TOR right now is a minor version of the NYR.
They got a little roughed up by Boston some time ago, and they have been hell bent on weighing down the team with moves like this.
I could only imagine how bad it would have been if they got roughed up by Wilson.

Objectively Ritchie is not more than a bottom 6 player and honestly on a lot of teams I don't even think he'd get a roster spot.
But what kills this for TOR is he's a square peg in a round hole.
You are never going to play fast with Ritchie. He's an anchor on the bottom 6 getting away from what the team identity use to be.
At least this year it wasn't the horrible mistake of running out there and signing any old "grit" guy they could find. They have so far spared themselves of the embarrassment of rolling out old Joe and talking him up even though he couldn't skate.

But as long as this team continues this way, they ain't winning ****. They'll be luck to get out the 1st round.
All the lines have to work together. Same system. So you got 1/2 the team in the top 2 lines that want to use their speed and fly up the ice. Now you got 2 lines on the bottom 6 that frankly are gonna be burdened with guys who aren't very good skaters.

Given that Ritchie's QO would've been even less, this is too much. But it's not worth complaining about; let's see how he does in TOR.

Hall never was going to happen. Bertuzzi isn't a superstar but is very good. And yes the leafs could have gotten higher impact players in a trade if cap went out. I'm content though

They can scratch all the tweeners

He's not McCann. But Ritchie is a very good addition to Toronto. Specially for such contract.

New 4th line create; of all this years UFA's....Ritchie/Kampf/Kase.

$6.5 million on 4th liners. when you add Engvall.

But Leaf fans will say they're good additions worthy of filling 6 top roles.

Looking forward to the Leafs 100 year celebration of the last Cup Win.

I think it's actually their 3rd line

Kerfoot/Robertson/Spezza would be my 3rd line guess.

Bunting/Matthews/Marner
Mikhey/J.T./Nylander
Robertson/Kerfoot/Spezza
Ritchie/Kampf/Kase
Engvall/Brooks/Simmonds

3 Questions:

1. Are the Leafs done making moves, aside from a minor trade or signing?
2. Is this roster better than last season's roster?
3. Did they address their shortfalls?

Good deal if he doesn't take too many dumb penalties.

not too bad of a signing a bit much tho at least he can stay healthy like what he did playing for the bruins playing all the games even in the playoffs too

I am no longer fine with this.

For all those folks who said this was a "W" did the W stand for waivers? because that's where he is today.

Still better than that Foligno signing

As man 3.8 mill for the next 2 years... yeah would still rather have Ritchie even if hes on waivers than that awful deal lul

No one is talking about Foligno but way to try and deflect

There’s no denying this is a bad signing in hindsight, but it is better than the Foligno signing and because you didn’t acknowledge this, you’re deflecting too. Lol

Like for real

They gave him 3.8mill cause he said some nice things about a Boston hospital

No need to check his stats nah, that compliment made him worth every penny in the Gm's mind

While in his head hes going

Man was that easy

Engvall is so streaky. Honestly if he got his act together he would be a solid third line guy getting 20 points a season. But he goes hot and cold and when he goes cold its mind blowing how bad or quiet he is.

I feel Ritchie given a long conditioning stint with the Marlies could come back swinging if hes not claimed or dealt at the deadline. As we have seen him do good from time to time but mostly hes just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Honestly the best was when he was on PP unit 1 as that seemed to be where he was most comfortable.

That fight in response to an injury that wasn’t Perry’s fault


Don Cherry approved!

I was surprised he dropped and not Simmonds.

Apparently he didnt see the hit only the aftermath which was why he went after Perry

Anyways nobody's fault freak accident

And good thing Cherry is gone as man that guy had a backwards mind for modern hockey

Should’ve retired half a decade ago

Hes still useful but not worth 3.8mill...

Like 750k to 1.5mill is what he should have got. As hes mostly a defensive specialist now

I was suggesting 2.5mill x 1 year to be generous but even that would have been to much

True

Oh Folgino is 100% overpaid, but if he's not producing he's at least still playing a heavy hitting game and willing to drop the gloves if need be. Can't say the same for Ritchie. We also didn't sign Foligno to be anything more than a 3rd liner, whereas Toronto signed Ritchie and played him in the Top 6. Not to mention Ritchie had a QO of $2 million, was non-tender and Dubas went out and gave him more than his QO for an extra year.

I guess it could have been worse though and we could have traded a 1st rounder for Foligno. Instead he only cost slightly more cap space then I'd like, but at least he's still contributing to the big club.