Rank the Canadian teams going forward

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I rank them all below the American teams.

 

[Paddyjack]

Based on what though? lol I'm thrilled with the Leafs season. We maintained top 5 position for 95% of the season and ended up finishing 7th overall in a 31 team league...while being the 3rd highest scoring team...i'm genuinely confused by this comment of yours lol, can you clarify why I'd be "not happy" with this season's results?

Well, good for you that you are thrilled with Toronto's results this season. I wouldn't. With such a roster they should have been in the 115 pts range. To me they are underachieving.

 

[DakrSnooze]

Without taking the owner into account,Ottawa could have two 1oa in their already pretty deep stable of kids..

I was taking the owner into account.

 

[The Moose is Loose]

Calgary~ Goaltending and an aging Gio need to be addressed soon. Looks like they can consistently make playoffs barring injuries.

Winnipeg ~ Internal cap issues, Laine contract (waiver fodder), and some 30 year olds with big contracts. Questionable goaltending needing addressed. Window is going to close in a few years max. Built to win now and built for the playoff grind. One of my favorites in the next couple years to win it all.

Toronto ~ Bad D with meh D prospects and almost 200 million locked up with 3 players, 2 who have yet to crack 80 points. Baby butt soft with Babcock wearing out his welcome. Gotta see what Dubas does in free agency but his RFA signings with leverage on his side doesn’t seem too promising. Built for playoffs and a lot of early exits but there is some room to maneuver in the future.

Montreal~ Got some big contracts with pretty bad center depth. Team is overly dependent on Price to steal some games. D is not that impressive.

Vancouver- Got a nice core coming through the ranks but they are very small and one gets tossed around easily. D looks pretty shoddy with a very undersized Hughes looking like the only promising prospect. The team has yet to prove it can develop depth or acquire depth without overpaying




Ottawa ~ Eugene and the arena are going to keep them bottom feeding until a miracle happens.





Oilers~ Up against the cap and bottom feeding. Can’t develop depth or defensemen and no one wants to willingly move to Edm in free agency without getting paid. Horribly managed to boot. By far the worst Canadian team with a pretty bleak future.

Next time don't sugarcoat it, tell us what you really think

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

1.Calgary
2-3.Toronto/Winnipeg
4.Montréal
5.Vancouver
6.Edmonton
7.Ottawa

 

[HuGo Sham]

Lol this is so rich coming from a Habs fan, where do you even get off though? like really? Leafs are in the playoffs for the third straight year and our core is still quite young and going to mature and improve as they become more established veteran players. Montreal is set for years of 9th and 10th place finishes..I mean how can't they be when you look at their underwhelming C depth, especially in a division that has a handful of teams with strong C. Florida even has better C when you consider Barkov is better than any C Montreal has had in decades.

Shaw, 27 = 4th liner.
Domi, 24 = 2nd line centre max.
Danault, 26 = 2nd line centre max.
Weal, 26 = 3rd line centre max.
Kotkaniemi, 18, potential to be #1 centre, but not a franchise elite talent.

If this is what Montreal expects to build a contender around..I've got some bad news for you lol, compare this to the Leafs at C.

Tavares, 28 = Franchise #1 C
Matthews, 21 = Franchise #1 C
Kadri, 28, = 2nd/3rd line centre.
Nylander, 22 = 1st/2nd line centre.

There is no GM in this league who would take Montreal's C over Toronto's and that's a fact, Montreal also lacks high end game changing talent up front like a Marner for example, Monteal currently has no player on its team or in its system that is even close to coming anywhere close to 90-100 points while the Leafs have 3 of them.

Say what you want about the Leafs D but I still take it over Montreal. 3 of MTL's core defenders are already north of 30.

as most leafs fans, you're f***ing clueless about montreal. whatever they may lack in top end talent, they have in depth throughout the lineup and in their minors. amazing how you don't mention poehling or romanov or brook or any of the other quality kids coming. let me guess? magic beans? Shaw isn't a 4th liner. And all the 2nd line C's they have is better than anything they've had in 2 decades. I'll take the opinions of actual experts who see the habs as an up and coming team.
lets see how leafs fill out their roster / putrid D with what? close to 50 million committed to 5 forwards

 

[Peiskos]

as most leafs fans, you're ****ing clueless about montreal. whatever they may lack in top end talent, they have in depth throughout the lineup and in their minors. amazing how you don't mention poehling or romanov or brook or any of the other quality kids coming. let me guess? magic beans? Shaw isn't a 4th liner. And all the 2nd line C's they have is better than anything they've had in 2 decades. I'll take the opinions of actual experts who see the habs as an up and coming team.
lets see how leafs fill out their roster / putrid D with what? close to 50 million committed to 5 forwards

It’s funny and bizarre why people love to bash the Leafs defence, I mean it’s pretty much unprecedented for people to so routinely criticize a D core that sports a +35 goal differential, is the D for the 7th ranked team in the league, has 2 cup champions from 2012, 2014 and 2017 and has a 73 point puck moving defender plus another who is proven 50 point caliber, not to mention the addition of Muzzin, oh wait Muzzin is a Leaf now..that means he suddenly sucks now, oops I forgot!

Fact is, it’s simply in fashion to bash that position of Toronto when in fact they have proven to be a decent group. I’m sorry but you don’t make the playoffs 3 times in a row with a “putrid” defence in this league, you just don’t.

Matthews - 11.6
Tavares - 11
Nylander - 6.9
Marner - 10

Try more like 39 million and certainly doable, I’ll trust our management over you, Leafs hired people with degrees in “Capology” ffs, who even know those existed but I’ll trust their ability and knowledge over yours, thanks, and even if Nylander has to be moved, teams would be lining up left right and centre to pry him out of Toronto, with handsome compensation of course.

Enjoy the playoffs.

 

[sharks9]

Lol this is so rich coming from a Habs fan, where do you even get off though? like really? Leafs are in the playoffs for the third straight year and our core is still quite young and going to mature and improve as they become more established veteran players. Montreal is set for years of 9th and 10th place finishes..I mean how can't they be when you look at their underwhelming C depth, especially in a division that has a handful of teams with strong C. Florida even has better C when you consider Barkov is better than any C Montreal has had in decades.

Shaw, 27 = 4th liner.
Domi, 24 = 2nd line centre max.
Danault, 26 = 2nd line centre max.
Weal, 26 = 3rd line centre max.
Kotkaniemi, 18, potential to be #1 centre, but not a franchise elite talent.

If this is what Montreal expects to build a contender around..I've got some bad news for you lol, compare this to the Leafs at C.

Tavares, 28 = Franchise #1 C
Matthews, 21 = Franchise #1 C
Kadri, 28, = 2nd/3rd line centre.
Nylander, 22 = 1st/2nd line centre.

There is no GM in this league who would take Montreal's C over Toronto's and that's a fact, Montreal also lacks high end game changing talent up front like a Marner for example, Monteal currently has no player on its team or in its system that is even close to coming anywhere close to 90-100 points while the Leafs have 3 of them.

Say what you want about the Leafs D but I still take it over Montreal. 3 of MTL's core defenders are already north of 30.

I can tell you don't even follow the Habs. Shaw had 47 points in 63 games, how exactly is that a 4th liner max? That's a better PPG than 7 million dollar man Nylander.

Domi produced like a #1 (low end, but still) this year in his first year at center.
Danault is one of the best defensive centers in the league, if he had better offense he'd be a Selke finalist but that's fine since his future will be as a 3rd line shutdown center.

Also saying Nylander is a 1st/2nd line center is absurd. That "4th liner" Andrew Shaw scored 12 more goals than him in only 9 more games. Nylander's a soft 2nd line winger at this point, although this year he played more like a 3rd liner.

0 chance that Toronto's defense is better than Montreal's. For one, you seem to think that Jordie Benn is a core defender which couldn't be more wrong. He's an okay 3rd pairing guy who probably won't be re-signed this year. Other than that we've got Mete who's 20, Juulsen is 22, Kulak is 25 and both Weber and Petry have years of high-level play left. They're in their early 30's, not about to retire.

All that and a stacked prospect pool with Poehling, Brook, Romanov, Suzuki, Primeau, etc. We even have 3 picks in this year's draft before Toronto will even pick once. Montreal's continually getting younger and better while Toronto is trading away their picks and prospects and will soon have to start downgrading their team so they can pay 40M to 4 forwards. That 4-point difference might close faster than you think.

 

[MrSnrub]

Are the Leafs the best by default?

 

[heretik27]

Are the Leafs the best by default?

Could be. Calgary and Winnipeg both failed this post-season.

 

[dubey]

Are the Leafs the best by default?

Yes but we all knew this going into this season

 

[Shaman464]

Are the Leafs the best by default?

Still got 2 more games to play against a Boston team that knows how to dance.

 

[heretik27]

Yes but we all knew this going into this season

I'd say Calgary was the better team in the regular season. The Jets had a pretty mediocre year relative to expectations.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Still got 2 more games to play against a Boston team that knows how to dance.

3 playoff wins > 2 playoff wins > 1 playoff win > 0 playoff wins

Just saying

 

[Shaman464]

3 playoff wins > 2 playoff wins > 1 playoff win > 0 playoff wins

Just saying

I'd disagree, I think it has to do as much with the team you're playing as it does how many wins you get. Columbus's 4 wins against the Lightning will be worth more than the 4 wins Boston has against the Leafs.

 

[A1LeafNation]

I'd disagree, I think it has to do as much with the team you're playing as it does how many wins you get. Columbus's 4 wins against the Lightning will be worth more than the 4 wins Boston has against the Leafs.

3 wins against BOS > 2 wins against STL > 1 win against COL

Happy now?

 

[Field of Dreams]

Toronto
Calgary
Winnipeg
Vancouver
Montreal
Ottawa
Edmonton

 

[LeafsNation75]

3 playoff wins > 2 playoff wins > 1 playoff win > 0 playoff wins

Just saying

3 wins against BOS > 2 wins against STL > 1 win against COL

Happy now?

I'm willing to bet that before the playoffs more non Leafs fans had them either getting swept or only winning 1 game against Boston. So far Toronto has 3 playoff wins, hopefully they get win #4 tomorrow and advance to the 2nd round.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Leafs
Winnipeg/Calgary
Montreal
Edmonton/Vancouver
Ottawa

 

[Shaman464]

3 wins against BOS > 2 wins against STL > 1 win against COL

Happy now?

I don't know, the Blues were the hottest team since January. I'd say 2 wins against STL>3 wins against Boston.

 

[leafsfan5]

I don't know, the Blues were the hottest team since January. I'd say 2 wins against STL>3 wins against Boston.

Records since January 1st:
St.Louis blues:
30-10-5
Boston Bruins:
28-10-5

They almost had identical records, with St.Louis playing more games

3 wins vs boston>2 wins vs St.Louis

 

[NobleSix]

Leafs have D coming in their system and its funny that nobody ever seems to mention it, two 1st round pick defenders in Liljegren(2017) and Sandin(2018) who looked fantastic together during the pre-season, Sandin IMO will be the next to graduate and will really improve the Leafs blue line.

I take if you're a Habs fan, like it or not Leafs are in a much better position than mtl for long term sustained success. Montreal is still laughable at C.

I dont disagree with the sentiment that the Leafs are better set up for the next 5 years or so, but...

I find it interesting that your defense of the Leafs' defense issue is that they have prospects coming through, but convienetly seem to pretend that the exact same defense can't be used for Montreal's center issue.

Montreal has some promising center prospects in the pipeline, just as promising as the Leaf's defense prospects. Kotkaniemi, Poehling, Suzuki, and Ylonen is a solid group of prospects in addition to Domi and Danault.

The Habs' centers arent anything extraordinary by any means, but the "Habs have terrible centers going forward" is now a myth. They addressed the issue pretty well last summer. They're not going to be world beaters down the middle, but they'll be fine going forward.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Records since January 1st:
St.Louis blues:
30-10-5
Boston Bruins:
28-10-5

They almost had identical records, with St.Louis playing more games

3 wins vs boston>2 wins vs St.Louis

I would add how in the regular season Boston was 3-1 against Toronto which makes the Leafs 3 wins against them in the playoffs more impressive.

 

[Shaman464]

I would add how in the regular season Boston was 3-1 against Toronto which makes the Leafs 3 wins against them in the playoffs more impressive.

At this point you're just arguing how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. Losers are losers. The leafs winning one more game doesn't make them better than the Flames, or the Jets.

 

[4chandler]

Reading this thread.... Really? Calgary is better than the Leafs? Mono and Janny Hackay are better that Matthews and Mitch?

Tavares is just an after thought, Gio better than Rielly and in his prime?

If you say Winnipeg at least I understand but Calgary?

JUST SAY YOU HATE TORONTO YOU LIARS