Time to fire Dubas and rebuild around Matthews.

[Throw More Waffles]

Think the only chance this team would have is with a coach like trotz or hitchcock... two defensive minded coaches that force a commitment to defense.

lol.

That's what Babcock tried to do with them. And this city literally turned him into the anti-christ for it.

Other than the brief "new coach high" winning streak, this team looks precisely like the Babacock team. Other than Matthews and the gang getting more icetime. That DOESN'T result in more wins.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

Very concerning for me given they've had 3 straight first round losses and aren't willing to put in the work. Is there another example of a team who never took that step forward and broke through with their key players are age 25+?

Seems like even Washington was building on success in the regular season at the very least.

'97 Detroit Red Wings and '94 New York Rangers come to mind.

 

[Jeffrey Pedler]

Still find it crazy they hired a 20 something year old kid with zero life experience to run one of the largest professional sports organizations in the world.

He has probably done more in his 30+ years of life, than you every will.

GM of the Sault St Marie
Player Agent
Assistant GM of the Leafs/GM of the Marlie
GM of the Leafs

 

[Pyrophorus]

Ok, let's see then. I wanna see this team make the playoffs and advance. I want to see this team being close to TB and Boston. I want this team to be close to the top of the division, not fighting for the playoff lives.

Its going to happen this season unfortunately, and I think we would all want that, but we had problems, which
the other teams have not.

 

[SwaggySpungo]

Exactly.

For example, Auston Matthews is just 22 years old. The guys just about to start his prime....

The team is clearly a work in progress, but some folks are acting way too extreme (as usual)

My plan (the Spungoplan™) involves keeping Matthews and building the team around him.

 

[IrishInOntario]

This team doesn't need to be blown up. That's crazy talk. This team needs to re-tooled, taking the defense core seriously. Reilly needs a legitimate partner that can help him get back to where he was last year. Muzzin needs a partner who he can insulate moving forward so that he doesn't have to drive play in his pairing. The 3rd pairing needs legitimate, developed, NHL defensemen.

Johnson and Kerfoot need to be traded to free up money. Barrie should be traded at the deadline for an assett, or two, that Toronto can control to help take the sting out of losing the best third line center in hockey (by a wide margin) for two redundent players. Dermott needs to go too and Holl should be the #7 guy in a decent defense core.

Reilly /
Muzzin /
Sandin /
Holl

Big, strong, defensively capable D-men need to be brought in to fill those roster slots.

Furthermore, the young forwards need to learn a 2-way game. Some of our forwards are straight putrid in their own end in support of the defense.

 

[Throw More Waffles]

He has probably done more in his 30+ years of life, than you every will.

GM of the Sault St Marie
Player Agent
Assistant GM of the Leafs/GM of the Marlie
GM of the Leafs

Oh, Dubas has done more than "Ray Mercer on the internet" before being appointed as leafs gm? Wow. Fascinating.

Although... I don' tthink that Ray was saying that HE should have gotten the job instead of Dubas. That would just be silly. You would have to be a pretty ridiculous person to suggest that that's what Ray meant...

 

[ruaware41]

Refs won't let leafs finish over Florida

 

[Green Snow Storm]

Save us all and lock this, please.

 

[Menzinger]

Not true.

The vast majority of "generational" players plateau by their 2nd or 3rd seasons. Yes. I know. I KNOW, that this is where you'll bring up the VERY rare exceptions (cough, MacKinnon) and pretend that they're rules.

But they aren't rules.

The vast majority of generational players have plateaued by AT LEAST season 4.

So if your argument is that Matthews isn't generational... then that's a whole different thing.

But our superstar players likely WON'T get better than this. This is it. This is the core. Likely at the VERY best they'll be (other than Tavares who, at almost 30, will clearly get worse as the years go by).

It's a problem.

The entire structure of this team is a problem.

The point i was getting at is the absurd notion that "if they havent won it by now, they never will" when talking about guys who are 22/23.

Players just starting their primes will have multiple attempts at a cup runs while performing at the best of their professional abilities....

 

[A1LeafNation]

I can't understand the mods thinking in this one. Dubas is doing a good job and been on the job 1.5 years.

JFJ got like 2004-2008.

Close it.