May as well throw Matthews in there too no?

so worse in every way with no benefit to the cap or depth?

I feel it’s a nice balanced team, you are able to bring back Domi + Bertuzzi plus it is an excellent D core.

Troll post

no, it's not balanced at all, it's just worse, also why do the leafs want those bums that cant perform in big games back? Domi cant stop taking bad penalties or having defensive break downs every 2nd shift and Bertuzzi couldnt hit the floor with his hat.

Domi was a beast in the playoffs for Carolina & Dallas.

So was Bertuzzi last year for Boston.

Maybe it’s the system and the players around them?

yeah, domi and bertuzzi were such beasts that none of those teams wanted anything to do with them after

It's called not having the cap room

no, it's called they had much better and more important players to sign and knew that Domi and Bertuzzi were nothing special

Boston had so little cap room they needed to get rid of another 6M cap hit forward in Hall because they couldn't make the money work. And Bertuzzi was always meant to be a rental. So you're completely clueless.

Dallas chose to sign a guy with more high end skills in Duchene, resign Pavs and AGAIN, Domi was never meant to be anything more than a rental. So you're clueless here too.

so both teams let them walk despite being 'playoff beasts' and both teams moved on as fast as possible. Sounds like you're clueless to them being valued by teams that know how to win.
"they were supposed to be rentals" no, they were supposed to help them win and didnt because they are very flawed and not worth long term commitment.

"Very flawed" is when Bertuzzi is well over PPG with BOS in the playoffs in 23?
"Very flawed" is when Domi outplays Marner and Tavares for most of the series in 24?

Keep defending that core 4 of yours, it's worked so well so far. I can tell you most of the rest of the league is laughing at the MapLe Leafs

yes, very flawed Bertuzzi who couldnt hit the net from 2" away the entire series
yes, very flawed domi who took hilariously bad penalties all series and his defensive coverage was so bad that it caused two of the biggest goals against the entire playoffs. And lol at him out playing marner, he was much worse, especially defensively and Marner was like not even half recovered from a high ankle sprain.
Keep defending your over hyped gritty guys because they have famous names, everyone is laughing at you specifically

"Everyone"?

Everyone, or at least most peopole, laughed at Zito for moving his number 2 defender, a first rounder, a prospect and his best winger for Tkachuk. Uh, a gritty player, who needs those?

yeah you dingus, turns out playing in the periphery doesn't win a cup. Am I saying Domi and Bertuzzi are carbon copy of Tkachuk? No of course not, but to say they don't have a use to a contending team, as you claim, is completely ridiculous.

my team, the Rangers, has won 3 series in 3 years where as your useless "core" has won ONE in almost a decade. And by the looks of it, it sounds like they're bringing back Shanny and if they do I bet Marner is back. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". You're living proof of it.

Marner should've been fired in the sun in 2019 when he screwed the Leafs by wanting to be as close to Matthews as possible. You will NEVER win ANYTHING with 3 forwards counting for ANYTHING close to 50% of your salary cap.

For the almost 11M per Marner has you could have Domi for 4,5, Bertuzzi for 5-5,5 and another depth player. Marner's peak as a Leaf in terms of prestige was 2019. He never came close to it ever again.

yep, everyone,
Because you like to make stuff up about the Tkachuk trade where every single person with a brain knew Treliving got cleaned out. You also realize that Tkachuck is an elite player because he is elite at the hockey part of it right? The goal scoring, the play making, the defensive play, the play driving? Yeah, he's elite at all of those things and the grittiness is sprinkes on his cake.
Comparing Bertuzzi or Domi to him even a little is the most dingus thing you could have done
This is why every one is laughing at you

I literally said I wasn't comparing wither Bertuzzi or Domi to him, so you're putting words in my mouth, or keyboard in this case.

And I perfectly remember seeing many people on social media saying Zito overpayed for grit in 2022 when he made that trade.

you literally brought up Tkachuk as an example to hype up bertuzzi and domi. If you bring up a player to make a point about another player, you are comparing them. It is very very simple.
and you'll notice that i said people with a brain. There was lots of talk on social media and here about how Bertuzzi and domi and Reaves and all the other gritty guys were gonna change the Leafs culture because they needed grit super bad, but instead the team was worse in every single way except for the core 4 and they even out hit and out fought and out gritted the Bruins and they still lost.
It's almost like the "gotta get tougher" mantra has been a lazy criticism for people who have no idea what they are talking about.

Then why did FLA INSTANTLY go to the finals when they got tougher? Why did the Caps finally break through when they became a tougher team to play against? Why did Tampa go to THREE STRAIGHT cup finals when they decided it was time to get tougher.

And finally, let me quote myself: "Am I saying Domi and Bertuzzi are carbon copy of Tkachuk? No of course not"

I literally stated they're not copies of Matthew Tkachuk, meaning I very well understand they're not remotely in the same stratosphere as him. You're making stuff up. You're an absolute joke, just like your useless team.

You should look at the rest of the roster adds and the skill of those tough guy adds, oh and goaltending. Yes, i get that is a lot for you to process, but the answers are there and very very easy to see

In 2022, FLA lost Weegar on defense and "replaced" him with Marc freaking Staal. Don't tell me this was an adequate replacement. And Bob was shaky until he came back in the playoffs.

In 2017, after once again choking to PIT, WSH lost Williams, Shatternkirk, Alzner to free agency, Schmidt to Vegas, Johansson in a trade and "replaced" these guys with folks like Smith-Pelley, Chiasson, Stephenson (this was before he became a top 6 player) and Kempny and that was pretty much it. And yet they STILL won.

Tampa didn't lose anyone major but the adds of Maroon, Goodrow and Coleman and that 2019 debacle to CLB proved to them they needed to change course, and they finally added some toughness and what did they do? 3 straight finals, because the core started to play differently and they added other players.

"The answers are there", you're right, they are, they're staring you in the eyes.

Alex Ovechkin, who I'm not the biggest fan of, once said the Leafs will have to change how they approach and play the game if they want to get over the hump. His opinion here is particularly valuable as he couldn't get over the hump until 2018 because he and he team wouldn't adapt. The second they did, they won. Heck, we all saw Ovi backcheck in that 2018 cup run. He almost never did it before, but he did it then as he understood it was necessary for the Caps to win the cup that year.

But sure, keep digging your head in the sand, clown. In fact, you're not just a clown, you're the entire circus, and I'm a spectator enjoying the show.

Lol, you are so mad and so bad at this. Just amazingly poor analysis.
Go watch a rock em sockem dvd with a gym sock, at least you'll get some release

Ah yes, instead of rebuking what I said you call me mad when I'm literally laughing at your stupidity.

So according to you, 1 playoff win in almost a decade of constant playoffs is good and they Leafs should "trust the process" and continue down this path? LMAO

Yeah, you're fuming. You cant even go one comment without throwing insults around, all you grit loving guys are so sensitive and fragile.

Can't win without grit. Without the ability/will/confidence to get into the dirty areas. The Leafs have proven that time and time again and keep proving that. If you can't see that it's not my problem

So then why was the grittiest leaf team in years the worst? How come they beat up on a not very good boston team and yet still couldnt win a series?
Oh right, because grit is hilariously over rated by people who think max domi is anything but a middle 6 passenger winger who doesnt do anything at an above average level but pass. "Playoff beast" they call him while he takes tons of stupid penalties, passes on open net shots and misses more defensive assignments than he has brain cells left.
The only thing proven time and time again by this leafs team is that no matter what the issue, people who get all their hockey ideas from nick kypreos will default to grit and toughness