What If Toronto Drafted McDavid

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Created by: AnalyticsGeek

Team: 2020-21 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 28, 2020

Published: Aug. 29, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Description

I'm making this post just for fun, but hese are the moves I would've had Toronto won the draft lottery in 2015 and picked McDavid. I'd make sure to tank another year to guarantee Matthews and build a dynasty from there. All the top players take less money to help the team win.

Free Agent Signings

RFA		YEARS	CAP HIT
Rodrigues, Evan		1	$950,000
Mikheyev, Ilya		2	$1,750,000

UFA		YEARS	CAP HIT
Spezza, Jason		1	$700,000
Williams, Justin		1	$700,000

CREATED	YEARS	CAP HIT
Ellis, Ryan	6	$6,250,000
Tavares, John	6	$10,000,000
Matthews, Auston	2	$9,500,000
McDavid, Connor	5	$10,500,000
Stamkos, Steven	5	$8,500,000
Kyrou, Jordan	2	$925,000
Rubstov, German	2	$925,000
Larsson, Jacob	2	$925,000
Chlapik, Filip	1	$925,000
Cousins, Nick	2	$1,750,000

Trades

TOR

Connor McDavid

EDM

*Drafted 1st Overall In 2015

TOR

2015 1st Round Pick

ANA

Jonathan Bernier

*Done At 2015 Draft

TOR

Eric Gryba
2015 2nd Round Pick

OTT

Dion Phaneuf

*Done At 2015 Draft

TOR

2016 1st Round Pick

PHI

James Van Riemsdyk

Dion Phaneuf

*Done At 2015 Offseason

TOR

2016 2nd Round Pick

STL

Tyler Bozak

*Done At 2015 Offseason

TOR

Rob Flick
Cody Bass
Pierre-Luc Letorneau-Leblanc
Zack Stortini
Tom Sestito
Steve Oleksy
Frazer McLaren
Zach Sill
Matt Bartkowski
Mike McKenna
Matt Hackett

VGK

*All Signed As Free Agents In 2015 To 1 Year Deals

TOR

2016 4th Round Pick

SJS

James Reimer

*Done At 2015 Offseason

TOR

Steven Stamkos

TBL

*Signed As Free Agent 2016

TOR

CAR

Nylander, William

Additional Details:

*Done During 2018 Offseason

10.

TOR

Ryan Ellis

NSH

Nazem Kadri
Travis Dermott
2020 1st Round Pick

*Done During 2018 Offseason

11.

TOR

2022 2nd Round Pick
2023 2nd Round Pick

EDM

Connor Brown
Andreas Johnsson

*Done During 2020 Offseason

12.

TOR

Ritchie, Nick ($700,000 retained)

BOS

Bracco, Jeremy [RFA Rights]
Gauthier, Frédérik [RFA Rights]

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
2020
2021
2022

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
23	$81,500,000	$81,055,592	$0	$1,120,000	$444,408

Roster

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Matthews, Auston $9,500,000$9,500,000	McDavid, Connor $10,500,000$10,500,000	Hyman, Zach $2,250,000$2,250,000 RW, LW M-NTC UFA - 1
Stamkos, Steven $8,500,000$8,500,000	Tavares, John $10,000,000$10,000,000	Necas, Martin $863,333$863,333 ($537,500$538K) RW RFA - 2
Robertson, Nicholas $821,667$821,667 LW, RW RFA - 4	Cousins, Nick $1,750,000$1,750,000	Mikheyev, Ilya $1,750,000$1,750,000 LW, RW UFA - 2
Ritchie, Nick $798,925$798,925 LW UFA - 1	Hållander, Filip $764,167$764,167 ($182,500$182K) C RFA - 3	Rodrigues, Evan $950,000$950,000 LW, C UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Rielly, Morgan $5,000,000$5,000,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 2	Ellis, Ryan $6,250,000$6,250,000	Andersen, Frederik $5,000,000$5,000,000 G M-NTC UFA - 1
Muzzin, Jake $5,625,000$5,625,000 LD NMC UFA - 4	Pesce, Brett $4,025,000$4,025,000 RD UFA - 4	Campbell, Jack $1,650,000$1,650,000 G UFA - 2
Sandin, Rasmus $894,167$894,167 LD UFA - 2	Liljegren, Timothy $863,333$863,333 ($400,000$400K) RD RFA - 2

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
Spezza, Jason $700,000$700,000 C, RW UFA - 1		Kerfoot, Alexander $3,500,000$3,500,000 LW, C, RW UFA - 3
Williams, Justin $700,000$700,000 RW UFA		Holl, Justin $2,000,000$2,000,000 RD M-NTC UFA - 3
Marincin, Martin $700,000$700,000 LD UFA - 1		Tavares, John $11,000,000$11,000,000 C, LW NMC UFA - 5
		Matthews, Auston $11,640,250$11,640,250 C UFA - 4
		Marner, Mitchell $10,903,000$10,903,000 RW UFA - 5
		Engvall, Pierre $1,250,000$1,250,000 RW, LW UFA - 2
		Johnsson, Andreas $3,400,000$3,400,000 LW, RW UFA - 3

Special Teams

Power Play 1
Stamkos, S.		Tavares, J.		Matthews, A.
	Ellis, R.		McDavid, C.

Power Play 2
Necas, M.		Hållander, F.		Robertson, N.
	Spezza, J.		Rielly, M.

Penalty Kill 1
	Hållander, F.	Hyman, Z.
	Muzzin, J.	Ellis, R.

Penalty Kill 2
	Kerfoot, A.	Rodrigues, E.
	Rielly, M.	Pesce, B.

Aug. 29, 2020 at 5:20 p.m.

#26

AnalyticsGeek

Thread Starter

Banned

Joined: Sep. 2019

Posts: 5,011

Likes: 1,636

Quoting: BuFfaLOFaN

If u got McDavid you would not get Matthews as well.

Quoting: arafay

I think they are at least contenders, though u don’t get Matthews if you got mcdavid the year before imo. There’s no way you finish last with mcdavid

Maybe they wouldn’t have won the draft lottery the following year, but IMO they would’ve been at least bad enough to finish bottom 4 & get someone like Tkachuk. The team below would’ve the potential roster for 2015/16 based on my moves:

Quoting: MitchMarnerElite

Holland - Kadri - Komarov
Clune - McDavid - Brown
McLaren - Sill - Bass
Sestito - Flick - Storini

Rielly - Gardiner
Marincin - Polak
Bartkowski - Gryba

McKenna
Hackett

Aug. 29, 2020 at 5:21 p.m.

#27

AnalyticsGeek

Thread Starter

Banned

Joined: Sep. 2019

Posts: 5,011

Likes: 1,636

Quoting: Alfie11

Top 6 forwards and top 4 D are absolutely lethal, but you have to ride them hard. Kerfoot and maybe Ritchie are the only bottom 6 forwards I’d trust with more than 5 minutes a night in a playoff game, and I don’t trust that bottom pair much either (I saw someone mention swapping Sandin/Muzzin, that would let me trust all 3 pairs more, then go back to these D pairs for the 3rd period or whatever). I think they’re definitely contenders, and probably win more often than not because McDavid, but yeah I have some issues with the depth. Hard to see a flaw in a top 6 containing 4 1st overall picks that are elite 1Cs though lol

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I agree, the bottom 6 forwards are a little weak but everything else looks good!

Aug. 29, 2020 at 5:22 p.m.

#28

AnalyticsGeek

Thread Starter

Banned

Joined: Sep. 2019

Posts: 5,011

Likes: 1,636

Quoting: exo2769

BUT what if Matthews went to the #2C? He's a better center than JT...IMO. You can take that cap and fill out the rest of the team...no?

Yeah I guess you could use Tavares’ 10 Million in cap space to keep guys like Mikheyev, Kapanen, Johnsson & Brown who are much better depth pieces than what I currently have.

Aug. 29, 2020 at 5:44 p.m.

#29

justaBoss

What in tarnation

Joined: Oct. 2017

Posts: 32,709

Likes: 31,449

Had TOR been able to draft McDavid in June 2015, the big Kessel trade that happened Jul 1st of that said year probably wouldn't have ever occured.

Part of the reason why it happened was because they had drafted good RWs like Nylander and Marner, and as they wanted to tank for Matthews, that wouldn't have been the case after drafting McDavid.

BuFfaLOFaN liked this.

Aug. 29, 2020 at 9:00 p.m.

#30

BuFfaLOFaN

Joined: Jul. 2019

Posts: 9,507

Likes: 6,514

Quoting: MitchMarnerElite

what if McDavid hadn't got injured? He would have had 90 points

Aug. 29, 2020 at 9:02 p.m.

#31

BuFfaLOFaN

Joined: Jul. 2019

Posts: 9,507

Likes: 6,514

Quoting: Kukas26

Hall (2010), RNH (2011), Yakupov (2012), McDavid (2015)......

Ikr, imagine if they had actually drafted the best player in the draft

Aug. 29, 2020 at 9:46 p.m.

#32

ZachHymanForTheHart

Trad Breliving

Joined: Jul. 2020

Posts: 3,492

Likes: 1,989

Quoting: BuFfaLOFaN

Ikr, imagine if they had actually drafted the best player in the draft

They would be a dynasty

Aug. 29, 2020 at 10:32 p.m.

#33

BuFfaLOFaN

Joined: Jul. 2019

Posts: 9,507

Likes: 6,514

Quoting: Kukas26

They would be a dynasty

Yup

Aug. 30, 2020 at 2:42 p.m.

#34

AnalyticsGeek

Thread Starter

Banned

Joined: Sep. 2019

Posts: 5,011

Likes: 1,636

Quoting: justaBoss

Yep that could've been a possibility for sure.

Aug. 31, 2020 at 12:08 p.m.

#35

Lenny7

Joined: Jan. 2017

Posts: 13,291

Likes: 11,051

Strong squad, very good D. Curious of how the depth would look when Stamkos inevitably goes down, or 1-2 guys on D get hurt.

Aug. 31, 2020 at 1:14 p.m.

#36

KoneDome

Joined: Jun. 2015

Posts: 806

Likes: 142

And somehow Marincin is still on the team...

Aug. 31, 2020 at 4:46 p.m.

#37

dzmets

Joined: Apr. 2020

Posts: 2,711

Likes: 1,053

Quoting: aadoyle

yeah but the pick would have been top 4 so Tchuck, Dubois, Sergechev,Chycrun, McAVOY all possibilities

Also Puuljarvi, Alex Nylander no way to know who they would have taken

Sep. 1, 2020 at 8:52 a.m.

#38

McRanteskog

RETIRED

Joined: Apr. 2019

Posts: 4,846

Likes: 2,481

too many variables to say they win the cup.
stamkos healthy?
3rd paring D both rookies a good idea?
Both 6F still too thin

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