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leafs88
Joined: Apr. 2017
Posts: 35
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5:
older forsure.
but the core..not really...
...d-core rielly 24, ekblad 22, with travis dermott 21, stil have liljegren in ahl, and even schenn (who is massively underrated) is only 28. ya keith is old, but still has elite speed and brings vet savvy and grit.
o-core matthews 20, marner 21, kadri 27, kapanen 21, brown and hyman 24 and 25. lawson crouse is 20 and theres good ahl players and of course every draft we draft new young guys.
is the team older? ya obv when you add a 34 yr old d-man and a 38 yr old c then your team gets a lot older. also adding ladd, hartnell, kovy makes team older. frankly team was so young that adding schenn (28) makes team older. why is older worse tho? or why is younger better. as the older players skills decline, thornton shifts down to 4th line c. spezzas on a 1 yr deal anyhow, as is hartnell. as kovys legs get older he becomes a 3rd liner. but at the same time, kapanen is ready to be a 2nd liner, in 3 yrs keith may be a 3rd pairing d-man, but at that time dermott may be a 2 or 1b type d-man. etc and etc.
4:
martin is a very diff player from schenn and hartnell. hartnell can be a bit of a darcy tucker. maybe a poor man's gary roberts or a rich man's corson. martin is no more than an enforcer and great locker room guy. schenn is a good d-man who skates well for his size and plays a safe game and is an intimidating presence in front of the net and in the corners. someone who wouldn't be pleasant to go up against in a 7 game series (unlike zaitzev). i think of schenn if using old leafs teams again as analogy, a bit like a yushkevich type. again, he is not comparable to matt martin who plays a diff position and doesn't contribute outside of enforcer and locker room.
3:
why both spezza and thornton. a-never enough centers. b-spezza on 1 yr deal and would be best 4th liner in nhl lol. c-both remain excellent on the pp. d-why 3 yrs for joe? cause as he recently said he "bleeds teal' and will want to stay in san jose (hey that rhymes). how to get him to bleed blue and white and come over here to join pat marleau? by giving him 3 yrs. how to make it work from our end? by making the cost not prohibitive, so ya 1 yr at 8 mill is better. but 3 yrs at about 5 works, cause the first yr of the deal hes an excellent 3rd line c, giving us matthews kadri and joe 1-3 is excellent, he wins faceoffs and contributes all over the ice making eveyrone better. year 2 of the deal he hopefully will provide same type of bang for buck, but as his skills decline, he can move to 4th line center and simply be an overpaid 4th line c who is excellent in the faceoff circle. and yes he'll be overpaid, but not 8 million overpaid, only 5 million overpaid. and after a year like that his deal is done and retires anyways. so 3 yr term is not prohibitive as long as cost is okay.
2:
i'd rather have ladd than martin and zaitsev. ladd is a 2 time cup winner. former team captain. scored 24 goals as recently as the season before last. don't get me wrong hes not connor mcdavid. but hes a heck of a lot better than matt martin or zaitsev. in addition hes paid less. so the deal adds a veteran 2 time cup winning former team captain who is more than capable of 20 goals, and is a bonafide net front presence on the power play, while saving about 1.5 million in cap space.
1:
i think that package does get ekblad alone. keep in mind that, ignoring a disastrous game 7 against boston, gardiners reg season was a 52 pt season, following a 43 pt season the yr before. both seasons was a plus player, plus 23 and plus 9. hes signed to a very team friendly 4.05 million dollar deal. ekblad is paid 7.5 mill signed for another like 7 years. has never had a 40 pt season and at points last yr was losing ice time to matheson. and oh ya, the deal isn't gardiner for ekblad lol. its gardiner and willie nylander. you know the 22 yr old phenom who just put together back to back sixty point seasons. i think a package of nylander with gardner can get you ekblad plus more.
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