Quoting: RipNasty
Dobson projects to be an offensive defenceman. He's worse defensively than Rielly and not as good offensively. He also was not good in the playoffs. We don't need him.
You don't understand how offense is created in today's NHL. You think a bunch of passengers from other teams will somehow dictate play for TO but they don't have those tools. The way Keefe's system works is they control the puck and get it into the offensive zone and keep it there working towards high danger chances.
Nylander is one of the best players at that in the entire game. I think he was something like 2nd only to McDavid for controlled zone entries and those increase for likelihood of scoring a goal by 100%. So let's get rid of that and become a dump and chase team that has no structure.
Swinging back to Liljegren, I am not at saying he's better than Dobson. Just saying Dobson isn't what TO needs. Their forwards are great but our defence still needs a bit of work. Personally I think we need 2 additions. One guy to play with Rielly, and one to play with Klingberg. Brodie could do either but if they moved him for someone more physical that's could be a decent idea although he's still one of the best defensive defenceman in the league. I also really don't like McCabe but as a 3rd pair guy he's fine at 2 million. Who they should get, I am not sure. I like the idea of Zadarov for the playoffs but he's worse defensively than Mccabe and neither are good enough to go up against top competition every night.
It's an interesting dilemma. Your plans create bigger issues than they solve though.
Lol yeah I just can't wrap my head around how offense is created but here's what I know:
- Nylander was 4th in scoring on the Leafs during these playoffs behind Marner, Matthews and Rielly.
- He was tied with Tavares and ROR for 5th in 5v5 points per game behind Knies, Marner, Matthews and Rielly.
- He scored 1 goal at 5v5 throughout the entire playoffs, the same amount as ROR, ZAR, Jarnkrok, Gustaffson, Kerfoot, Lafferty and Knies (with only Kerfoot and Jarnkrok playing as many games) and less than Marner (2), Tavares (3), Matthews (4) and Rielly (4).
- As is tradition, he was so bad defensively that he got demoted to the de facto 3rd line and given sheltered starts primarily in the O zone, yet still posted the worst goal differential of any forward on the team.
Outside of the Leafs:
Bertuzzi had 5G 5A 10PTS in 7 games
Compared to Willy:
4G 6A in 11 games.
Max Domi scored at a higher rate 5v5 over a longer duration of games (13 ES points in 19 games vs 6 in 11 for Nylander)
John Klingberg had a higher PPG 5v5 and otherwise with 1G 3A 4PTS in 4 games.
Now, of course Nylander just scored 40 goals and a PPG for the first time in his career. He ranked 20th in both goals and points as a result, and even lower if you factor in games played,
- Matthews had 40 goals in 74 games
- Tavares had 36 goals in 80 games
- The previous year when scoring was much lower, Marner scored 35 goals in 72 games (40 goal pace) and Bertuzzi scored 30 goals in 68 games on the Red Wings (36 goal pace). That same year, Bertuzzi had 24 5v5 goals in 68 games vs Nylanders 21 5v5 goals in 81 games.
All of the players I mentioned aside from Nylander are better than him defensively, and the only players who get paid more are Rielly, Matthews, Tavares and Marner, none of whom we can trade.
And now Nylander wants to get paid more than any winger not named Pastrnak, Marner, Huberdeau of Panarin until he's 36.
Does that break it down enough for you?
Yes, he's a good player. No, he's not nearly as good as you pretend.