Should have let Nylander sit or traded him for defense.

[Rants Mulliniks]

Slow start but 8 Pts in his last 9 GP. A little streaky yet. Ideal for us is him hitting stride when money hockey rolls around. Here's hoping!

 

[LeafFever]

Trading NYlander for some second-pairing D would have been soo stupid. The same people complaining about him would have been the first to crap on Dubas for that trade.
This kid will be very good for many years. No issue with him getting 6.9 million.
Besides, what makes us think if we trade him for a D Babcock will even play that guy properly?

 

[Romkey]

Last few games he's been buzzing and looks like a $7M player! Thanks Dubas

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

it's hard to believe the side that laughed at zone entries and creating scoring chances being useful abilities that indicated he'd have a future breakthrough ended up being wrong

 

[RLF]

No it doesn’t. He’s two years older...

And he didn’t get 60 points until he turned 23 (a year older than nylander is at present).

2 Years is not a big deal when he is giving up more UFA years. Kind of makes you wonder how Tavares got only $600K less than Matthews when he is 7 years older than.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

This is what everyone should have expected. It is ZERO surprise to me. In fact I told everyone on here the day he signed exactly how things were going to progress. And i even told you the exact timetable how it would unfold. 4 weeks to get his legs/lungs under him. 2 weeks to get his hands back. and last 2 weeks to get his confidence/game back to where he was producing points consistently. There is nothing streaky about it.

Willy can drive his own line. Kadri is a good shooter for him but he is a little streaky on goals. I would ideally like to see his left winger help to create a little more room on the ice for him. But Johnsson/Brown are both fine. Put a Brady Tkachuk on his left and it would be ideal.

 

[Menzinger]

2 Years is not a big deal when he is giving up more UFA years. Kind of makes you wonder how Tavares got only $600K less than Matthews when he is 7 years older than.

It’s a fairly big deal when you’re dealing with players under the age of 22 - most NHLers aren’t even in the league by that age.

Most players have finished developing by 24, TT is probably as good as he’s going to be, while part of Nylander’s contract takes into account potential for growth.

 

[RLF]

It’s a fairly big deal when you’re dealing with players under the age of 22 - most NHLers aren’t even in the league by that age.

Most players have finished developing by 24, TT is probably as good as he’s going to be, while part of Nylander’s contract takes into account potential for growth.

That is just false. Nowadays most higher skilled forwards are in the League at 22. Very few top 6 talent are held in the minors until they are 23 or older. Nylander will be 23 May 1st, so he has 1 more season max to develop and that's it? I'm not buying that. Lot's of players continue to get better past their 24th birthday.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

Trading NYlander for some second-pairing D would have been soo stupid. The same people complaining about him would have been the first to crap on Dubas for that trade.
This kid will be very good for many years. No issue with him getting 6.9 million.
Besides, what makes us think if we trade him for a D Babcock will even play that guy properly?

I would have been willing to move him in a trade with him and Pesce being the base pieces. Not because I would want to but in order to manage longer term. A guy like Pesce has a fairly low salary for several years and would better enable us to lock down Kapanen and Johnsson while we wait for the cap to rise. Basically structure wise I think we'd be better with Pesce-Johnsson-Kapanen than potentially Nylander and only one of the two.

Gardiner is gone next year because on open market he can likely command close to $7 M. That extra money might also help us lock up Muzzin for a few more years. Don't know about anyone else but I'd be pretty comfortable over the next 4-5 years if our D had:

Rielly-Muzzin-Pesce-Dermott plus some mixture of Liljegren-Sandin-Ozighanov-Rosen-Borgman

 

[IPS]

I would have been willing to move him in a trade with him and Pesce being the base pieces. Not because I would want to but in order to manage longer term. A guy like Pesce has a fairly low salary for several years and would better enable us to lock down Kapanen and Johnsson while we wait for the cap to rise. Basically structure wise I think we'd be better with Pesce-Johnsson-Kapanen than potentially Nylander and only one of the two.

Gardiner is gone next year because on open market he can likely command close to $7 M. That extra money might also help us lock up Muzzin for a few more years. Don't know about anyone else but I'd be pretty comfortable over the next 4-5 years if our D had:

Rielly-Muzzin-Pesce-Dermott plus some mixture of Liljegren-Sandin-Ozighanov-Rosen-Borgman

The best case scenario IMO is to find a way to miraculously dump Marleau and hopefully be able to keep all 3 of Nylander/Kapanen/Johnsson. Won't hold my breath though, I'm expecting us to lose one of them.

 

[nuck]

I would have been willing to move him in a trade with him and Pesce being the base pieces. Not because I would want to but in order to manage longer term. A guy like Pesce has a fairly low salary for several years and would better enable us to lock down Kapanen and Johnsson while we wait for the cap to rise. Basically structure wise I think we'd be better with Pesce-Johnsson-Kapanen than potentially Nylander and only one of the two.

Gardiner is gone next year because on open market he can likely command close to $7 M. That extra money might also help us lock up Muzzin for a few more years. Don't know about anyone else but I'd be pretty comfortable over the next 4-5 years if our D had:

Rielly-Muzzin-Pesce-Dermott plus some mixture of Liljegren-Sandin-Ozighanov-Rosen-Borgman

I was not interested in a Pesce based deal in the summer with AJ and Kappy very much question marks. Not against it now. I suspect things may have played out differently if KD knew what he had in those two. I would be surprised if they were able to get a RD of Pesce caliber now.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

I was not interested in a Pesce based deal in the summer with AJ and Kappy very much question marks. Not against it now. I suspect things may have played out differently if KD knew what he had in those two. I would be surprised if they were able to get a RD of Pesce caliber now.

I was OK with it because I had predicted both guys being able to get to 20 goals within the next 2 years plus being solid defensively and high motor guys. Pleasantly, they may both get there in the first year.

 

[jrgtml67]

Finally caught up it looks like. Just in time for the post season push. Hes been the best player on that line for 3 games. Sick feed to Kadri the other night 2 similar goals the 2 games prior. Nice to see him back..go figure Marner is fighting it a bit..I'm almost sure he has a nagging injury. I cant recall the game it happened but I remember thinking UH OH anyone recall what happened

 

[Menzinger]

That is just false. Nowadays most higher skilled forwards are in the League at 22. Very few top 6 talent are held in the minors until they are 23 or older. Nylander will be 23 May 1st, so he has 1 more season max to develop and that's it? I'm not buying that. Lot's of players continue to get better past their 24th birthday.

Some players are will get better but they’re the exception rather than the norm. Most forwards have hit their scoring peak between 22-26. 24 is right during a player’s (especially a forward) prime years.

 

[ZippityDooDa]

Nylander will have a better career than Matthews for 4mil less. He's even willing to take more abuse than Marshmellow, just needed to get back in game shape. Matthews is looking more and more like a one-dimensional player with his shot whereas Nylander is capable of doing everything other than hitting, at a high-level. An unfortunate reality so we should be really gracious Tavares was signed to make up for it.

 

[ToneDog]

Nylander will have a better career than Matthews for 4mil less. He's even willing to take more abuse than Marshmellow, just needed to get back in game shape. Matthews is looking more and more like a one-dimensional player with his shot whereas Nylander is capable of doing everything other than hitting, at a high-level. An unfortunate reality so we should be really gracious Tavares was signed to make up for it.

I am happy to have the old Willie back but this take is mind boggling for so many reasons. There is a reason why Matthews is earning 4 mill more than Willie and I will leave it at that because I do not want to get into a pissing contest with you.

Matthews 186g 99goals 83a 182p
Nylander 213g 51goals 95a 146p

 

[Duke Silver]

Since this thread was started:

8GP - 2G-5A (4 primary assists)-7P <-- Good for a tie for third in Leafs scoring

All his points are at 5v5, which leads the Leafs during that timeframe.

Leads the team in 5v5 CF% and GF%.

His shooting percentage during that point is 11.1%, which is normal.

All signs point to him being back.

 

[ZippityDooDa]

I am happy to have the old Willie back but this take is mind boggling for so many reasons. There is a reason why Matthews is earning 4 mill more than Willie and I will leave it at that because I do not want to get into a pissing contest with you.

Matthews 186g 99goals 83a 182p
Nylander 213g 51goals 95a 146p

It's not about where they stand now, it's the trending trajectory.

 

[Anthrax442]

Since this thread was started:

8GP - 2G-5A (4 primary assists)-7P <-- Good for a tie for third in Leafs scoring

All his points are at 5v5, which leads the Leafs during that timeframe.

Leads the team in 5v5 CF% and GF%.

His shooting percentage during that point is 11.1%, which is normal.

All signs point to him being back.

back, but not on the first line or getting good PP time.

 

[Davidos193]

The question is how can you justify giving Nylander a 6 year deal, and Matthews a 5 year deal? Matthews is by far the better player, the elite franchise centre we've been waiting for, and miraculously landed. And we can't even sign him to a 6, 7, or 8 year deal? Very disappointing. He is THE guy you build around. Management's priority should have been to sign Matthews to a 7-8 year deal, and if that meant signing Nylander to a 2-3 bridge year to make it work, so be it. This creates a 5 year window to "win now" when it didn't have to be like this. In 5 years Matthews will test the UFA market and will price himself out of Toronto. Big mistake

 

[Nithoniniel]

In 5 years Matthews will test the UFA market and will price himself out of Toronto.

In five years we'll have a ton of cap space and will give Matthews whatever he deserves. There's also no reason to believe that he's one of the very, very few superstars who does not sign with their current teams once they reach UFA status.

 

[Community]

The question is how can you justify giving Nylander a 6 year deal, and Matthews a 5 year deal? Matthews is by far the better player, the elite franchise centre we've been waiting for, and miraculously landed. And we can't even sign him to a 6, 7, or 8 year deal? Very disappointing. He is THE guy you build around. Management's priority should have been to sign Matthews to a 7-8 year deal, and if that meant signing Nylander to a 2-3 bridge year to make it work, so be it. This creates a 5 year window to "win now" when it didn't have to be like this. In 5 years Matthews will test the UFA market and will price himself out of Toronto. Big mistake

Price himself out of Toronto? Assuming he wants to stay a Leaf (most high profile UFAs stay with their drafted team, especially if they are doing well), how much more than 11.5m do you think he gets in 5 years? You could give Nylander's 7m to Matthews (18.5m caphit) and let Nylander walk if you really think we cant keep Matthews in 5 years.

 

[Duke Silver]

The question is how can you justify giving Nylander a 6 year deal, and Matthews a 5 year deal? Matthews is by far the better player, the elite franchise centre we've been waiting for, and miraculously landed. And we can't even sign him to a 6, 7, or 8 year deal? Very disappointing. He is THE guy you build around. Management's priority should have been to sign Matthews to a 7-8 year deal, and if that meant signing Nylander to a 2-3 bridge year to make it work, so be it. This creates a 5 year window to "win now" when it didn't have to be like this. In 5 years Matthews will test the UFA market and will price himself out of Toronto. Big mistake

A 7-or-8 year deal would mean ~$2M less for us to play with for the length of the contract. We don't get to set the annual value and just toggle "8" in a drop-down menu.

 

[hotpaws]

A 7-or-8 year deal would mean ~$2M less for us to play with for the length of the contract. We don't get to set the annual value and just toggle "8" in a drop-down menu.

if the best Dubas could have done on an 7-8 yr deal was 13.6m per then the fool should never have been promoted to GM

but i would have loved reading how the fan would invent excuses to defend Dubas for him paying AM 1m plus more a yr than McD

 

[Wafflewhipper]

For all the Willy/Dubas haters in the audience. I like every second of them proving you all wrong because of how harsh it got.

Truly, if the attitude some have shown was at a work environment you's would be toxic and unwanted.

Willy is eating said posters lunch and thats the skinny on that. )

You gone hungry