Its really weird how everyone assumes kase is going to be hurt already

He is not a bad player just slow and poor defensively. If he makes the team and signs he should play on the 1st line

The amount of beers I drank when we traded for Gusev vs Gusev's last season with us is about the same

Agree with @ledge_and_dairy . Hes either in the top 6 or not playing.


Hot take but I think he will be a fine player for Toronto. He was really great his first year in jersey and played decent in Florida. Not sure what happened the first half of last year though

He's played 88 games over the last 3 seasons.

And by all accounts he's healthy and skating now. So he's not on ltir at the start of the season for no reason

Interesting that so many Leafs fans think Mennell is a 750,000 NHLer. While I hope they are correct, if he was don't you think other teams would have offered more than a conditional 7th rounder to obtain, the price the Leafs paid?

If he makes the team he's gonna need to be sheltered pretty good, similarly to galchenyuk so he's probably getting the 2LW slot with tavares to avoid the top guys going against matthews and then some decent power play time as a shooter.
Maybe even 3LW depending on what keefe wants to do with his bottom 6

People just put him on the roster because he isnt waivers exempt and paranoid that he's gonna be picked off if they send him down even though 100 guys like him paas through waivers every season

I think people forget that if a player is placed on waivers, the team claiming him has to keep him on their NHL roster in order to "keep" him. So, in this case Mennell has to be considered NHL "good" by his claiming team. Well if that is the case, maybe Mennell is an NHLer.
But you are correct, hundreds of players are available on waivers each season, and few are claimed. Seems to me on CF, Leaf fans have the most paranoia about a player being claimed.

It was a bad fit under coach Q un Florida. I think he would be a great fit on the top line though. The offense is there and Am34 and MM can cover for his defensive inabilities

He is healthy right now yes but he is prone to concussions in one of the worst sports for getting them

He's a legitimate NHL player and very solid offensively. He doesnt need sheltering, just cant be paired with other defensive liabilities like Nylander

Nylander isnt a defensive liability and tavares plays more gusevs pace.

And if he gets kne then sure, but it's doubtful to happen at camp or preseason and after that if gusev isn't signed he'll be somewhere else

Gusev signing for 750k or not is completely unrelated to Kase

If they dont have the cap room then he's gotta clear waivers. If case isnt on ltir they don't have the cap room

Wdym by "more Gusev's pace?" Gusev is not a fast skater and the last thing you want to do is pair him with other below average skaters. As for Nylander, that was harsh because I didn't want to go into detail, simply put he is not strong defensively

Nylander is fine defensively, he's very good at transition defence and simply average to meh at zone defence.
As gor gusevs pace, being able to play with a guy with the ability to slow the pace down while generating offence would help him keep in play and they would have nylander to break them out

Thats if you place him on Waivers, if you do and he gets claimed there is no loss at all. I imagine if he performs well at camp and signs the PTO you guys just place Brooks, Kurtis, and Engvall on waivers instead

But thats just it, would he sign if he knows hes going on waivers? I doubt it, he doesn't want to be in the ahl. He'll get an nhl deal somewhere with a spot or go to the khl

Marner is also very good at slowing the game down and same with Matthews, either way none of this is our decisions and just pure speculation. The coach chooses the lines

He was healthy and skating to start last season too....and we know how that turned out. Trust me, I hope he can finally put a fill season together. Sadly he doesn't have that track record and puts himself in vulnerable situations to get laid out.

Fair enough, but like I said if he performs well in camp he won't be put on waivers. Regardless of if he signs or not, baring a trade, Toronto pretty much has to submit a 21 man roster to start the season. Signing a guy a league minimum just changes pushes a 4th liner to the 13th spot and the 13th to waivers

Sure, they can do that, but slow has been tavares' game since day one. I just think he fits better there out of the top 2 lines. Ideally i run a sheltered scoring line with him kerfoot and case, but thats just me