Marlies have lost quite a bit of depth over the last 2 days. Here's what the roster looks like right now:

Abruzzese - Shaw - Ellis
Hirvonen - Tverberg - Steeves
Ovchinnikov - Blandisi - Voit
Slaggert - Kressler - Cruikshank

Lagesson - Niemela
Rifai - Villeneuve
Lajoie - Miller

Interested to watch and see if Treliving believes in the 3 tier system as much as Dubas did.

Tough to compare Liljegren and Klingberg at 5v5 over the last couple years and argue that the better choice wouldn't have been to just increase Liljegren's role

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/playercompare.php?fromseason=20212022&thruseason=20222023&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&stdoi=std&rate=n&p1=8475906&p2=8480043&loc=B&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single

Not sure how to upload as an image, I'm not tech savvy at all lmao.

Although 42 points (0.30 ppg) is better than 33 points (0.26 ppg), I think Lilly looks better on those stats (or at least no enough of a difference to warrant an extra Million - let alone $2.5M more).


John Klingberg Timothy Liljegren
109 Giveaways 70
26 Takeaways 27
108 Hits 164

I would have thought this was the year we got to see a Top 4 Liljegren but alas

Supposedly Bertuzzi looking for 5-7 years at north of 5m... Has had his share of injury troubles which is concerning, but that's not that bad for a legit top 6 forward that brings an element that you lack, especially with the expected cap increase

This team is still in limbo until the do something with Murray

Don't know why they haven't yet...

Probably browsing the trade market before falling back on buying him out during the second buyout window. I think the expectation is to take Samsonov to arbitration to open that window. You can be over the cap in the offseason, so theres no real rush to make something happen.

A trade is what I expected and idk why they haven't been able to pull one off yet.

I'd say there is a bit of a rush, because if you back yourself into a corner you're gonna get bent over a table in trade discussions.

Sure but teams can exceed the cap limit by 10% in the summer, it’s not a ton

For sure, there is a real concern there will be no chairs left once the music stops

What I would do is give him 5.25m x 7 years this will entice him to want to come. Last 2 maybe 3 years will suck but by then cap will be at 100mill so u can like with that.

Option 2 is make a deal with CGY. They are looking to unload some cap so talk to them about Dube

Rn they got 5.3m so they can give Sammy 4m and have 1.2m to go after someone on a 1 year deal (Yamamoto, Bailey, Gurianov, Boqvist, Comtois, etc) but if they move Murray that goes to 10.8 which if u give money to get Bertuzzi at 5, Sammy at 4 and a 1mill wing mentioned above. Also the possibility of a big trade

In hindsight, it looks like the Leafs would have been better just sitting on the sidelines for the first few days and then start bargain hunting when the holidays are over.

I see Leafs have spent 83 million right now, with shenanigans on Murray they have his salary to spend.
That's it.

They don't have 5.25 for Bertuzzi, would be lucky to get Samsonov resigned.

Leafs can use Muzzin's cap to go over as hes not coming back. Rn they have 5.3mill in reserves so as I said above 4mill for Sammy + 1.3 mill for a forward

If they move Murray or he goes to LTIR and send Robertson down it goes to 10.8 which if u do the math can give Bertuzzi 5.25m + Samsonov 4mill + 2 league min forwards or 1 1.55mill forward heck they move Timmins they can add another 1mill forward.

Lots of options rn

If I understand this right, Leafs have spent $83,056,450 for next year.
$443,550 available.
Assuming Muzzin on LTIR (safe assumption), it goes up to $6,068,550 available.
If Murray on LTIR (maybe a bit shakier assumption), it goes up to $10,756,050 available.

Subtract off Samsonov ($4M ?)
Leafs have $6.5M available. If they play around with sending Waivers Exempt players down, They could squeeze out an additional $1.6M.

Its a big more complicated but rn they have 5.3mill to spend (4mill on Sammy and 1.3m on a forward) and this is with Murray. If they buyout Murray that climbs to around 9.6mill. If they move that entire deal and move Robertson down they got 10.8mill

Now we also have Timmins who also could be sent down/moved giving them 12mill in cap. So there are countless options

Holy s***. Brad did the one thing Dubas couldnt

He got the white whale

One year for Bertuzzi? I mean I'll take it for sure depending on the number, but I thought he wanted term, and based on the reported ask I would've been okay giving it to him.

I am so stoked that it's only 1 year. Doesn't interfere with Matthews / Nylander extensions, avoids committing to a guy with some unfortunate injury history, and allows us to negotiate a contract with a higher cap ceiling. This is such a huge W it's not even funny

Assuming both Matthews and Nylander get ~2 mil raises, Brodie coming off of the books accommodates for that, effectively giving us at least an extra 1 mil to negotiate with Bertuzzi

I think its smart for both sides. As rn we know there's gonna be a cap jump but as to how much who knows

Could be as low as 4 to as high as 8.5

If Bertuzzi sucks Toronto dont got to panic about it but if he does well he can cash out later on a bigger deal

Murray meet LTIR...LTIR Meet Murray

Why would you want that when you could lock him down for term right now and reap the rewards of the cap increase? The injury history is the only reason I'd be hesitant to hand out term, but that's not gonna change a year from now. Would've happily done it at his reported ask right now.

It's a gamble I'd be willing to take, but you do not want to mess around with big money when Matthews is on the line