Ideas from the Athletic

Created by: blowing_the_zone

Team: 2018-19 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 5, 2018

Published: Aug. 7, 2018

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Legend

Left Handed

Original Team

Waivers Exempt

Right Handed

Position

Trade Clause

Max Perf. Bonus

Expiry Status

Term Remaining

McDavid, Connor

$12,500,000 ( Performance Bonus

$250,000)

NMC

UFA - 5

Description

Threw together this roster based off a few recent articles from the Athletic.

1. Apparently my eye test has been accurate. Turns out that based on advanced stats (albiet based on a small sample size) that Josh Leivo is pretty damn good. Good enough to be in the top 9, and given the chance he's a likely candidate for a breakout season.

2. They made a great case for the leafs going with 3 c and 7 d. It gives JT, Matthews and Kadri the ice time they need, keeps a top flight center on the ice at all times and creates interesting options to address the D in-house. It also allows for Nylander to take the odd shift at C and keeps Lindholm and Ennis as press box depth options.

3. It also turns out that the leafs might already have their 1RD. Reilly has experience there and based on a good sized sample, when he's paired with Gardiner on the left they've been a top 5 d pairing in the NHL. Also, based on his first half season, Dermot is good. Like, really good. And he proved that while spending most of his time playing with Polack. He might be just what Zaitsev needs in a partner in order to have a bounce back season. Finally, based on the advanced stats, Hainsey should really be used as a bottom pairing guy and pk specialist. That leaves one of Carrick, Holl or Oz in the press box with the other two getting limited minutes and pk time.

I think they're all interesting and well supported ideas that the Athletic puts forward. And it works well with the cap this year, allowing performance bonuses to be paid out and Horton to be on the opening night roster, which is important for next year's cap, as Palhal does well to remind us.

Will this happen? I doubt it. But I'd love to see them try it. What do you think?

Free Agent Signings

RFA		YEARS	CAP HIT
Nylander, William		6	$6,500,000

UFA		YEARS	CAP HIT
Bonus, Performance		1	$5,400,000

Buyouts

Mikhail Grabovski: $0

Retained Salary Transactions

Phil Kessel: $1,200,000 (15%)

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2019
2020
2021

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
25	$79,500,000	$79,008,333	$2,550,000	$5,400,000	$491,667

Roster

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Hyman, Zach $2,250,000$2,250,000 RW, LW UFA - 3	Tavares, John $11,000,000$11,000,000 C, LW NMC UFA - 7	Marner, Mitchell $894,167$894,167 ($850,000$850K) RW UFA - 1
Leivo, Josh $925,000$925,000 RW, LW UFA - 1	Matthews, Auston $925,000$925,000 ($2,850,000$3M) C UFA - 1	Nylander, William $6,500,000$6,500,000 RW UFA - 6
Marleau, Patrick $6,250,000$6,250,000 LW, C NMC UFA - 2	Kadri, Nazem $4,500,000$4,500,000 C M-NTC UFA - 4	Brown, Connor $2,100,000$2,100,000 RW, LW UFA - 2
Johnsson, Andreas $787,500$787,500 LW, RW UFA - 1		Kapanen, Kasperi $863,333$863,333 RW UFA - 1
Ennis, Tyler $650,000$650,000 LW, RW UFA - 1		Lindholm, Pär $925,000$925,000 ($850,000$850K) LW, C UFA - 1
		Horton, Nathan $5,300,000$5,300,000 RW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 2

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Gardiner, Jake $4,050,000$4,050,000 LD UFA - 1	Rielly, Morgan $5,000,000$5,000,000 LD UFA - 4	Andersen, Frederik $5,000,000$5,000,000 G M-NTC UFA - 3
Dermott, Travis $863,333$863,333 LD/RD UFA - 2	Zaitsev, Nikita $4,500,000$4,500,000 RD UFA - 6	Sparks, Garret $675,000$675,000 G UFA - 1
Hainsey, Ron $3,000,000$3,000,000 RD M-NTC UFA - 1	Ozhiganov, Igor $925,000$925,000 ($850,000$850K) RD UFA - 1	Bonus, Performance $5,400,000$5,400,000
	Carrick, Connor $1,300,000$1,300,000 RD UFA - 1
	Holl, Justin $675,000$675,000 RD UFA - 2

Special Teams

Power Play 1
Johnsson, A.		Tavares, J.		Kadri, N.
	Rielly, M.		Marner, M.

Power Play 2
Leivo, J.		Matthews, A.		Marleau, P.
	Gardiner, J.		Nylander, W.

Penalty Kill 1
	Hyman, Z.	Brown, C.
	Hainsey, R.	Zaitsev, N.

Penalty Kill 2
	Johnsson, A.	Kapanen, K.
	Dermott, T.	Ozhiganov, I.

Top Comments

Aug. 7, 2018 at 10:22 a.m.

Goldendelicious

Joined: Jun. 2018

Posts: 665

Likes: 173

On point #2...can people get off this idea already? This is all anybody wants to talk about and it isn't going to work. It's like the whole sign JT to a 1 year max and then 8 long term. Another stupid idea proposed that people are taking way too far. You really think the Leafs are going to be a better hockey team running all three centres 20+ minutes a game, playing all situations? These guys would be fried in the second half of the season. It may happen for a game or 2 because of an in-game injury but there is no way an NHL is going to run this line combo continuously.

Herms17 liked this.

Aug. 7, 2018 at 10:42 a.m.

Herms17

Pass it to Lucic

Joined: Apr. 2018

Posts: 1,392

Likes: 467

Quoting: Goldendelicious

Personally I hope they do this. I want the Leafs to be burnt out by Feb.

Aug. 7, 2018 at 10:42 a.m.

blowing_the_zone

Joined: May 2018

Posts: 2,132

Likes: 1,540

I don't know, last I checked 60/3 = 20, not 20 plus. And factor in pks (which matthews and kadri dont do, and JT might not as a leaf), throw in the odd shift for Willy at C and you're probably looking at 20 for JT (less than his usual atoi) 19 for Matthews (which is far from over kill) and maybe 18 for kadri (which isn't much of an increase). But you're probably right, as you articulated so elegantly and thoughtfully, it's stupid .. those people at the Athletic are real idiots I guess?! Lol. Ease up man! This fake gm game is just for fun. Babcock and Dubas aren't going over these threads looking for insights..

Aug. 7, 2018 at 10:55 a.m.

Goldendelicious

Joined: Jun. 2018

Posts: 665

Likes: 173

Quoting: leafy_business

Its been thrown around far too often that people think its actually a possibility.

Aug. 7, 2018 at 11:54 a.m.

palhal

LongtimeLeafsufferer

Joined: Jul. 2015

Posts: 59,926

Likes: 22,913

Kinda strange how so many folks don't think the Leafs have four NHL Dmen and now they want to play seven in a game.
Playing seven Dmen a game really isn't an advantage over six. What I would like the Leafs to do thought is to half more of game rotation of their bottom two or three guys so they all get ice time during the season. It creates a hole when a play sits for three weeks and then has to play because a player is injured. Hard to get up to NHL speed that way.

GenXHockey liked this.

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