2020-2021 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

[Heroic Shrimp]

It's likely a very minor consideration in the big picture, but I just realized that if there were to be a Canadian division, I'd expect they'd have to be assigned 25% of the referees and linesmen for the duration of the regular season. Officials assigned to each country would likely have to expect to stay in that country indefinitely. No idea how many Canadian vs. American officials there are, but one way or another some would be out of their native country and away from family for months.

 

[herman]

Canadian division is still a go, just ironing out one province?s misgivings.

Taxi squad is a go as anticipated: 23-man active roster at 81.5M cap, 4-6 player taxi squad getting AHL pay but travels and practices with the team.

Robertson is a bit of a question mark as there is still the CHL agreement to be harangued over but I expect he will be on the taxi. Lehtonen and Barabanov (and Engvall and Robertson) are yo-yos to accrue cap space on the few off days.

 

[Guilt Trip]

My take is:

Protect:

Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander,
Rielly, Muzzin, Brodie, Dermott
Campbell

Sign Hyman after the expansion draft

Lose 1 of: Kerfoot, Holl, Engvall, Anderson, Petan, Malgin or Brooks.

If any of the exposed players put in a year that make them worthy of protection ahead of Dermott, then that can be changed.

As the roster stands now, it seems the most valuable player that could be lost is Kerfoot or Dermott, which is fine.

Actually the most valuable player could be Freddie or Hyman if the Leafs don't sign them before the draft.
Seattle will be given permission to talk with any and all UFAs for 3 days before the draft. Here's the kicker...Seattle can't take a UFA unless the player is signed during those 3 days or during the expansion draft because they MUST draft players that contribute to 60% of their cap requirements.
There's some interesting scenarios here.. The Leafs could have a deal in place that's waiting to be signed after the EX Draft so they can protect another player but Seattle could also arrange to have a deal in place for July 1 with a UFA and then take another player during the draft. Seattle could essentially get Freddie and Dermott/Holl or whoever in the draft.
Leafs are going to have to trust their UFAs if they don't protect them.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Canadian division is still a go, just ironing out one province?s misgivings.

Taxi squad is a go as anticipated: 23-man active roster at 81.5M cap, 4-6 player taxi squad getting AHL pay but travels and practices with the team.

Robertson is a bit of a question mark as there is still the CHL agreement to be harangued over but I expect he will be on the taxi. Lehtonen and Barabanov (and Engvall and Robertson) are yo-yos to accrue cap space on the few off days.

My guess is if you treat Lehtonen and Barabanov as yo-yo's they will look to sign elsewhere when they're UFAs next season especially if they're good enough to be on the team. Taking money away from them isn't going to sit well. They also have European Assignment Clauses so any demotion to the taxi squad, which pays the same as the AHL will allow them to leave. Now guys that make full rate in the AHL are better candidates. Trouble is do you risk putting them on waivers?

 

[herman]

My guess is if you treat Lehtonen and Barabanov as yo-yo's they will look to sign elsewhere when they're UFAs next season especially if they're good enough to be on the team. Taking money away from them isn't going to sit well. They also have European Assignment Clauses so any demotion to the taxi squad, which pays the same as the AHL will allow them to leave. Now guys that make full rate in the AHL are better candidates. Trouble is do you risk putting them on waivers?

Any other year, yeah. This weird season? Where AHL pay is exempt from escrow and they have already committed to less money to come over? Business is business and the Leafs have a premium opportunity here and nothing should be off the table. I like Lehtonen, but he and Barabanov are not above the Hagg line.

 

[Guilt Trip]

My guess is if you treat Lehtonen and Barabanov as yo-yo's they will look to sign elsewhere when they're UFAs next season especially if they're good enough to be on the team. Taking money away from them isn't going to sit well. They also have European Assignment Clauses so any demotion to the taxi squad, which pays the same as the AHL will allow them to leave. Now guys that make full rate in the AHL are better candidates. Trouble is do you risk putting them on waivers?

Any other year, yeah. This weird season? Where AHL pay is exempt from escrow and they have already committed to less money to come over? Business is business and the Leafs have a premium opportunity here and nothing should be off the table. I like Lehtonen, but he and Barabanov are not above the Hagg line.

There's a big difference to paying escrow and all that crap to getting 70K. It's going to depend what was promised to them so we'll see what happens. Maybe Dubas has already laid it out for them and they'll make it up to later.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

My pre-camp roster/taxi prediction:

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Kerfoot-Tavares-Nylander
Vesey-Thornton-Mikheyev
Barabanov-Spezza-Simmonds

Rielly-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl
Lehtonen-Bogosian
Dermott

Andersen
Campbell

Taxi squad: Dell, Marincin, Rosen, Engvall, Malgin, Robertson

I believe Seravalli reported that there will be a limit to how long a player can stay on the taxi squad without playing so expect lots of movement there with the other fringe guys like Hutchinson (who I just remembered the Leafs signed), Boyd, Petan, Agostino, Warsofsky.

With the exception of Robertson, I'm not sure you'll see the younger guys like Sandin/Liljegren/Anderson spend a ton of time on the taxi squad as they'll be better suited to playing with the Marlies and getting called up when there's a clear path to getting into the line-up for an extended period. Robertson is on the squad mostly just to buy some time. If he doesn't blow the pants off everybody in camp he'll start on the outside and maybe get swapped with Barabanov from time to time. At least until the OHL figures out what they're doing.

 

[bustaheims]

With the exception of Robertson, I'm not sure you'll see the younger guys like Sandin/Liljegren/Anderson spend a ton of time on the taxi squad as they'll be better suited to playing with the Marlies and getting called up when there's a clear path to getting into the line-up for an extended period.

Agreed. These guys don't make the team unless they're getting into the lineup on a regular basis. It's NHL roster or bust, basically. If they seem destined to spend most of the season on the taxi squad, they're going to the AHL (if/when they get going - tentatively February as things stand, but nothing final yet, from what I can tell).

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Lehtonen and Barabanov (and Engvall and Robertson) are yo-yos to accrue cap space on the few off days.

I wouldn't be stunned if there's something written into the rules to prevent the taxi squad from being used like this. I know yo-yo'ing with the AHL is technically in the rules and a number of teams have used it to save cap space, but there's usually some hoops that teams need to jump through. With the taxi squad it becomes way too easy. You just know that teams would be lining up to complain about the Leafs doing this if there aren't any restrictions.

 

[Guilt Trip]

My pre-camp roster/taxi prediction:

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Kerfoot-Tavares-Nylander
Vesey-Thornton-Mikheyev
Barabanov-Spezza-Simmonds

Rielly-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl
Lehtonen-Bogosian
Dermott

Andersen
Campbell

Taxi squad: Dell, Marincin, Rosen, Engvall, Malgin, Robertson

I believe Seravalli reported that there will be a limit to how long a player can stay on the taxi squad without playing so expect lots of movement there with the other fringe guys like Hutchinson (who I just remembered the Leafs signed), Boyd, Petan, Agostino, Warsofsky.

With the exception of Robertson, I'm not sure you'll see the younger guys like Sandin/Liljegren/Anderson spend a ton of time on the taxi squad as they'll be better suited to playing with the Marlies and getting called up when there's a clear path to getting into the line-up for an extended period. Robertson is on the squad mostly just to buy some time. If he doesn't blow the pants off everybody in camp he'll start on the outside and maybe get swapped with Barabanov from time to time. At least until the OHL figures out what they're doing.

I think you're lineup is bang on. Let's hope Dell clears waivers.

 

[herman]

Lehtonen and Barabanov (and Engvall and Robertson) are yo-yos to accrue cap space on the few off days.

I wouldn't be stunned if there's something written into the rules to prevent the taxi squad from being used like this. I know yo-yo'ing with the AHL is technically in the rules and a number of teams have used it to save cap space, but there's usually some hoops that teams need to jump through. With the taxi squad it becomes way too easy. You just know that teams would be lining up to complain about the Leafs doing this if there aren't any restrictions.

Newsflash: the Leafs were already doing it by relocating their farm team to down the street from the NHL club, and running practices out of the same rink facility.

Pretty sure every team is going to do this with what they have available with the taxi squads (pandemic $zn)
https://twitter.com/CapFriendly/status/1340685548000821249

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Newsflash: the Leafs were already doing it by relocating their farm team to down the street from the NHL club, and running practices out of the same rink facility.

Yeah I mean I get that, I'm just speculating out loud if the taxi squad will have that exact same allowance. We already know that while there are a lot of similarities between the taxi squad and the minors the rules aren't 100% the same (i.e. you can keep a player in the minors all season but can't keep a player on the taxi squad all season).

 

[Kaberle15]

Any word on when Trainning Camps will open ?
Any word on when the schedule will be released ?

Go Leafs Go!!!

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Any word on when Trainning Camps will open ?
Any word on when the schedule will be released ?

Go Leafs Go!!!

https://twitter.com/CapFriendly/status/1340681974667730944

Training camp for the Leafs will start January 3rd. Still no word on the schedule I don't think.

 

[herman]

Newsflash: the Leafs were already doing it by relocating their farm team to down the street from the NHL club, and running practices out of the same rink facility.

Yeah I mean I get that, I'm just speculating out loud if the taxi squad will have that exact same allowance. We already know that while there are a lot of similarities between the taxi squad and the minors the rules aren't 100% the same (i.e. you can keep a player in the minors all season but can't keep a player on the taxi squad all season).

I understand. I just don't think the owners/board of governors will want to hamstring this mechanism too much just because the Leafs have the potential to do it a little bit better, as it is largely to their benefit. The playtime requirement is a good adjustment given the circumstance. I think we'll see quite a bit of waiver wire transactions, but I don't expect too many pick ups. One way contracts probably go through pretty readily too, due to the full freight attached. Caps are largely strapped and some teams are running internal under-cap budgets.

 

[Peter D.]

Seems like an extremely tight schedule, especially for those teams that have been off 9.5 months getting only four extra days than the rest.  Would probably make more sense to delay the start by at least a week, but obviously they want to get this off the ground running ASAP so they can compress things before the Olympics.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/CF_DepthCharts/status/1341409616899563522
Taxi squad has a min-4 and max-6. If the Leafs are papering down cap hits on the few off days, do they need to leave 'space' on the taxi squad? Entering the taxi squad requires a quarantine period + 4 negative tests, like a roster air-lock.

CapFriendly has a projected depth chart + taxi squad, but I don't think that's how it will shake out exactly. Either way, the Leafs built in a lot of flexibility this off-season and appear very prepared for this situation with lots of 800k and under contracts, 6-7* waiver-exempt NHL options.

* Mikko Lehtonen, Alexander Barabanov, Rasmus Sandin, Pierre Engvall (15 games), Joey Anderson, Nick Robertson, Egor Korshkov (likely to stay KHL until April/May).

Edit:
https://twitter.com/CapFriendly/status/1341477573767925763

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1339377352762122240

Okay, I thought I saw Auston in this video, but I guess it was someone else. Matthews announced his departure from AZ with a fancam edit of his practices tormenting local goalies on his IG.

Nylander announced he's back in town by sharing a photo of his and Matthews' dogs hanging out.

 

[herman]

https://twitter.com/kristen_shilton/status/1341840667304181760
https://twitter.com/kristen_shilton/status/1341843380062593025
Alright Zee. Fire up the ol' spreadsheet. Home team is the rightmost column

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

https://twitter.com/kristen_shilton/status/1341840667304181760
https://twitter.com/kristen_shilton/status/1341843380062593025
Alright Zee. Fire up the ol' spreadsheet. Home team is the rightmost column

You know, with the quantity of games and number of back-to-backs, this season should actually fire up some legitimate Canadian rivalries outside of the usual geographic ones, such as they are. Plus we've got two rounds of all-Canadian playoffs to add fuel to the fire.