travel_dude

I have moved on from Kadri. He makes us a contender, but I would hate the contract. Dvorak is the Backlund of the future or the new 2C. MTL lost Petry so Hanifin or Kylington or Valimaki would help them. The latter two more than Hanifin. If it costs Hanifin, we still have surplus D. Hanifin is a bit of a softie; at least the other guys are somewhat willing to hit (Mackey, Valimaki, Kyl). Statsny is still productive, so I think he gets over $3M still. Raffl would be cheap, but more like Lewis for scoring. He's tough for his size. Get him to play against Tkachuk.

I just think we are not tapping the potential of Mange. Backlund gives him transition chances, but mostly starts in the D-zone. Coleman is a great fit with Backlund, so we are sacrificing offense on that line for backchecking. I think Mangiapane has the speed to keep up with Huie and Lindy. Might not be suited for RW though. My ideal lineup has a 2C with Toffee and a playmaker. Backlund pure shutdown, and if Dube is suited use him. If not, use him to get a C or RW. Right now, too many LHS on Backlund's line.

There were some family tweets where they were pumped to have him back in Canada. I don't think playing in Canada, anywhere, would be a big issue.

Seeing as Ekblad was only making $7.5M as a young guy, I don't think his expectations were ever $9M. $7.5M is reasonable and the low end of a top 2 guy. I would be interested in signing him to 7 years (we can't do 8, right?) since that would take him to the end basically. Might cut down the overall cost a bit that way.

It's a little worrisome that he hasn't embraced the team yet. Still time. Big shock expecting a contract offer and getting a trade call instead. If we are not going to be able to re-sign him, I hope we get better offers than we did for Tkachuk. NJ and NYI are still looking for big fish. NJ would have to start with Hischier. No Bratt for Huberdeau talk please.

50% retained is better than a buyout, but not by a lot. I could see a trade with DET or Buffalo. Close to home at least. And he gets to play Johnny a bit more that way.

I almost think that CBJ is a target for Monahan. They have Jenner out on IR. We could retain salary and it would boost Johnny's spirits. He may not really want to go there, but the team would give him their support. Lucic is in the half season realm now. He can't just be here to tune people up. We can find an internal option to that for less than $5M. Or even a trade for a puncher. Heck, trade him to BOS to finish his career there. They could use him.

If I was Toronto, this would be the start of making the D younger. Muzzin is 33 and making slightly more than Hanifin. Gio is 38. Muzzin also has an injury history that took him out for half the season. They probably could get a decent return for him. Saying all that, it's just a rumor from a dubious source.

I am streaming it (paused) to listen later. Hope it works.

Dube may be suited for top line, but Sutter may not think so. He has way more time for Mangiapane in all situations. It's the reality. I'm not sure it works to have Mangiapane with Hubie, but he needs a playmaker. Right now, he is our 2nd highest scoring F, depending on Hubie's output. I would be comfortable with a 2nd scoring line if we had a 2C. Toffoli on the RW, left wing not sure, maybe Pelletier could work as the playmaker. That leaves Backlund as the 3C with Coleman (LW) and Dube or other on RW. 4th line with no Lucic or Monahan leaves us an option on LW. Both players have limited trade value, but should be looked at. I think we have to use Weeger as top 2 D. We pick Hanifin or Kylington to pair up with Tanev and trade the leftover. Meloche is not talked about but should be solid. We also need to pick one of Mackey or Valimaki and trade the other. Either will get claimed off the wire. Can't lose valuable players for nothing like that.

I forgot about Rooney. If we can replace Lucic with a LW that can score, then we have fixed the line perhaps. Monahan really should be traded because right now, Rozie is a better skater and capable of scoring. We trade Lucic and Monahan and we get back some of the $11M spent on a 4th line.

I have been saying that a 4th line that gets its head kicked in is one of the issues we need to address. Lucic-Monahan-Lewis or Lucic-Lewis-Ritchie was a problem. Little scoring and limited skating. The 3rd line with Dube-Jarnkrok/Rozie-Toffoli or some combo wasn't scoring much. The other thing is that having only one scoring line and a shutdown line doesn't make sense. Getting a 2C pushes down some of the talent and possibly takes out the usage of Lucic. Maybe it's time for Lucic to move on or retire. I'm starting to doubt Monahan can fit if he isn't top 6. We need to decide if Dube can be a scoring F or more like Coleman. If we can use one of the extra D and Dube to get a 2C, then we are down a RW. Unfortunately, until we see what's available for what we have to offer, it's hard to figure out. Rozie could be a 2nd scoring line C, but not top 6 minutes. Pelletier could be a playmake on that line. But that's putting a lot on them in the middle 6. If they were part of the 4h line then we have the opportunity to get more scoring on the 2nd line. Give up some of the toughness, but the D does a lot of that.

Ugly rumor if Nylander for Hanifin going around. LouCifer will LoSe it if true.

I think Weeger re-signing is a no-brainer for both sides. Canadian and not so beholding to FLA. Should get it done and move on. Concentrate on the big fish and making the team better to match him.

The soup of two seasons. First half, MVP for Leafs. 2nd half, lost the net a few times and was not that good in some playoff games. And the Leafs had a really good D and some players actually played 200 foot games. Considering that Nurse is their best D. And they rave about Bouch but he's like a Nurse without any defensive ability. Ceci was like Guddy was for us. Quiet and good overall. They enjoyed the new coach bump. Sure played like crap in al lot of games they were luck to win. They can't afford to lose Pooly and they don't want to trade him for little value. Foegele is crap that can skate. Yammer disappears when hitting gets rough. Nuge is like Tkachuk with Johnny. PP specialist that can tap in loose pucks. No grit. Smith has to be injured enough to go on IR or retire. The latter saves cap but takes away LTIR. Skinner as a backup is an unknown quantity. Equal win/loss against mostly lesser teams. Oops, should have saved this for Oilers thread. .

Here's what BT said about the trade timeline... "Go back to last week, and I believe it was Sunday - Saturday or Sunday - I had a conversation with Craig Oster, who is from Newport Sports and represents Matthew and had an additional call with Matthew. At that time, they informed me that Matthew did not have an appetite and would not sign with our team, with the Calgary Flames, long-term. He outlined the reasons for this. He very much enjoyed his time here, and I'll let him speak towards that, but ultimately made the decision and informed us that being a Calgary Flame long-term was not in his plans." "At that particular time, Craig and I worked through a process over the next 24 hours to try to facilitate a trade and try to do that in an expedited fashion. We then took the step on Monday of filing for salary arbitration and (with that) process, there's been a lot of inaccurate reporting. That process really was to extend the time period for us to make a deal with Matthew. If you look back at deals with this significance over the recent past, there's been anywhere from a year to seven months to complete a transaction of manner. We tried to do something in a very short period of time. The filing allowed us to move the time period from taking his qualifier on Friday to a to a to be determined date of a salary arbitration." "We then had a list of teams that Craig had provided to us through Matthew, that he would be open to at that particular time, signing a long-term contract. Obviously, I think everybody understands that the challenges of trading a player in a one-year contract. To maximize return, teams that would like to get Matthew signed to a longer term contract. We were given a limited group of teams to deal with. And in some ways, you know, Matthew, whether he chose to sign with a particular team, could have put us in a more difficult situation. For instance, if we were only allowed one team to deal with. I appreciate both Matthew and Craig's willingness to work with us." "We got underway on that process on Monday, spoke with teams, worked this processes as best we possibly could. Early on in the process, when we had an opportunity or we felt we had an opportunity to look at the types of players and the impact players that we were able to to get a deal done with, which was Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and the future pick, that became clearly a path we tried to go down there, early in the process. So that's really a synopsis of the last week."

The other thing is that he was a big reason why they were plus whatever. Keeping the puck outa the net. Allowing these two to play 100% on offense and not worry about turnovers. Tkachuk was fine once we got back, but I can't remember seeing him block a shot. Mouthguard chewers are not thinking about dropping in front of a shot.

I'm not happy with losing a player like that for nuthin. It riles me, but at the end of the day we might have regretted signng him even last year. He could have just been a 80 point guy but career years occur when you are not worried about a deal. The real stud on that line was the guy that let them play catch and score sometimes meaningless goals. It shhould have been clear last summer, before the NTC kicked in, that he wasn't signing. Not for what we should have paid him then. Trade him and get something for him. The playoffs have been obvious that we need more than just him and Tkachuk. I didn't like Tkachuk when we drafted him, and was worried he would be a problem. He was in many ways. I enjoyed him being a thorn in the side of others, but the pre-stories before the rematches were dumb. Always ended up being a nothing burger. And we usually lost and really didn't show up. I am okay in moving on. As long as we do something to lock these guys up. I don't care about the term. 7 years and he should still be something. GIve him the $$ up front. Weeger is even less of a concern to me. We don't have any D making more than $5M. We don't have a true number 1.

Yes, some crazy high number of hits per 60 or per game.

Don't really need Stone now and yes, he could still sign here and get waived. Have a couple other guys as it is. MTL is going nowhere right now. If they wanted to, we could take on Hoffman and Dvorak for Valimaki and Lucic at 50% cap. Fans would love him. He's there to protect the kids. They have nobody tough left other than Josh, who really needs to avoid fighting. Pezetta? He gets ragdolled. Yes, it's a hard sell to Lucic. It's a cap dump for MTL and getting out of multi year contracts.

Some indecision on his part when he signed the last extension. Gio was the voice of the team and MT may have been a little frustrated with all the talk and little action. Stick flip, having to turtle. He was willing to fight for his mates but until this year, nobody was sticking up for him. Too little too late there. Rebuild is fine if you get enough pieces early on that are the best in a decade. Is anyone like that coming up in the next 3 years of drafting? Bedard is 5'9". He's the presumptive #1. A rebuild starting this summer puts us 5 years in a competetive team building process, assuming we get the top picks right.

I don't think Sutter will try to change his game. There is too much right with it. HE hits more than Johnny. He's less likely to drop pass to nobody. Finding the right winger for him is crucial. Not sure Toffoli is the right guy, but he seemed to be better at rush shots than the way we were using him. Mangiapane can create but would have to be on the off wing. I think it would be usefull to bring in a C/W like Rodriguez and a C like Dvorak. The we have two scoring lines and can use Backlund as a defensive 3rd line with Coleman and other maybe Dube.

I would be inquiring with MTL about Dvorak. They seem to lack D, so maybe Valimaki gets the talk started.

Three pages about the player and most of it seems to be the player walking, trading him for a return more or less than Tkachuk brought back, how losing Guadreau sets us back 100 points, how he is going to MTL, etc. We don't have to sign him day one for this to be a win. We have Lindholm sitting back thinking he will get an extra hundered chances to score and Mangiapane drooling about being set up in the slot. Other teams' fans are pissed. They never expected Hubie to be available. They hoped we would get a lesser player back in the deal. Some are glad in the west not to see Tkachuk being a Richard against their top players. But instead now they have to face a player that wasn't riding on someone's coattails.