John Tavares completely changed their course and it’s hard to say it was for the better. Staying the course would have left them with Nazem Kadri at 4.5M performing as one of the best #2 centremen in the league which leaves more than enough to sign Pietrangelo, a player and position they ACTUALLY NEED... but instead, they paid $11M for a player to be their #2 which changed Kadri’s role, then a year later trade Kadri for pennies on the dollar.
The incompetence is laughable. No, nobody predicted the pandemic or flat cap, but you can’t put yourself in such a tight spot.
How many 10+ million dollars does fellow Atlantic division team the Tampa Bay lightning have? What about Atlantic Division rival Boston Bruins? The perfection line costs less than 25M - the Bolts have the best d man, top 3 winger and top 10 centre whose a PPG Selke candidate for less than 25M.
.... the Leafs top 3 make 33M with zero playoff wins and no major hardware.
These overpayments prevent them from building a contending bottom 6 and will likely cost them their starting goalie and best defenseman within the next 3 years as well, and that Tavares contract is going to be ugly when he’s still making $11M at 34-35 years old.
Kadri was the only one who was pushing back while the rest of the team looked scared. I’ll take 12 Kadri’s in the playoffs over 12 John Tavares’. Oddly enough the Bruins had discipline problems with Marchard early, as did the Captials with Tom Wilson. Thankfully for those teams, they had far more intelligent management who didn’t make an emotional decision... Both players ended up playing instrumental roles in a Stanley Cup win.
HOF’er Joe Sakic jumped at the opportunity to add a player like that (he looked great in the playoffs this year) ... and this was after Kadri nixed a deal to Calgary when former NHL defenseman Brad Treliving was looking to acquire him.
Kadri is a guy you want in the trenches with you... but it’s hard for Dubas and many Leaf fans to grasp when they’ve never been there Go look at Marner-Kadri duo that played about half a season in Marner’s second year. (Year Marner was taken off Bozak-JVR line, spent time on 4th line etc) That was Marner’s first extended stretch of PPG while Kadri was exceptional in his own right.
Kadri was back to back 30 goal scorer as 2C behind Matthews and net front on PP1... for 4.5M. Is Tavares better than Kadri? Sure. Is he more than double the player? Not even close.
Dubas was like a kid with his parents credit card with no thoughts of next month or next year... Had he thought it through he might have realized they had holes to fill and Tavares was a luxury they couldn’t afford. The money could have gone to Pietrangelo this year, a player they actually needed.
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
____-Kadri-Marner
Muzzin-Pietrangelo
Rielly-
That core is better AND cheaper, allowing more budget for bottom 6 fwds and bottom 3 defenseman.
The focus should be on versatile two-way forward to fill out the roster like Anthony Cirelli, Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow, Pat Maroon etc... Instead, Dubas targets useless water bugs like small Jimmy Vesey, or washed up offensive players like Thornton, Spezza, and Simmonds.
This will be funny when Leaf fans think they’re underachieving again without considering this is what happens when you try to put your Xbox team on the ice in real life.There is no easier money betting against the Leafs in the playoffs. That’s IF they manage to make it this year.
You did not answer his question. Which defenseman would you rather have Toronto gone after?
Anyone other than Barrie. When we acquired Barrie, Avs fans warned us that he was not the defensemen you need. Barrie is an offensive defensemen when we needed someone like Jake Muzzin.
kadri getting traded because his suspensions is a ittle overblown imo, kadri helped get a rhd with half cap hit, didnt work out, list can go on of all gms making bad trades but because its dubas hes in the spotlight, truth be told, debrusk should have been gone before it anyway for that knee on knee
The question is, if Tavares wanted to play for his home town team, you take a home town discount that is not putting you over the cap. What Tavares asked for and earned does not make you a leader but more of a greedy individual. I could care less if he left $2 million on the table, MacKinnon could be earning $10 million or more but he thought of his team first. Those are players you want on your team, not greedy ones.
You need to actually check facts. Mackinnon had 53 points when he signed that contract. By comparison, Nylander had 61 point when he signed his contract. By your arguements Mackinnon was "greedy".
Anyone other than Barrie. When we acquired Barrie, Avs fans warned us that he was not the defensemen you need. Barrie is an offensive defensemen when we needed someone like Jake Muzzin.
true, we should've just traded wheelchair bound johnsson and bracco for colton parayko half retained, silly dubas why didn't you make that trade
Anyone other than Barrie. When we acquired Barrie, Avs fans warned us that he was not the defensemen you need
Alright so here in lies the problem with talking to you.
You **** about Barrie and yet you can't name anyone in the league who you'd rather see on the Leafs blueline. The discussion can't go forward because you'd rather sulk about losing Kadri for Barrie.
Alright so here in lies the problem with talking to you.
You **** about Barrie and yet you can't name anyone in the league who you'd rather see on the Leafs blueline. The discussion can't go forward because you'd rather sulk about losing Kadri for Barrie.
Want a name? Alec Martinez, and he would have not cost a Kadri.
Alright so here in lies the problem with talking to you.
You **** about Barrie and yet you can't name anyone in the league who you'd rather see on the Leafs blueline. The discussion can't go forward because you'd rather sulk about losing Kadri for Barrie.
people forget that dubas didn't even want barrie at first, he wanted TJ brodie.
kadri's final act as a leaf was inconveniencing the team, invoking his M-NTC and forcing barrie on us instead
but, we got kerfoot (better than jankowski) and brodie anyways, so imo massive W for dubas
Want a name? Alec Martinez, and he would have not cost a Kadri.
so if we trade for martinez instead of barrie, we're stuck with him for the 20-21 season instead of being able to acquire brodie
martinez might have been better than barrie, but remember, martinez wasn't traded until the deadline, and they also weren't offering a replacement 3C either, he went for a couple draft picks
trading kadri had 2 criteria (1) get a 1D rental who we can resign, (2) get a replacement 3C
so if we trade for martinez instead of barrie, we're stuck with him for the 20-21 season instead of being able to acquire brodie
martinez might have been better than barrie, but remember, martinez wasn't traded until the deadline, and they also weren't offering a replacement 3C either, he went for a couple draft picks
I'm sure we can acquire Brodie if we never overpaid for Holl, freeing up $2 million, and trading one of Johnsson or Kapanen
What do you believe his value was in the 2019 offseason?
I'm looking for an actual answer. "Not Kadri" isn't something you can trade. You mentioned Johnsson and Kapanen earlier. Also remember at the time of the trade, Toronto did not have their 2020 first round pick.
What do you believe his value was in the 2019 offseason?
I'm looking for an actual answer. "Not Kadri" isn't something you can trade. You mentioned Johnsson and Kapanen earlier. Also remember at the time of the trade, Toronto did not have their 2020 first round pick.
Like I can pull a trade out of my ***, but definitely not worth Kadri.
riddle me this. if the leafs don't sign JT, matthews misses games, nylander misses half the year on a contract holdout, and marleau/brown/kadri don't have career years - the leafs likely miss the playoffs.
the next year they dump zaitsev, sign kappy/johnsson and don't trade for barrie because they don't have anybody who is blatantly expendable like kadri was. they likely miss the playoffs or have very middling or mediocre success in the reg. season and likely have a first round exit
why is pietrangelo coming to toronto in that case?
Exactly. The Pietro over Tavares argument is flawed because the times are different.
mackinnon didnt take a discount, he took what he could get because he was nowhere close to being worth 10
Yes he did. He was on a 60 point pace as a 20 YO - mackinnon didn’t have to sign for 7 years, it was clear he was going to get better and outperform his contract.
Exactly. The Pietro over Tavares argument is flawed because the times are different.
The times are different? You never replace Kadri with Tavares, freeing up $6 million in cap space. You win with Kadri's on your team, not Tavares'. Name one team in the salary cap era that had three $10 million players and won a cup. I will be waiting.
Miles_Togo liked this.
Robertson,
Reply
CapFriendly
CapFriendly