What's Next for The Maple Leafs?

Or is Burke doing this to put pressure on Boston do actually do a deal? Burke: "Hey, let's make a deal but if I need to, I'll make an offer sheet to get him... I'm ready with my picks." I'm sure Burke would rather hold onto the picks and not have to make extend and offer sheet. I'm sure Boston wouldn't blink though. "We'll take those picks thank you." Heh heh.

PKC wrote:Burke would literally have to be an idiot to offer Phil Kessel that much money this early on in his career. Just doesn't make sense for a Toronto. It would well make sense for a San Jose who have the picks, the money available and a team so good that the picks are going to be negligible anyways. But for Toronto, a team that might possibly finish in a lottery position again, to gift wrap a lottery pick for the Bruins would be very dumb. I guess we'll find out soon enough with training camp almost here.

CapGeek has SJ sitting with 857k available. I agree with the other points, but SJ isn't in a position to sign ANYONE right now, particularly someone that should get a nice raise on this contract.

spader wrote:

PKC wrote:Burke would literally have to be an idiot to offer Phil Kessel that much money this early on in his career. Just doesn't make sense for a Toronto. It would well make sense for a San Jose who have the picks, the money available and a team so good that the picks are going to be negligible anyways. But for Toronto, a team that might possibly finish in a lottery position again, to gift wrap a lottery pick for the Bruins would be very dumb. I guess we'll find out soon enough with training camp almost here.

CapGeek has SJ sitting with 857k available. I agree with the other points, but SJ isn't in a position to sign ANYONE right now, particularly someone that should get a nice raise on this contract.

They could move some money if they absolutely had to. I mean they could clear Cheechoo's money off the decks if they absolutely wanted to.

TSN's 30 teams in 30 days analyzes the Leafs...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=290185

Who is going to score goals??... Will the puck ever see the other end of the ice?

mattshock wrote:Who is going to score goals??... Will the puck ever see the other end of the ice?

Tyler Bozak, rookie of the year

mattshock wrote:Who is going to score goals??... Will the puck ever see the other end of the ice?

Grabovski and Hagman are good for 30+ while Poni K and Blake are good for 20. Add in and average 10 apiece from the other 8 forwards + 30 from the defense and you're already in the 210 range as a conservative estimate. If they get even 35 from the 1st two + 25 from the 2nd two + an extra 15 from the rest of the regs + 5 from callups, thats 250 - well within respectability.

cas wrote:

mattshock wrote:Who is going to score goals??... Will the puck ever see the other end of the ice?

Grabovski and Hagman are good for 30+ while Poni K and Blake are good for 20. Add in and average 10 apiece from the other 8 forwards + 30 from the defense and you're already in the 210 range as a conservative estimate. If they get even 35 from the 1st two + 25 from the 2nd two + an extra 15 from the rest of the regs + 5 from callups, thats 250 - well within respectability.

Grabovski's more of a playmaker than a goalscorer. I think they're hoping for Kulemin to score more this season.

That said, you have to anticipate that if the Leafs are serious about implementing a defensive system (at all), many of the forwards' numbers will go down from this season. Plus, they lost Kubina who is pretty good offensively.

Adding Kessel makes a lot of sense for them because they don't really have anyone who can carry an offence for them. Just a lot of second/third line scorers.

hemlock wrote:Damnit, why can't we have any RFAs that someone wanted to poach for $6 million per.

We did - he signed a 7 year contract 2 year ago

asq2 wrote:

cas wrote:

mattshock wrote:Who is going to score goals??... Will the puck ever see the other end of the ice?

Grabovski and Hagman are good for 30+ while Poni K and Blake are good for 20. Add in and average 10 apiece from the other 8 forwards + 30 from the defense and you're already in the 210 range as a conservative estimate. If they get even 35 from the 1st two + 25 from the 2nd two + an extra 15 from the rest of the regs + 5 from callups, thats 250 - well within respectability.

Grabovski's more of a playmaker than a goalscorer. I think they're hoping for Kulemin to score more this season.

That said, you have to anticipate that if the Leafs are serious about implementing a defensive system (at all), many of the forwards' numbers will go down from this season. Plus, they lost Kubina who is pretty good offensively.

Adding Kessel makes a lot of sense for them because they don't really have anyone who can carry an offence for them. Just a lot of second/third line scorers.

:??: I see... Still you'd expect him to put up 20+ this season which puts the Leafs realistically within 200-240 goals. If they top 220 and lower their ga to somewhere in the 26-270 range, they could be a bubble team.
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That same defensive system got Cheechoo 56 goals, so we'll see if it really hurts their numbers that much.

Interesting post from the6thsens today. Here are the highlights:

-Bruce Garrioche said Kessel is an unrestricted free agent

- Brian Burke (the lawyer) did a good job of keeping his options open - In discussing the Penner signing, he said:

"I have no problem with offer sheets," Burke said, noting they are part of the NHL's collective bargaining agreement.

"If you can identify a player and pay him appropriately and make him an offer, that's fine. At some point, the deals you make, the offers you extend, whether the team matches it or not, impacts all 30 teams, including your own."

"Edmonton has offered a mostly inflated salary for a player, and I think it's an act of desperation for a general manager who is fighting to keep his job,"

http://www.the6thsens.com/2009-articles/september/rfa-offer-sheet.html

So apparently most of us were wrong to criticize his apparent attempts at going after Kessel as hypocritical.

If Garrioch said Kessel's a UFA, that is incorrect. Kessel is an RFA.

Indeed

cas wrote:

asq2 wrote:

cas wrote:

mattshock wrote:Who is going to score goals??... Will the puck ever see the other end of the ice?

Grabovski and Hagman are good for 30+ while Poni K and Blake are good for 20. Add in and average 10 apiece from the other 8 forwards + 30 from the defense and you're already in the 210 range as a conservative estimate. If they get even 35 from the 1st two + 25 from the 2nd two + an extra 15 from the rest of the regs + 5 from callups, thats 250 - well within respectability.

Grabovski's more of a playmaker than a goalscorer. I think they're hoping for Kulemin to score more this season.

That said, you have to anticipate that if the Leafs are serious about implementing a defensive system (at all), many of the forwards' numbers will go down from this season. Plus, they lost Kubina who is pretty good offensively.

Adding Kessel makes a lot of sense for them because they don't really have anyone who can carry an offence for them. Just a lot of second/third line scorers.

I see... Still you'd expect him to put up 20+ this season which puts the Leafs realistically within 200-240 goals. If they top 220 and lower their ga to somewhere in the 26-270 range, they could be a bubble team.
---
That same defensive system got Cheechoo 56 goals, so we'll see if it really hurts their numbers that much.

What I was trying to say is that Wilson did not have the Leafs playing a lick of defence this past season, and I think that inflated the team's numbers offensively (but obviously, they weren't great in the goals against category).

If they're still going to try to implement a run and gun system, they made completely counter-productive modifications to their blue-line this past off-season. This leads me to suspect that they're going to clamp it down a bit, which should lead to a decrease in scoring.

I still like how the team is set up for the future, but I have a hard time imagining they're going to be defensively honest and still score nearly as much as they did last season.

Wilson is going to instruct his boys to mash the opposition to a pulp.

asq2 wrote:

cas wrote:

asq2 wrote:

cas wrote:

mattshock wrote:Who is going to score goals??... Will the puck ever see the other end of the ice?

Grabovski and Hagman are good for 30+ while Poni K and Blake are good for 20. Add in and average 10 apiece from the other 8 forwards + 30 from the defense and you're already in the 210 range as a conservative estimate. If they get even 35 from the 1st two + 25 from the 2nd two + an extra 15 from the rest of the regs + 5 from callups, thats 250 - well within respectability.

Grabovski's more of a playmaker than a goalscorer. I think they're hoping for Kulemin to score more this season.

That said, you have to anticipate that if the Leafs are serious about implementing a defensive system (at all), many of the forwards' numbers will go down from this season. Plus, they lost Kubina who is pretty good offensively.

Adding Kessel makes a lot of sense for them because they don't really have anyone who can carry an offence for them. Just a lot of second/third line scorers.

I see... Still you'd expect him to put up 20+ this season which puts the Leafs realistically within 200-240 goals. If they top 220 and lower their ga to somewhere in the 26-270 range, they could be a bubble team.
---
That same defensive system got Cheechoo 56 goals, so we'll see if it really hurts their numbers that much.

What I was trying to say is that Wilson did not have the Leafs playing a lick of defence this past season, and I think that inflated the team's numbers offensively (but obviously, they weren't great in the goals against category).

If they're still going to try to implement a run and gun system, they made completely counter-productive modifications to their blue-line this past off-season. This leads me to suspect that they're going to clamp it down a bit, which should lead to a decrease in scoring.

I still like how the team is set up for the future, but I have a hard time imagining they're going to be defensively honest and still score nearly as much as they did last season.

Fair enough. I'm sure you're right about that. Wilson now has reason to clamp down on other teams. Protecting the monster is the most important thing for that organization going forward.

davetherave wrote:Wilson is going to instruct his boys to mash the opposition to a pulp.

They'll be pretty good at that.

I don't know how good they'll be at the combination of stopping their opponents from scoring and scoring themselves. I think it's going to be a choice to be good at one or the other.

asq2 wrote:

davetherave wrote:Wilson is going to instruct his boys to mash the opposition to a pulp.

They'll be pretty good at that.

I don't know how good they'll be at the combination of stopping their opponents from scoring and scoring themselves. I think it's going to be a choice to be good at one or the other.

I would say teams playing the Maple Leafs will be various shades of blue (and black) when they leave Toronto.

It's the Conn Smythe philosophy.