Because the season — and tempers — warmth up, so do the questions.
Nice selection was once discovered once we cracked open the primary Toronto Maple Leafs mailbag of 2022.
Sure, even if the franchise has burst out to arguably its easiest first part in historical past, enthusiasts are fixated at the tinkering that may make the lineup even higher. And what may transpire if it doesn’t.
From potential commerce goals to the overall supervisor’s destiny, from the trainer’s frustration to a Beijing-bound prospect, there’s masses to unpack right here.
Let’s dig in.
Is Scott Mayfield a commerce goal for the Leafs and if that is so is he to be had?
— Leafs Updates (24-10-3) (@UpdateLeafs) January 21, 2022
Does Scott Mayfield are compatible the profile of a participant Kyle Dubas must goal? Completely.
The query is that this: With Noah Dobson (RFA 2022) set to sign up for Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech as a correctly compensated member of the Islanders’ most sensible 4, does Lou Lamoriello get started making plans for the longer term and commerce Mayfield now for a greater go back?
Or does he see the bodily D-man’s modest $1.45 million cap hit for 2022-23 as fantastic worth for subsequent season?
The Islanders haven’t been just right. Their .500 issues share puts them twenty third general. That stated, they’ve simplest performed 34 video games, and we’ve but to satisfy a GM prepared to wave the white flag with 59 consistent with cent of the season nonetheless left to play.
Mayfield is a cap-friendly, 29-year-old proper shot logging greater than 20 mins consistent with night time for the primary time in his profession. He makes lower than Justin Holl ($2 million) and performs with extra edge.
That implies he throws extra hits, blocks extra rubber but additionally spends extra time within the penalty field.
Dubas would now not simplest covet Mayfield’s dimension (6-foot-5, 220 kilos) however his offensive upside and improbable underlying metrics. Bonus: Mayfield elevates his effort come postseason, posting 13 issues, 120 blocked pictures and 118 hits in 51 playoff video games.
Want at the Leafs’ aspect might be there. But it surely takes two to shake arms — and who is aware of Lamoriello’s plan?
A much less thrilling however more straightforward deal could be made for former Leaf Luke Schenn.
The 32-year-old is having a fantastic, plus-8 season for a mediocre Canucks staff. Whilst Mayfield is extra of a second-pairing man, the 226-pound Schenn is a cut price intensity possibility. He’s on a $850,000 cap hit thru 2023.
When keefe stated the staff seems cushy is {that a} message to Dubas to head out and get harder avid gamers or a message to the present roster to play with extra grit.
— jake (@JakeOnTheLake34) January 21, 2022
My principle: Keefe’s mounting frustration boiled over Wednesday night time. He was once uninterested in placing a favorable spin on the ones blown 3-1 leads, and the legislation loss to COVID-stricken, last-place Arizona with the Coyotes assistant trainer working the bench embarrassed him.
The Rangers got here with a playoff-style forecheck and bullied Toronto’s younger, small defence round. His staff contracted from the instant, and it prompted the similar nightmares Leafs enthusiasts have from the ones blown postseason alternatives in opposition to Columbus and Montreal.
His message was once to the avid gamers, however he was once too emotional postgame to believe how it would mirror on his boss’s roster choices — poorly.
I don’t suppose Keefe was once looking to fireplace a subliminal at Dubas, with whom he has a protracted courting, nevertheless it completely might be interpreted that manner.
Uncovered and cushy are yikes phrases to listen to out of your head trainer.
That’s why Keefe backtracked Friday. Whether or not true or now not, his “rationalization” shall we some theorize that the trainer were given his wrist slapped for being too blunt in a public discussion board.
Reality is, the Leafs did put up a cushy defensive effort.
They aren’t as difficult or deep at the again finish since dropping Zach Bogosian, and so they must bulk up for playoffs and pray Jake Muzzin is wholesome.
But it surely’s additionally true that their current group of workers have extra in them, which they confirmed within the bounce-back recreation on Lengthy Island.
“They protect in reality reasonably smartly,” Isles trainer Barry Trotz stated Saturday. “All of the credit score to Toronto. They got here off a tricky loss to the Rangers. They sought after to fasten it down, and so they did a lovely just right process. It was once difficult to generate stuff.”
Is that this in any case it for Dubas? This isn’t one recreation right here and there. It’s years of the similar stuff. They can not protect.
— Jeremey Irons (@AkiBerg4Norris) January 22, 2022
Dubas himself hinted heading into this season that this might be his final stand. If he is going out, it’s going to be on his phrases, along with his core.
Protecting exhausting is no doubt a part of it, however the Maple Leafs’ offence has averaged simply 2.33 targets consistent with recreation over the 2020 and 2021 postseasons. Their power-play contracted to 13.9 consistent with cent in the ones misplaced sequence.
It’s a 3-2 league. You don’t win by means of scoring two times.
Defence is a matter, certain, nevertheless it has now not been the primary factor in Keefe’s postseasons.
President Brendan Shanahan asserted a pair months in the past that MLSE possession has been “beautifully supportive” of his plan. In a effects trade, that fortify might be challenged if the plan yields a 6th consecutive first-round defeat.
Does Pontus Holmberg have any NHL long term
— KEEP BUNTING ON THE FIRST LINE (@OneTMLForMePls) January 21, 2022
Perhaps.
Most often, NHL-level wingers disclose themselves previous than another place. However, hello, if Michael Bunting could make an affect on certainly one of hockey’s easiest traces as a 26-year-old rookie, we’d be silly to cut price Pontus Holmberg at age 22.
At 5-foot-10, Toronto’s 2018 sixth-rounder could be very a lot an NHL lengthy shot, however he’s choosing up steam and was once simply named to Sweden’s Olympic squad.
The left winger is taking part in a profession yr offensively with Växjö within the SHL and was once named playoff MVP all over his membership’s championship run final spring, erupting for 14 issues in 14 playoff video games.
The guide on Holmberg: speedy toes, remarkable hockey sense, go first, must strengthen his shot.
Timothy Liljegren nonetheless follows the Swedish league carefully and has famous Holmberg’s breakout.
“Just right for him,” Liljegren says. “Only a cast two-way participant — just right defensively, just right offensively, [takes on] a large number of duties.”
Pierre Engvall provides: “I’ve simply heard from guys round how he is a perfect participant, professional man. So, with a bit of luck he’ll be just right.”
Is it even conceivable to construct a cup winner in Canada below a difficult cap and with limited commerce contracts.
— Phil Crisco (@4thlinewinger) January 21, 2022
Positive.
I am getting that it doesn’t really feel that manner as we manner a 29-year drought, however a number of Canadian groups were in a position to land coveted unfastened brokers within the cap period (John Tavares, Jacob Markstrom, Tyler Toffoli, Zach Hyman, et al.), and I’m now not keen on the use of the cap as an excuse.
Save Ottawa, Canadian groups mechanically spend to the prohibit. And the Senators and Canadiens have long past on deep runs within the cap period.
Is there a good portion of avid gamers who scribble Canadian groups on their no-trade lists? Sure.
And feedback like this one, made by means of St. Louis defenceman Justin Faulk, are revealing in a tricky manner:
An endemic panorama will make this closing date difficult north of the border, however there might be a number of movable avid gamers with out commerce coverage.
Athletes wish to win titles. Construct a contender, and they’ll come.
The sturdiest cores are continuously built patiently in the course of the draft, and Toronto and Edmonton have one of the most global’s easiest skill. It’s as much as the entrance place of work to enclose the ones items with the correct complementary items.
Heck, the 2011 Vancouver Canucks are among the best cap-era squad that got here up quick.
Simply because one thing’s tough doesn’t make it inconceivable.
Has Keefe misplaced the Room?,or is that this the Leafs seasonal ‘droop’?
— John Huntingford (@huntingfordj1) January 22, 2022
Now not but, no.
If the rest, unpleasant losses like the only in Pittsburgh in October or in New York final week have helped him grab his avid gamers’ consideration.
Just like the decision-makers above him, then again, Keefe’s process protection must now not be assured till we see how he handles those playoffs. He’s been very good within the common season and out-coached 2-0 when the stakes are top.
What is going to Sens must pay Josh Norris this offseason
— Fraudgers Hater (@sensplswin) January 21, 2022
A non-Leafs query. Refreshing.
I touched on Josh Norris in my preview of the forward-loaded 2022 RFA elegance.
His negotiation might be attention-grabbing for a number of causes:
• Norris employed the similar agent, Craig Oster, as Brady Tkachuk, who performed hardball and made out simply fantastic.
• Pierre Dorion not noted the bridge and plunged longer term to core items Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot and Drake Batherson. There’s a trend.
• Norris want simplest glance a couple of kilometres east, to 22-year-old Nick Suzuki’s eight-year, $63-million providence, for his nearest related.
• Norris may wait to look how handsomely Winnipeg can pay Pierre-Luc Dubois — the one RFA centre I’ve ranked forward of Norris — and hope that ups his worth.
• Wage cap house isn’t a subject in Ottawa. Exact wage will also be.
My easiest bet is a $4.9 million AAV on a bridge and a $7.6 million AAV on a seven- or eight-year pact.
