cap and every thing associated with running an NHL team so I wouldn't be too worried about them screwing up in these regards. Some people on here seem to think that the Leafs organization runs on a wing and a prayer.

 

[biotk]

Looking at stats he was good in his draft year, surprised he didn't get picked. Then he had a tough D+1 but not bad, and is doing pretty good again this year. Might as well give him a shot.

His draft year he scored 14 points in 50 games in the MJAHL. The next year he had a fine MJAHL season, and 2 points in 9 games in the QMJHL. 40 points in 66 games in the Q in his D+2, and so far a little better than a point a game in his D+3.

I fail to see what all the fuss is about, and why several teams are trying to sign him unless there is something beyond the numbers. When I saw the late bloomer label I started to think along the lines of Andrew Brunette who was passed over at his D and D+1 drafts, before getting drafted 174th overall after his D+2 year (in which he led the OHL in goals, assists and points - 162 points that year) then moved up through the ECHL to the AHL to the NHL, finally becoming a full-time NHLer at age 25 and finishing with 700+ career NHL points. McEwan had a try-out for the Ducks in the fall. I don't imagine he will play any more games in a Leafs uniform than he did in a Ducks one.

 

[Harold Ballard]

im not sure he has played D since his first year in the WHL, he wasn't drafted as a D hunter (I think it was hunter) said so

Yah Walshy....I live in Victoria so Ive seen him regularly..he had his best seasons on the wing..flip flopped back and forth but listed as a dman....too small not enough skill imo

 

[hockeywiz542]

Mikael Lalancette says the Toronto Maple Leafs or another NHL team should hurry up and sign Zack MacEwen. He has made superb progress and deserves a contract.

 

[Walshy7]

Mikael Lalancette says the Toronto Maple Leafs or another NHL team should hurry up and sign Zack MacEwen. He has made superb progress and deserves a contract.

Geeze is this lalancette guy his agent or something, with the number of interested teams it's more than likely he has his 4 or 5 offers and he just needs to pick which team he wants to sign for.

 

[indigobuffalo]

Isn't PPG for an overager kind of underwhelming? If we drafted him with Nylanders draft I don't think would be too happy with him barely hitting PPG.

Not to poo-poo the idea of course, I've never seen him play. If Leafs management thinks there is something there that is good enough for me.

One of the advanced stats people put out a chart a few months prior to last draft and Leafs used a similar model, hence the high number of overagers.

Roughly speaking production based on Draft+x years overage has certain values that depreciate each year post-draft. Or to say it another way, production of PPG is probably not worhtless even for an overager.

Scouts typically avoid OAs because of the (stupid) mentality of "they werent good enough the first time around".

 

[uncleben]

OT, but was looking free wallets from yesteryear.

Casey Bailey doing okay in Binghamton, but what is really interesting is Cody Donaghey is onto his SIXTH junior team this year.
(12-13: Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec ; 13-14: Quebec ; 14-15: Quebec ; 15-16: Halifax, Moncton ; 16-27: Charlottetown, Sherbrooke)

He's doing well enough but I don't think I've ever seen that before.

 

[aingefan]

OT, but was looking free wallets from yesteryear.

Casey Bailey doing okay in Binghamton, but what is really interesting is Cody Donaghey is onto his SIXTH junior team this year.
(12-13: Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec ; 13-14: Quebec ; 14-15: Quebec ; 15-16: Halifax, Moncton ; 16-27: Charlottetown, Sherbrooke)

He's doing well enough but I don't think I've ever seen that before.

He's still in junior?!?!

That signing feels like it was five or six years ago.

 

[Walshy7]

Yah Walshy....I live in Victoria so Ive seen him regularly..he had his best seasons on the wing..flip flopped back and forth but listed as a dman....too small not enough skill imo

he has played D this year?. Too small not enough skill for D or for hockey? i have no problem with taking the Zack Macewan kid and not signing the walker kid epsecially if he is a wing but if he plays both averagely he wont be much he would need to be excellent at one position not average at both

 

[SprDaVE]

Geeze is this lalancette guy his agent or something, with the number of interested teams it's more than likely he has his 4 or 5 offers and he just needs to pick which team he wants to sign for.

He's a QMJHL reporter. So he's reporting on one of the better UFAs from that league signing with a NHL club.

I don't see what's wrong with his tweets, despite jumping on the gun on his earlier report.

 

[cupcrazyman]

Yes but he can he play defence?

You can always teach defense.

 

[Griffin76]

Canucks army has an article on MacEwen.

http://canucksarmy.com/2017/2/15/in-depth-look-at-qmjhl-ufa-zack-macewen

Maybe someone can put the actual article on here. I have no idea how to on my phone.

 

[Toronto makebeleifs]

This is nice, but what happened to the interest in tchakev (sp?). They sound like the same player, but with the Russian a little further along in development. Is this an offseason move or something that happens once the kid's major junior season is over?

 

[LeafSteel]

This is huge for me. He played for our local JrA team in Amherst N.S. when he was 17 and 18. Could never understand why he wasn't drafted in the Q. You could see his offensive talents as a17 yr old. (Future scoring champ) As an 18 he was an absolute beast. One of the best players in the league. Got a few games in Moncton as a free agent and I knew he would never be back. He's got great size. He is a good skater. Elite actually at the JrA level. Great hands. Wicked wrister. Tough as nails just as most Island boys are.

Now I understand there is a huge difference between JrA and AHL and NHL, so there's no need to destroy my post. I know he's probably AHL bound and may never even see much there.

If you are comparing him to Gauthier I would say he has better offensive talent by far. Tougher. And he has a great engine.

OK guys have at'er. Flame away but this guy is my dark horse to play in the NHL someday. And even the negative comments won't bring me down from this high.

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the informative read.

Sounds like a good kid to pickup.

 

[Harold Ballard]

he has played D this year?. Too small not enough skill for D or for hockey? i have no problem with taking the Zack Macewan kid and not signing the walker kid epsecially if he is a wing but if he plays both averagely he wont be much he would need to be excellent at one position not average at both

Which is why the signing made me confused...just average in all aspects...nothing really jumps at you..maybe just for depth..Now, I'm more intrigued by Bobolev...he can be a player but can be quite enigmatic..

 

[FreeBird]

He's a QMJHL reporter. So he's reporting on one of the better UFAs from that league signing with a NHL club.

I don't see what's wrong with his tweets, despite jumping on the gun on his earlier report.

Be afraid, very afraid, Lou doesn't like Leaks.

 

[SprDaVE]

Be afraid, very afraid, Lou doesn't like Leaks.

You mean like Zaitsev signing here being reported for almost a full year before it actually happened?

 

[Griffin76]

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the informative read.

Sounds like a good kid to pickup.

Thank you. I forgot to mention that he was the captain of our team as an 18 yr old as well and was a very good leader on and off the ice in a league that is well known to be a place where overagers are the dominant players and leaders with 9 allowable 20 yr olds per team.