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2024-25 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

CarltonTheBear said:
My favourite thing about Prokop is how I've seen him described as both a heavy shutdown defenceman and also a non-physical, so-so defensively creative puck moving defenceman. College free agency season is fun.
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From what I’ve gathered, that’s all kind of accurate based on when the viewings took place as he started out one way and evolved with his team’s needs and deployment.

There is offensive (not super creative but effective at his level) when the opportunity arose because of his toolkit (good skating), but he is projected to be more defense first at higher levels. More offensively inclined Marshall Rifai, perhaps.

Highlights are not the whole picture for a defenseman, but it’s what we got at the moment. We’ll see how he does with the Marlies to close out the season.
 
I like his pump-the-brakes comments on Knies, and suggestion to see if he can drive his own line. For me, he's looked really good in some games and pretty meh in others.
 
Agree they need to give Laughton some steady time with consistent linemates who have some actual hockey ability. The lines from David Alter are one way to go about it. Another option I was thinking of was something like

Domi-Matthews-Marner
McMann-Tavares-Nylander
Knies-Laughton-Robertson (Jarnkrok?)
Lorentz-Kampf-Holmberg (Jarnkrok?)

I still have a tough time picturing Berube going into a playoff series with Domi and Robertson out there together. Maybe they're hoping/planning that Pacioretty can come back and play in Robertson's spot.
 
Chris said:
Agree they need to give Laughton some steady time with consistent linemates who have some actual hockey ability. The lines from David Alter are one way to go about it. Another option I was thinking of was something like

Domi-Matthews-Marner
McMann-Tavares-Nylander
Knies-Laughton-Robertson (Jarnkrok?)
Lorentz-Kampf-Holmberg (Jarnkrok?)

I still have a tough time picturing Berube going into a playoff series with Domi and Robertson out there together. Maybe they're hoping/planning that Pacioretty can come back and play in Robertson's spot.
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Patches is LW not RW. Robertson has been playing his off wing all year. I Don't see Berube all of a sudden moving Domi to L1. Barring injuries he hasn't really done it all year.
 
Pacioretty played well with Tavares this season so probably he will go to L2 and McMann will drop to L3.

Definitely Leafs need to stack the L3 line so it's not a vulnerability. McMann Laughton Domi might be the best L3 Leafs can ice.

Domi up on L1 was a big spark for Matthews last season and we saw the animal come out in 34. Even the best goal against Boston was that amazing lob Domi threw to a rushing Matthews who caught the puck in the air at Boston's blue line and stormed in like a freight train and scored. You guys probably remember that beauty.

So if Domi goes to L1 as a spark.... then Knies Laughton McMann could be one line with one of them on the off wing. But probably too much experimentation for Berube to try.
 
Pacioretty with Tavares would make sense if he is able to actually play, but obviously that's not the case right now. Pacioretty as a RW could still be better than Robertson and certainly plays more of a Berube style...though Robertson does give it his all out there. Domi needs to play more regardless.
 
I think these are the lines combinations for the Leafs going into the playoffs:

Knies-Matthews-Marner
Laughton-Tavares-Nylander
McMann-Domi-Robertson
Lorentz-Kampf-Holmberg

Or

Domi-Matthews-Nylander
Knies-Tavares-Marner
McMann-Laughton-Robertson
Lorentz-Kampf-Holmberg
 
What's this nonsense about Knies getting $9M? OMG, we need to resign this guy asap before his value gets out of hand. 1 of 3 players to have 25 goals and 150 hits this season (Wilson/Tkafuck).
 
cabber24 said:
What's this nonsense about Knies getting $9M? OMG, we need to resign this guy asap before his value gets out of hand. 1 of 3 players to have 25 goals and 150 hits this season (Wilson/Tkafuck).
Click to expand...

I would guess that sometimes it comes from Payola. One or two media personalities get a Rolex or Family Vacays or Access to info from the agent (who is an aggressive and savy business person) and then all of a sudden the market is conditioned to think millions higher.

The contracts that the Leafs ultimately signed with their elite are at the highest bounds of the NHL. And over the life of the player.....whether at the Leafs or his next destination.... you are talking millions and even tens of millions in differential. Just from a "PR" budget.

$50k distributed here or there once in a while to get the market into that mindframe is definitely a good marketing investment..... someone is in your corner (i.e. pocket). Because some of these numbers are absurd (when compared to comps)..... but in Toronto the media can create an energy of its own.

This is just a guess.
 
GAMES​
TORONTO (42-25-3 87p)​
FLORIDA (43-25-3 89p)​
TAMPA (40-25-5 85p)​
Game 64​
@Hockey Club (WIN)​
Sabres (WIN)​
@Hurricanes (LOSS)​
Game 65​
Panthers (LOSS)​
@Bruins (LOSS)​
@Flyers (OTL)​
Game 66​
Senators (LOSS)​
@Maple Leafs (WIN)​
@Bruins (WIN)​
Game 67​
Flames (WIN)​
@Canadiens (LOSS)​
Flyers (WIN)​
Game 68​
Avalanche (WIN)​
@Islanders (LOSS)​
@Stars (WIN)​
Game 69​
@Rangers (WIN)​
@Blue Jackets (WIN)​
@Hockey Club (LOSS)​
Game 70​
@Predators (LOSS)​
@Capitals (LOSS)​
@Golden Knights (LOSS)​
Game 71​
Flyers​
Penguins (WIN)​
Penguins​
Game 72​
@Sharks​
Hockey Club​
Hockey Club​
Game 73​
@Kings​
Canadiens​
Islanders​
Game 74​
@Ducks​
@Canadiens​
@Islanders​
Game 75​
Panthers​
@Maple Leafs​
@Senators​
Game 76​
Blue Jackets​
@Senators​
@Sabres​
Game 77​
@Panthers​
@Red Wings​
@Rangers​
Game 78​
@Lightning​
Maple Leafs​
Maple Leafs​
Game 79​
Canadiens​
Red Wings​
Red WIngs​
Game 80​
@Hurricanes​
Sabres​
Sabres​
Game 81​
@Sabres​
Rangers​
Panthers​
Game 82​
Red Wings​
@Lightning​
@Rangers​

Toronto 4-3-0 over this stretch. Florida 4-4-0. Tampa 3-3-1

Toronto has the Flyers on Tuesday (get right game for Laughton hopefully), and then a 3-game West trip with another 3-games in 4 nights stretch. The Leafs next "meaningful" game is against Florida next Wednesday. The Panthers will be playing the back half of a back-to-back.

Tampa has a light 3 games and dont' have any more back-to-backs for the rest of the year.

Florida don't play again until Friday.

Tie-breakers:

1) PTS - Florida obviously in the lead here
2) RW - Florida has a 35 > 34/34 edge but both Toronto and Tampa have a game in hand
3) ROW - Toronto has a 38 > 35/35 edge on Tampa and Florida
4) Wins - Florida has a 43 > 42 (TOR) > 40 (TB) edge
5) Head to Head

Toronto is 3-0-0 against Tampa with one game remaining so hold the head to head tie-breaker
Florida is 2-0-0 against Toronto so the best Toronto can do is make this a wash with 2 games remaining
Florida is 2-1-0 against the Lightning so the best Tampa can do is make this a wash with 1 game remaining

***IF all three of Tampa/Florida/Toronto are tied with the same number of points, RWs, ROWs, and total wins the Leafs would be able to win this tiebreaker with the best point percentage if they manage to go 6-2-0 (or 6-3-0) against Florida and Tampa. They need to win both Florida games.

6) Goal differential - Tampa (54) > Florida (36) > Toronto (16)

7) Goals scored - Tampa (254) > Florida (229) > Toronto (224)

Honestly the Leafs still look really good here. They don't NEED to win both games against Florida but it would go a long way to shoring up the first 5 tiebreakers and the Leafs really don't have a shot at the Goal differential or goals scored unless they start blowing teams out.

Tampa has by far the easiest remaining schedule with only three games left against teams in playoff spots and no back to backs. The Leafs still have 3 more back to backs and 2 more set of 3 games in 4 nights. Florida has three sets of back to backs and 3 sets of 3 games in 4 nights
 
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cabber24 said:
What's this nonsense about Knies getting $9M? OMG, we need to resign this guy asap before his value gets out of hand. 1 of 3 players to have 25 goals and 150 hits this season (Wilson/Tkafuck).
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$9M would be a lot. That would make him 2nd highest paid player 24 or under behind only Rasmus Dahlin.

The time to try and lock up Knies at a discount, was last summer - and we don't know they didn't try. If I was Knies I would have been reluctant to extend for the numbers people were throwing around here in the $5M range. Looking at the salaries of the top scorers <24 years old (a constraint chosen only to find someone making > $9M) and extensions signed, there are a lot of 7s and 8s at the beginning of those salaries. And the cap is rising.
 
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