***Official 07-08 Toronto Maple Leafs Thread*** - Page 13

Triumph36 · #**121** 11-05-2007, 02:56 PM

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hossa isn't signed through next year. kaberle is on a long-term deal (with a no-trade afaik).

wouldn't be surprised if this comes to nothing.

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True, but even if he was a rental and it did happen, getting his and Sundin's contracts off the books would be sweeeeeeeeeet.

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uh, no.

next year's free agent market sucks and will get worse as the season goes on. heatley's already off the market. hossa will be the biggest name.

kaberle is a top 10 D in the NHL - more valuable than marian hossa, who will be overpriced without a doubt. if heatley got 7, he will want 8 to 8.5.

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I would only consider Kaberle to be a top 10 dman if you include how much of a bargain his contract is (only 4 mill a year).

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Name 10 defensemen better than him, quickly. Chris Pronger, Nicklas Lidstrom, uhhh - then it starts to get hazy. If Kaberle isn't top 10, he's tied for a lot of guys with 11th or 12th. And that contract is fantastic - I thought he'd signed for a lot more than that.

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The leafs roster is such a mangled mess. They keep getting stuck with players that are too old, but still get paid a lot. I mean, I think Blakes a v. good player and 4mill/yr isn't that bad, but 5 years? he's not going to age like sundin. he's too small. he's gonna lose a step and belong on the 3rd line for the last 2 yrs of that contract. Mccabe and Kubina are bad. I doubt they can unload either of them, which means the leafs D is gonna suck for a while. They also do boneheaded things like resign "fan favorite" darcy tucker.

On the bright side, the leafs do have some young players who are stepping it up. I think ponikarovsky is underrated, antropov out of nowhere has been playing like a young eric lindros, wellwood is good (too pass happy but good), and stajan and steen are solid players.

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I think Blake will age reasonably well, but there will come a point where he is a -EV player. The good thing about the length of that contract is that the Leafs could buy him out fairly easily - to buy out the final year would be only 1.3 million over 2 years.

Giving McCabe a no-movement clause was beyond dumb, and Bryan is not a great defender, and will age terribly. Same with Kubina. But resigning Tucker was an absolute no-brainer (did you see how many goals he scored last year?). Antropov has always had this kind of talent, and the Leafs have got a reasonable stable of young players. They're not headed towards a Stanley Cup, but they're not heading towards 2006 Flyers-type implosion either.

4thstreetpete · #**122** 11-05-2007, 06:40 PM

Just got back from work, any big news yet?

Are we getting Hossa or what? I'm getting aroused just thinking about it. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

stealthcow · #**123** 11-06-2007, 04:26 PM

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But resigning Tucker was an absolute no-brainer (did you see how many goals he scored last year?). Antropov has always had this kind of talent, and the Leafs have got a reasonable stable of young players. They're not headed towards a Stanley Cup, but they're not heading towards 2006 Flyers-type implosion either.

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totally disagree with the tucker/ antropov comments.

how many leafs games have you seen over the past 3 yrs? i'm gonna guess less then 10. Antropov was the worst skater on the leafs, always seemed out of position and had no hands. he was considered a huge bust. this year is a complete transition- ive never seen a player improve as much as he has.

tucker scored a lot of power play goals on unit with sundin, mccabe and kaberle. I'm sorry, but he's horrible at even strength, he takes way too many dumb penalties, and all of his goals on the power play were tap ins- he'd be easily replaceable.

Triumph36 · #**124** 11-06-2007, 04:41 PM

Tucker is an energy type of player and a leader. I hate him, and while he did get a ton of tap-in type goals, he's signed at a tap-in type salary too.

Antropov was considered a huge bust by fools - first of all, that draft was not very good and Antropov is one of the best players who came out of it regardless of what happened this season. He's played out of his mind so far this season, but expecting him to put in a 25-40-65 type of season at some point during his career wouldn't've been unexpected.

vin17 · #**125** 11-07-2007, 01:49 PM

It's time to ride this thing into the ground. Hard.

Now is the time to get a good return on Sundin while his value is at its highest. As hard as it'll be (and I'll be rooting whatever contender he goes to), this is the first step of a long road to changing the culture of the team and perennial contention, a la Detroit.

The ball's in MLSE's court.

Triumph36 · #**126** 11-07-2007, 01:58 PM

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It's time to ride this thing into the ground. Hard.

Now is the time to get a good return on Sundin while his value is at its highest. As hard as it'll be (and I'll be rooting whatever contender he goes to), this is the first step of a long road to changing the culture of the team and perennial contention, a la Detroit.

The ball's in MLSE's court.

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No one's got the cap room for this at this point in the season.

The Leafs are in 9th place. They're not trading anything. There's no reason to sell anything off.

vin17 · #**127** 11-07-2007, 02:39 PM

Sorry, for a second there I forgot how fun mediocrity is.

vin17 · #**128** 11-07-2007, 02:47 PM

Is a one year deal that much of a hassle to play with, in terms of taking on a prorated $5.5m salary while exhanging a player with say a contract of 2.5 or less? (obviously picks would be be incl. and it would vary by each team's salary structure).

Also, when you say there's no reason to sell anything off, can you please mention whose perspective you're talking from as well as what you see for this franchise moving forward.

Scotty_12 · #**129** 11-11-2007, 03:33 AM

Toronto needs a second NHL team.

Paying $400 to get [censored] tickets to games, buying them from people who only have them because they know demand is insane and they will make a big profit pisses me off.

Triumph36 · #**130** 11-11-2007, 04:23 AM

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Is a one year deal that much of a hassle to play with, in terms of taking on a prorated $5.5m salary while exhanging a player with say a contract of 2.5 or less? (obviously picks would be be incl. and it would vary by each team's salary structure).

Also, when you say there's no reason to sell anything off, can you please mention whose perspective you're talking from as well as what you see for this franchise moving forward.

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I'm not a Leafs fan. However, I don't think it is in Toronto's best interest to sell players - there is no market for them right now. The market opens up in February, and if the Leafs are out of it, perhaps they should sell. But again, they've not got much to sell that's not on a long-term deal. And it's not like they've got much in terms of prospects ready to step in, either.