I am sorry to keep bringing up the elephant in the room.

This team has no heart. They are chokers in the games that really matter.

Kadri can be frustrating but he plays with heart and is a total team guy.

How do you improve a team when you take character out of the dressing room.

If anything I thought Dubas would be looking to add some character this off season.
- spatso

We heard you the first 50 times.. and I see you still haven't learned the definition of character over night.

Yes he played with heart in certain moments but I wouldn't see he is very characteristic lol. He made a few boneheaded plays when the games actually mattered, how is that having character?

I liked Kadri from day one and it's tough to see him traded, but that's business so what can you do.. the only upside he had for the Leafs at this point was being on a good contract.

Go worry about what the Sens are doing with their roster

People still oh so salty about Tavares, frantically spinning the acquisition as a negative. It's so tasty. Suddenly The Passion Of Kadri is so valuable. He got suspended two years in a row when the team needed him. He has value, but a lot of trolls are suddenly wearing the Kadri pyjamas. Love the salty butt hurt. Comedic gold. Go Leafs Go!

I am sorry to keep bringing up the elephant in the room.

This team has no heart. They are chokers in the games that really matter.

Kadri can be frustrating but he plays with heart and is a total team guy.

How do you improve a team when you take character out of the dressing room.

If anything I thought Dubas would be looking to add some character this off season.
- spatso

Kadri is probably reason number one why the Leafs lost that series. All of this character and heart you speak of really served the team well.

I am sorry to keep bringing up the elephant in the room.

This team has no heart. They are chokers in the games that really matter.

Kadri can be frustrating but he plays with heart and is a total team guy.

How do you improve a team when you take character out of the dressing room.

If anything I thought Dubas would be looking to add some character this off season.
- spatso

The elephant in the room is a guy who wakes up at 7:30 am to post on a hockey website about a team that he professes to not care about.

You know I love you, Spatsy.

It's time for you to step away for a little while.

Not much of an upgrade.

Zaitsev >>>> Ceci

Barrie and Gardiner are pretty close. Maybe slight edge to Barrie.

If you actually play Harpur, I’d honestly say your D is worse.
- sensarmy_11

you're only saying this because you haven't had to watch Marincin in his own zone.... Harpur may be bad... but its unlikely he's that bad... and Harpur plays with some physicality which Marincin simply cannot.

also, at the outset of the season Dermott is on the shelf injured... getting another defenseman who has a few games in the NHL isn't a bad thing.


the one BIG HUGE benefit of the Leafs acquiring Barrie... is that Dubas simply can't go get Jake Gardiner on any kind of friendly deal... that money doesn't exist - and Barrie represents the elusive (from a TML perspective) unicorn that is a RHD.

The elephant in the room is a guy who wakes up at 7:30 am to post on a hockey website about a team that he professes to not care about.

You know I love you, Spatsy.

It's time for you to step away for a little while.
- Atomic Wedgie

ah come on now Wedgie... give the guy the space to post about a team that at least will be in the NHL ....


Quebec Senators?
Quebec Nordiques v2
where do think the trainwreck that is the Kanata Senaturds ends up?

Really I said last year that the Leafs would regress having signed Tavares. He would put up good numbers for himself but overall team play would decline.

I said Tavares would put the Leafs into a world of CAP hurt this summer.

And, what part did I miss.

This is a soft team working at getting softer. Good regular season play. Powder puff in playoffs.
- spatso

Regress? Back to back years with 100pts.
Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Leafs would have a cap issue this year (thanks to Lou).
This powder puff team took the Eastern Conference champs to 7 games...and were up 3-2.
Your hate for the Leafs spews stupidity.

The elephant in the room is a guy who wakes up at 7:30 am to post on a hockey website about a team that he professes to not care about.

You know I love you, Spatsy.

It's time for you to step away for a little while.
- Atomic Wedgie

Well I spent many years as a Leaf fan. It still bothers me when they repeat the sins of the past. The Leafs (under Dubas) are busy becoming the the northern version of the Tampa Bay Lightening. High skill regular season hype. Lack of character and jam in the playoffs.

Signing Tavares was dumb, dumb and dumber. Now the team is being gutted to try and compensate for the contract imbalances.

Most of you know that I right and I understand how you struggle in facing the painful reality of what has actually happened. I was a strong believer in the Shanaplan. I thought Lamerillo did a great job in bringing the Leafs into the playoffs faster than anybody first imagined. I don't Dubas gets it.

you're only saying this because you haven't had to watch Marincin in his own zone.... Harpur may be bad... but its unlikely he's that bad... and Harpur plays with some physicality which Marincin simply cannot.

also, at the outset of the season Dermott is on the shelf injured... getting another defenseman who has a few games in the NHL isn't a bad thing.


the one BIG HUGE benefit of the Leafs acquiring Barrie... is that Dubas simply can't go get Jake Gardiner on any kind of friendly deal... that money doesn't exist - and Barrie represents the elusive (from a TML perspective) unicorn that is a RHD.


- BorjeFan4Ever

I agree I haven’t seen marincin play much, but if you think Harpur plays with even a shred of physicality, you clearly haven’t seen him play. People assume that because he’s big, he’s physical. Other than dropping the gloves a few times, he may have been the softest dman on our roster. Like Ceci is AWFUL, Harpur may be worse.

It just seems like a poop load of moves to really not improve your D very much, and your forward depth got worse.

I get that Dubas was handicapped by the cap, but he hasn’t really improved the team, and has set himself up for another cap disaster next year.

Do you look at contracts? He’ll be signing somewhere else next year. Toronto won’t have the money to extend him. They are going all in this season.
- Shuswap Wap

How do you know he'll sign elsewhere next year?
After Marner is signed...how many other major guys need to be signed? This year or next?

Regress? Back to back years with 100pts.
Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Leafs would have a cap issue this year (thanks to Lou).
This powder puff team took the Eastern Conference champs to 7 games...and were up 3-2.
Your hate for the Leafs spews stupidity.
- BoBBeR56

Duh! Dubas blew up the Leaf CAP when he signed Tavares and waved a red flag in Marner's face.

The Leafs are to hockey what the Knicks are to basketball.

After many years of bad play, awful defeats seasoned with heartbreaking chokes, the Leafs finally developed a nice roster. However, since Dubas replaced Lamarillo they seem to be sliding backwards. I on't think he understands what a team needs if they are going to win it all.

I assume the Leafs starting centres are Tavares, Matthews and Spezza. When you combine that with their softness on defence, you begin to wonder if Dubas has a hockey philosophy or is he just making it up as he bounces from deal to the next.
- spatso

Wow. Just wow. The stupidity coming form this post is mind blowing...
You realize some of the issues surrounding their cap is because of Lou correct? No, of course you don't. Leafs have lost Gardiner & Zaitsev on D, and gained Ceci and Barrie. Dubas at least has the balls, and has shown that he will go do something.

How do you know he'll sign elsewhere next year?
After Marner is signed...how many other major guys need to be signed? This year or next?
- BoBBeR56

Next year literally every dman on your team, other than Reilly, will need a new contract. Muzzin, Barrie and likely dermott will demand big raises. Next summer will be another case of cap hell

Duh! Dubas blew up the Leaf CAP when he signed Tavares and waved a red flag in Marner's face.
- spatso

Brutal that the Leafs signed one of the best FA's to ever hit the market. Can't believe he did that.
And as of today...there is lots of room to sign Marner.
So Dubas made it work with JT, Mathews, Marner and Nylander...like he said he would.

Next year literally every dman on your team, other than Reilly, will need a new contract. Muzzin, Barrie and likely dermott will demand big raises. Next summer will be another case of cap hell
- sensarmy_11

So you know what these guys are demanding a year ahead of time? And what the cap will go up to? Good to know.

Next year literally every dman on your team, other than Reilly, will need a new contract. Muzzin, Barrie and likely dermott will demand big raises. Next summer will be another case of cap hell
- sensarmy_11

Next summer will be the summer of the lockout.

Leafs can offer contracts with signing bonuses, so that players will get paid, no matter what.

It's a fiscal advantage that MLSEL can employ - that Eugene Melnyk won't.

Duh! Dubas blew up the Leaf CAP when he signed Tavares and waved a red flag in Marner's face.
- spatso

$6M to a 40 year old wasn't the problem. it was the 11 to a ppg player.

i wish you were the leafs gm

Next summer will be the summer of the lockout.

Leafs can offer contracts with signing bonuses, so that players will get paid, no matter what.

It's a fiscal advantage that MLSEL can employ - that Eugene Melnyk won't.
- Atomic Wedgie

i think this is the point that spatso is not able to comprehend and utilize in his thought process.

next summer we're moving in to a period of uncertainty; hard to say what is coming.

it'll be good to have flexibility going into next year.

Well I spent many years as a Leaf fan. It still bothers me when they repeat the sins of the past. The Leafs (under Dubas) are busy becoming the the northern version of the Tampa Bay Lightening. High skill regular season hype. Lack of character and jam in the playoffs.

Signing Tavares was dumb, dumb and dumber. Now the team is being gutted to try and compensate for the contract imbalances.

Most of you know that I right and I understand how you struggle in facing the painful reality of what has actually happened. I was a strong believer in the Shanaplan. I thought Lamerillo did a great job in bringing the Leafs into the playoffs faster than anybody first imagined. I don't Dubas gets it.
- spatso

To date, the Leafs have lost:

- Ron Hainsey: too old
- Calle Rosen: didn't play on the team last year
- Tyler Ennis: this was always the plan - he was to play one year for the Leafs at minimum. He can be replaced easily
- Igor Ozhiganov: so bad he is going back to the KHL
- Patrick Marleau: too old
- Nazim Kadri: a guy you keep stating has "character" - and conveniently forget has been thrown out of the last two playoffs
- Jake Gardiner: a polarizing figure, to be sure. But some are not sad to see him go.

Doesn't really sound like "gutting" to me. Sounds like they are keeping their core players, and shuffling around guys that don't really have an impact.

You want to talk gutting?

You may want to look at Ottawa's roster.

Next year literally every dman on your team, other than Reilly, will need a new contract. Muzzin, Barrie and likely dermott will demand big raises. Next summer will be another case of cap hell
- sensarmy_11

This is what happens with teams that are competitive. Will continue to happen and I wouldn't call it hell because they are still going to have a ton of talent on the team. They're just going to be tight to the cap.

The Leafs having a worse year than the on before had nothing to do with Tavares considering they basically had the same team, so while you're right in terms of the results, your reason why doesn't make sense. You're "right" by default.

In terms of being in "cap hell", again that's up for interpretation. Once they sign Marner they've kept all of their key pieces going forward. The cap exists, there's no way around it, it's up to the teams to move salaries around and if a team has a lot of good players, at some point teams have to make deals they don't want to. If the Leafs are in cap hell then so were the Sens when they couldn't afford to keep Stone and Karlsson, the Sens cap was just internal.

I'll give you the Marleau deal, but that's hardly "hell" they lost a 1st, which hurts but it doesn't affect the team very much going forward. In fact it allowed them to sign two key young players so it can be seen as a good move.

In regards to the Kadri deal, it also hurts but at the same time it addresses anobvious need. Who knows how it will work out but it's a deal that had to be done and had nothing to with the the cap. Kadri will be missed but Dubas was smart to move salary into a position of need.
- 13sundin13

Spatso... I'll have to agree with this guy. Of all the people here he provided a reasonable response with rationale. Not like that idiot tumbleweed and others...

Well I spent many years as a Leaf fan. It still bothers me when they repeat the sins of the past. The Leafs (under Dubas) are busy becoming the the northern version of the Tampa Bay Lightening. High skill regular season hype. Lack of character and jam in the playoffs.

Signing Tavares was dumb, dumb and dumber. Now the team is being gutted to try and compensate for the contract imbalances.

Most of you know that I right and I understand how you struggle in facing the painful reality of what has actually happened. I was a strong believer in the Shanaplan. I thought Lamerillo did a great job in bringing the Leafs into the playoffs faster than anybody first imagined. I don't Dubas gets it.
- spatso

lmao

the team is not being gutted just trimmed of pencilnecked losers like garbagener, brown trout and, hopefully, greedy willi. You could have him imo but i dont think that you even have the assets available for even this soft as slime liability

Spatso... I'll have to agree with this guy. Of all the people here he provided a reasonable response with rationale. Not like that idiot tumbleweed and others...
- kaptaan

babe, that time of the month for ya?

or dubas leaving the sens with this set you off?

To date, the Leafs have lost:

- Ron Hainsey: too old
- Calle Rosen: didn't play on the team last year
- Tyler Ennis: this was always the plan - he was to play one year for the Leafs at minimum. He can be replaced easily
- Igor Ozhiganov: so bad he is going back to the KHL
- Patrick Marleau: too old
- Nazim Kadri: a guy you keep stating has "character" - and conveniently forget has been thrown out of the last two playoffs
- Jake Gardiner: a polarizing figure, to be sure. But some are not sad to see him go.

Doesn't really sound like "gutting" to me. Sounds like they are keeping their core players, and shuffling around guys that don't really have an impact.

You want to talk gutting?

You may want to look at Ottawa's roster.
- Atomic Wedgie

(frank) rosen

he’s soft as slime

i AM happy for gunnarssen and blowzack for getting a cup anyway

Spatso... I'll have to agree with this guy. Of all the people here he provided a reasonable response with rationale. Not like that idiot tumbleweed and others...
- kaptaan

Yes, you are right the response is reasonable and if you give Dubas the benefit of a rookie year, perhaps I am being too hard on him.

Nevertheless, there is growing apprehension that the Leafs have topped out without ever having achieved any material post season success. Perhaps they moved too fast in wanting to achieve post season success. How does a team get themselves into a CAP nightmare without ever having won a playoff round?