With Muzzin being out potentially for the rest of his contract, I would explore Soucy as a replacement

Pittsburgh last time took 2 good runs at him. I notice Keefe HS him whenever he sees a team full on target him. He did the same with Boston which was pretty smart as a certain someone was just trying to board people. Probs will see him for NJ or Buffalo game.

He's not doing Robertson any favors by doing this. Really not a fan of how Keefe deals with rookie skaters.

In hindsight being scratched for one game here and there wont do much. Like if we look at the Wild they are straight up wasting Rossi who is playing in games but doing nothing.

I find whenever he gets scratched and comes back he performs better. As in Vancouver he has a few good shifts but also made some questionable choices

Keefe has no time to baby sit and so Robertson is gonna learn in every game he plays and has to show he can keep that full time spot. Wont be easy but hes been good whenever he played so he should just keep it up. Now if he was healthy scratched 5-6 games in a row for no reason yes you could go wait why. Dont want the kid to suffer another leg injury thanks to someone running him over then be out for 4-5months

Soucy is mainly a 3rd pair LD. Kraken finally realized this and put him down with Borgen which has improved his numbers

He really would not be a good Muzzin replacement

I thought about Mike Rielly but we all know if Dubas wanted him he would have claimed him.

Kulikov is just a straight up no as hes a 3rd pairing guy were gonna have to overpay for to get

Either go to Chicago and try and trade for McCabe or Murphy, call Nashville about Ekholm (McDonagh to old and that contract to rich), or wait for a certain someone from Arziona to get healthy and see how he does. Gonna be tough as Ottawa is also looking for a Dman

He was not able to claim him since they are at 50/50 SPC.

I’m not sure you know who Kulikov is.

Hopefully he is back quick

Kulikov on a good team is a third pair guy but not what I call a proper solution. Feels like he would just be a waste of a pick to trade for. His playoff serious against the blues was also a big turn off for going and getting him

Toronto should explore getting a proper guy for the top 4 like Murphy or McCabe. McCabe to me is perfect as he can play both sides and 2 years ago was a monster for the Sabers.

https://twitter.com/jfreshhockey/status/1420444564964487174

Both be intriguing options

McCabe's recent injury is my only concern. But either way both have potential

So based on Dubas comments

Sandin and Liligren will get bigger roles so im guessing Sandin gonna get another chance at top 4

If they adapt and fill in well for Muzzin no need to go add. If they struggle (Sandin's case again) or if the Dcore looks meh to bad we see a Dman trade in December thats my guess

Not interested in reilly with his contract. Kulikov might be something but thats very depth d kind of thing.

They've waived him twice - doubt they'd have a problem trading him in division.

LD is the wrong spot to be looking anyway, imo.

It kind of depends.

Sandin when he got top 4 during that awful pacific roadtrip basically got burned. Gio is to old for top 4 so we were forced to go with Brodie-Holl which worked for a bit then 2 games ago died.

If Sandin cant adapt (again) and if Rielly-Liligren stops working a LD trade might need to be explored

i.e.

Rielly-Brodie
McCabe-Liligren
Gio-Sandin

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/lightning/2022/11/11/lightning-defense-zach-bogosian-cal-foote-philippe-myers-haydn-fleury/

A Zach Bogosian reunion wouldnt be the worst thing

Cal Foote 👀

Tampa wont move him they probs are more likely to move Bogosian

Hedman-Cole
Sergechev-Myers
Fleury-Peribex
Foote

Did not think they were that close 5 on 5 last year. Keep it up Liligren

I'm not convinced Sandin can (atm play top 4 minutes, he hasn't earned that and I'm especially weary of just handing that to him) this season and well... next season is next year's problem.

I agree with you that the Leafs need a proper solution on RD and not a third pair guy playing higher up or getting an LD and asking him to play RD.

To me it depends. I will give him a little break as he did have Holl as a partner during that original struggle. Maybe pairing him with Brodie or a new RD (i.e. Murphy, Larsson, etc) would produce better results. As they would in a sense ease the load and allow for him to just settle in.

As when he was paired with better guys like Bogo, Lybushkin, and Brodie last year he did look pretty good.

We asked we begged for Marner and Matthews to be split up and man look at the results

Kerfoot-Tavares-Marner almost feels like 2019-2020's Hyman-Tavares-Marner

In general if the forward lines can get going and we start seeing working combinations (i.e. ZAR-Kampf-Malgin) then that can ease the need to go k we 100% need a scoring top 6 Forward

And then the focus can for sure be shifted to D

Now that does not mean dont go looking for a forward but now there isnt a need to break the bank for one

Marner and Tavares just work. Never split them up. Now if only Matthews remembers how dominant he can be this team will really take off.

Keep em together till it doesnt then put them back with their former partners. As we all know its a weird formula that works

It really isn’t, Nylander and Matthews play with pace while Tavares and Marner like to slow it down and work bellow the dots. Babcock was wrong on a lot of things but not this.

Sure maybe the odd mid-game adjustment if there is nothing going but going forward this should be it

Man Sandin has been rough this season

This is the 7th time this season alone hes done that kind of stupid turnover play in his own zone that resulted in an easy goal for the opposition and hes on his strong side.

Hopefully wont have to start calling him the Muffin Man as this is getting ridiculous.