Speculation: The Stamkos Dream is Over

[Tak7]

There's some delicious irony here in fans saying they will BOO Stamkos next season lol.

That self-entitled stupidity is the very reason why players, including those that were from here, don't want to come to Toronto.

THink about that for a few minutes before you lose your crap again.

 

[Suntouchable13]

I can't remember the last UFA that came home to Toronto. He played games right up until the end. Boo him at the ACC. He will never win a cup in Tampa. At least I hope he doesn't.

Did you forget about Clarkson?

 

[Joey Hoser]

I can't remember the last UFA that came home to Toronto. He played games right up until the end. Boo him at the ACC. He will never win a cup in Tampa. At least I hope he doesn't.

Clarkson.

 

[egd27]

well I rather have him in Tampa than have him anywhere else so it remains status quo.

Pretty much how I feel.

 

[Joey Hoser]

There's some delicious irony here in fans saying they will BOO Stamkos next season lol.

That self-entitled stupidity is the very reason why players, including those that were from here, don't want to come to Toronto.

THink about that for a few minutes before you lose your crap again.

I'm not going to boo, but no it isn't. Don't be so emo.

 

[Menzinger]

Why boo a guy who resigned with the team that drafted him?

 

[Mitchy]

I can't remember the last UFA that came home to Toronto. He played games right up until the end. Boo him at the ACC. He will never win a cup in Tampa. At least I hope he doesn't.

Why?

He didn't owe the Leafs anything.

 

[Swervin81]

Yea, this is when we need to be super careful with what happens next.

Overpaying for a second tier player coming off the best season of his career would be extremely dangerous.

And we know how quick Lou was to sign Clowe when Parise moved on.

I bet we probably just make a couple of bargain bin signings like last year, perhaps a bargain bin C and trade Bozak and Holland. Just a quiet offseason. We don't need to push the envelope on anything.

 

[BayStreetBully]

I can't remember the last UFA that came home to Toronto. He played games right up until the end. Boo him at the ACC. He will never win a cup in Tampa. At least I hope he doesn't.

Stamkos didn't play any games. It would be juvenile to boo him.

 

[sommervr]

Boo stamkos

 

[The Bad Seed*]

He's a *****!!!

 

[BraveCanadian]

We'll look back on this and think of it as a bullet dodged, in my opinion.

Agreed.

 

[Warden of the North]

I can't remember the last UFA that came home to Toronto. He played games right up until the end. Boo him at the ACC. He will never win a cup in Tampa. At least I hope he doesn't.

Daniel Winnik. David Clarkson.

 

[Daisy Jane]

I'm not going to boo, but no they don't. Don't be so emo.

1 person says he'll boo Stamkos and out comes the "this is why people don't want to come here."

okay there.

 

[Legion34]

Wow. Left money on the table. Came all this way just to re sign? Odd but his right. I was 50 50. Lost rib blood clot broken leg. But still weird to play out like this.

 

[Mess]

Okay Mess, you go and ponder the idea of signing Okposo instead of Stamkos. You do that.

Okay how about now?

 

[UnknownNasty]

haha I doubt that. They have to sign Kucherov, Palat, Johnson, Drouin and Hedman in the next couple of years. **** Stamkos

That core is still more than enough to win the Cup next season. It took Pittsburgh seven games to beat that team in the conference finals, and there's no doubt that Tampa would have easily handled the Sharks. Also, him not signing a large 10+ million dollar contract facilitates the signing of at least one or two of those players, which to me seems like an unselfish move to bring the Cup back to Tampa. He absolutely doesn't deserve this criticism, he made the right decision, both for himself and for the Leafs' future.

 

[Mitchy]

It's going to be really interesting to see how much interest Toronto even had in Stammer, and maybe even if they had any at all.

 

[Rayban*]

**** Stamkos. Enough with these ***** ass suburban ******* trying to use the leafs to drive up their price. Stamkos should be booed here he's done nothing but spit in the faces of leaf fans with the tweet nonsense

 

[Moncherry]

It's not a big deal.

In regards to long term planning, the contract could have caused many issues when we had to re-sign our young players.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Okay how about now?

Still no. If they overpay Okposo it will be same old same old. I will sour on this management team quickly.

 

[bentharbour]

Because he didn't come home that's why. Toronto market is always hero or zero

Haha true. I am not convinced these players put the same value in home as fans do. I grew up just outside of Toronto, lived in Ontario for 26 years, moved away, and likely won't come back. I surely wouldn't take a financial hit to move back to Toronto. I probably wouldn't even if they paid me more.

...But I am just one person and I will never be offered millions. So there's that.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

We'll look back on this and think of it as a bullet dodged, in my opinion.

Bingo.

 

[Longshot]

I was excited about the possibility of a player like Stamkos hitting the open market. It happens so rarely I really wanted to see how it went down. I also wanted the Leafs to make an offer for a simple reason: it's really hard to get guys like him, because they become available so rarely. And, let's be honest, everybody wants a shiny new toy, right? It's only natural.

However, deep down, it didn't make a whole lot of sense for a team in the Leafs' situation to chase him.

They just finished dead last. All of their best assets are 18-22 years old. I know there are expectations in this forum that with Matthews and Marner the Leafs are suddenly a contender, but I think that's a tad unrealistic considering their age.

A more likely reality is this group matures together (along with other pieces yet to be added) for 2-3 years and then are in a position to make a leap. That's not to say I expect them to continue to finish at the bottom of the league. Improvement should happen as time goes by.

Realistically, by the time the Leafs are ready to make a leap Stamkos will be 29-30 and probably into his declining years with a 9+ million cap hit. I don't see how the presence of Stamkos would have helped accelerate the development curves of Rielly, Marner, Matthews, Nylander, etc.

 

[as Pure as Evil]

I for one am very pleased at the outcome... now we can focus on the real prize next year. we should be improved from where we were.. but still in the bottom of the league.

next years draft will be just as important as this years. really deep in center and defense.

in 2017 the maple leafs will select timothy liljgren. and will become riellys partner after a year or 2

if we had gotten stamkos that dream of mine would have been over .. cause we wouldn't have been in the area