2025 Offseason Thread: Spring Cleaning

[azzurri63]

2026 1sts is top 6 protected I think. Bust the core for McKenna!

Thats what I said the other day and 2027 for Dupont. Future star forward and possibly another Makar in Dupont. I thin they serious have to look at trading Matthews. He's constantly disappeared for the most part in the playoffs and possibly health issues. What you might get for him now is the question but he's the only one you can trade that might get you some immediate help. Guys that can play on the 1st couple lines.

 

[Bill_Berg]

So they have 28 million to spend in the off season? Give or take.

Knies will cost 5?

Can they get rid of Rielly, and one of Kampf or Jarnkrok to free up another 10?

That gives them 33 to spend. They can really goon up with that kind of money.

 

[Guilt Trip]

So they have 28 million to spend in the off season? Give or take.

Knies will cost 5?

Can they get rid of Rielly, and one of Kampf or Jarnkrok to free up another 10?

That gives them 33 to spend. They can really goon up with that kind of money.

Knies will cost more then 5 if it's long term. My guess is he won't sign a long term deal.

 

[Bender]

He's going to get bridged for sure.

 

[Zee]

Interesting to see if Matthews needs surgery. I assume he does given he was a shell of the player we saw last season.

 

[Guilt Trip]

He's going to get bridged for sure.

Unless they offer him ridiculous money, I don't think he wants a long term deal here until he sees the direction they're going. 34 has 3 more years or maybe less if Marner goes. Who knows?

Interesting to see if Matthews needs surgery. I assume he does given he was a shell of the player we saw last season.

Goal scoring wise yes, but not anything else. He never got his shot going literally all year. Something's def up and we may never hear or know what was ailing him.

 

[L K]

1st round picks traded away:
2019 (Jake Muzzin), 2020 (Patrick Marleau), 2021 (Nick Foligno), 2022 (Petr Mrazek), 2023 (Ryan O'Reilly), 2025 (Jake McCabe), 2026 (Brendan Carlo), 2027 (Scott Laughton)

2nd round picks traded away:
2017 (Freddy Andersen), 2017 (Tomas Plekanec), 2017 (Brian Boyle), 2022 (Mark Giordano), 2023 (Mark Giordano), 2024 (Ryan O'Reilly), 2025 (Ilya Lyubushkin), 2025 (Jake McCabe)

3rd round picks traded away:
2020 (Nazem Kadri), 2022 (David Rittch), 2023 (Jack Campbell), 2023 (Ryan O'Reilly), 2023 (Luke Schenn), 2024 (Joel Edmundson), 2025 (Ilya Lyubushkin)

4th round picks traded away:
2021 (Nick Foligno), 2024 (Mark Giordano), 2025 (Ryan O'Reilly), 2025 (Brendan Carlo), 2026 (Connor Dewar)

5th round picks traded away:
2018 (Michael Hutchinson), 2022 (Ben Hutton), 2025 (Joel Edmundson)

6th round picks traded away:
2018 (Calvin Pickard), 2022 (Nick Foligno), 2024 (Ilya Lyubushkin), 2026 (Cade Webber)

7th round picks traded away:
2020 (Patrick Marleau), 2023 (Jaren McCann), 2026 (Chris Tanev)

In the Matthews era we net provided

ROUND	TRADED	ACQUIRED	DRAFTED
1	8	2	5
2	8	1	6
3	7	4	5
4	5	2	9
5	3	4	10
6	4	1	7
7	3	2	11

0 players from the 7th round have played a game in the NHL
1 player from the 6th round has played in the NHL (Pontus Holmberg)
2 players from the 5th round have played in the NHL (Nikita Grebenkin, Filip Kral)
3 players from the 4th round have played in the NHL (Mac Hollowell, Nick Abruzzese, Dennis Hildeby)
1 player from the 3rd round has played a game in the NHL (Semyon Der-Arguchintsev)
4 players from the 2nd round have played in the NHL (Fraser Minten, Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson, Sean Durzi)
2 players from the 1st round have played in the NHL (Rasmus Sandin, Timothy Liljegren)

Sandin, Liljegren, Durzi, Minten, SDA, Hollowell, Grebenkin, Kral are all out of the Leafs organization. So only Knies, Robertson, Hildeby and Holmberg are home grown players still in the Leafs organization from that list. The Leafs bet on the present with their deadline deals and then proceeded to draft extremely mediocre. Scouting and player development are the two cheat codes the Leafs have at their disposal. We should be leading the front on finding talent and augmenting our lineup with good depth pieces and haven't done that. We should be the LA Dodgers of the NHL and instead we are the Toronto Blue Jays.

 

[L K]

Our deadline acquisitions have been poor

Laughton (50%) + 4th + 6th for Grebenkin (5th) + 2027 1st (protected)
Carlo (15%) for Minten (2nd), 2026 1st (protected)
Edmundson for a 3rd + 5th
Lyubushkin (75%) for a 3rd + 6th
Luke Schenn for a 3rd
Lafferty/McCabe (50%) for Joey Anderson + 2025 1st + 2026 2nd
Acciari/O'Reilly (75%) for Abramov (4th), Adam Gaudette, 2023 1st, 2023 3rd, 2024 2nd and 2025 4th
Blackwell/Giordano (50%) for a 2022 2nd, 2023 2nd and 2024 3rd
Lyubushkin for Nick Ritchie and a 2025 2nd
David Rittich (50%) for a 2022 3rd
Foligno (75%)/Noesen/Nash for a 2021 1st, 2021 4th, 2022 4th, and 2022 6th

5 1st round picks, 6 second round picks (or equivalent prospects), 6 3rd round picks, 4 4th round picks

Scott Laughton 13GP 0G 2A
Noel Acciari 11GP 2G 0A
Nick Foligno 4GP 0G 1A
Riley Nash 2GP 0G 0A
Ryan O'Reilly 11GP 3G 6A
Sam Lafferty 9GP 1G 2A
Colin Blackwell 7GP 1G 1A
Kyle Clifford 6GP 0G 0A

63GP 7G 12A 19P

O'Reilly and Acciari are the only players to score more than 1 goal in the playoffs. O'Reilly and Lafferty are the only players to have more than 2 points.

Brendan Carlo 13GP 0G 0A -4
Jake McCabe 31GP 1G 6A -8
Jake Muzzin 22GP 4G 4A +6
Mark Giordano 18GP 0G 4A -7
Luke Schenn 11GP 0G 1A +8
Joel Edmundson 7GP 0G 1A -1
Ilya Lyubushkin 14GP 0G 4A +3

116GP 5G 20A 25P -3

179GP 12G 32A 44P total from deadline acquisitions since 2019.

They had had some success with the defenseman pickups. McCabe has been a real mixed bag in the postseason. Carlo was terrible in the Florida series but I thought was really good against Ottawa. Muzzin was great until his body broke down. Edmundson, Schenn and Lyubushkin I think were actually solid players. Giordano was great his first year and was retirement level his second year.

Brad Marchand was traded for a conditional 2nd (now a 1st) and has 3G 9A 12P in 12GP. 7 fewer points than all of the Leafs forward acquisitions over the year.

Terrible talent acquisition.

 

[ZBBM]

I'm not suggesting they move on from McCabe but he was really disappointing vs FLA. Injured?

 

[Guilt Trip]

I'm not suggesting they move on from McCabe but he was really disappointing vs FLA. Injured?

Fla wore them out. I wasn't that disappointed with him even tho his play dropped off.

 

[Peter D.]

I'd personally re-sign Marner and then see if Matthews waives his NMC for a haul. I mostly say that because I've never been a huge fan of Matthews and have never been attached to him like other Leaf greats in the past like Sundin and Gilmour.

I love Tavares, he's currently my second favourite Leaf after Rielly, but unless he takes a huge cut, I might rather see the team allocate his funds to a couple other pieces, and ones that are a bit younger than he is. He's been a great soldier for this team and franchise, and am glad we got 7 years of him here (holy shit...where the heck did those 7 years go already?!).

 

[L K]

I think Tavares was better than I expected him to be over the duration of his contract (playoff results aside) but I think there are two critical moments for the organization where they tried to jump start progression and it maybe backfired on the fallout.

1) Trading for Freddy Andersen in 2016. We gave up a 2016 1st round pick (Sam Steel) and 2017 2nd round pick (Maxime Comtois)

Having a serviceable goalie was the right move but I think they overshot giving up two higher picks. That led to the team making the playoffs and not trading guys like Tyler Bozak at the deadline and in fact spending a 2nd round pick to acquire Brian Boyle

2) Acquiring John Tavares in free agency. Again, I don't think it was the wrong move at the time. But in hindsight it set a price point on players. Tavares had career highs of 38G and 84P when he signed his 11M contract with the team.

Matthews followed that up by signing an 11.6M contract the following spring while in the middle of a 37G 36A season over 68 games.
Marner followed that up by holding out until training camp and eventually signing a 10.9M deal coming of a 94 point season. Neither player signed for 8 years. Both players however were eating prime seasons of their career whereas Tavares was expected to slow down at the end of his deal.

Tavares' 11M set a new bar for where the top players were going to get paid. Maybe that happens with/without that signing but in another reality the Leafs deal with their rookie extensions first before splurging on John and we had slightly more manageable cap hits. Obviously COVID and the flat cap screwed things up significantly but here we are.

 

[Guilt Trip]

I'd personally re-sign Marner and then see if Matthews waives his NMC for a haul. I mostly say that because I've never been a huge fan of Matthews and have never been attached to him like other Leaf greats in the past like Sundin and Gilmour.

I love Tavares, he's currently my second favourite Leaf after Rielly, but unless he takes a huge cut, I might rather see the team allocate his funds to a couple other pieces, and ones that are a bit younger than he is. He's been a great soldier for this team and franchise, and am glad we got 7 years of him here (holy shit...where the heck did those 7 years go already?!).

I'd re-sign Marner and trade 88. Tavares at a discount is a no brainer. Still a very good 2C

 

[Chris]

I'd personally re-sign Marner and then see if Matthews waives his NMC for a haul. I mostly say that because I've never been a huge fan of Matthews and have never been attached to him like other Leaf greats in the past like Sundin and Gilmour.

I love Tavares, he's currently my second favourite Leaf after Rielly, but unless he takes a huge cut, I might rather see the team allocate his funds to a couple other pieces, and ones that are a bit younger than he is. He's been a great soldier for this team and franchise, and am glad we got 7 years of him here (holy shit...where the heck did those 7 years go already?!).

Does Marner even want to be here - he may have already made the decision to leave.

I'm open to anything and everything. Any of the core 5 (M&M, Willie, JT, Rielly) can go. More than one can go. The team can certainly be better if the $13 million that Marner would get is distributed to the "right" 2 or 3 players. But if the wrong decisions are made there, things could go really bad really fast. The window is short...defense is old and took a beating against Florida. What if Tanev experiences the Brodie decline in the next year or two. Scary to think about.

Glad I don't have to make any of those decisions.

 

[Bender]

I'd personally re-sign Marner and then see if Matthews waives his NMC for a haul. I mostly say that because I've never been a huge fan of Matthews and have never been attached to him like other Leaf greats in the past like Sundin and Gilmour.

I love Tavares, he's currently my second favourite Leaf after Rielly, but unless he takes a huge cut, I might rather see the team allocate his funds to a couple other pieces, and ones that are a bit younger than he is. He's been a great soldier for this team and franchise, and am glad we got 7 years of him here (holy shit...where the heck did those 7 years go already?!).

With that Marner quote there's no way he resigns. They kept trying to sign him mid season at a fairly high number from what I've heard. He's gone.

 

[Bender]

I think Tavares was better than I expected him to be over the duration of his contract (playoff results aside) but I think there are two critical moments for the organization where they tried to jump start progression and it maybe backfired on the fallout.

1) Trading for Freddy Andersen in 2016. We gave up a 2016 1st round pick (Sam Steel) and 2017 2nd round pick (Maxime Comtois)

Having a serviceable goalie was the right move but I think they overshot giving up two higher picks. That led to the team making the playoffs and not trading guys like Tyler Bozak at the deadline and in fact spending a 2nd round pick to acquire Brian Boyle

2) Acquiring John Tavares in free agency. Again, I don't think it was the wrong move at the time. But in hindsight it set a price point on players. Tavares had career highs of 38G and 84P when he signed his 11M contract with the team.

Matthews followed that up by signing an 11.6M contract the following spring while in the middle of a 37G 36A season over 68 games.
Marner followed that up by holding out until training camp and eventually signing a 10.9M deal coming of a 94 point season. Neither player signed for 8 years. Both players however were eating prime seasons of their career whereas Tavares was expected to slow down at the end of his deal.

Tavares' 11M set a new bar for where the top players were going to get paid. Maybe that happens with/without that signing but in another reality the Leafs deal with their rookie extensions first before splurging on John and we had slightly more manageable cap hits. Obviously COVID and the flat cap screwed things up significantly but here we are.

Like I said. They should've traded one of them if they were getting taken to the cleaners in negotiations. They needed to run the team efficiently in the here and now and not just have an assumption that the cap will just go up because their contracts are still fairly expensive even up to this season with some growth.

 

[Peter D.]

Does Marner even want to be here - he may have already made the decision to leave.

I don't know if it's an indictment of ownership, management, the fanbase, media, or a combination thereof (likely), but if the homegrown talent who was born and raised in Toronto and grew up a Leaf fan doesn't even want to be here, the team/franchise is pooched.

Quite plausible that the player who will/would eventually become the franchise's all-time leading point getter is running out of town without looking back because of all the stuff he has to endure here.

A good portion of the team's failures can be attributed to him, but man is it going to be extremely hard to overcome losing a talent like that. One lost for nothing at this point, no less.

 

[Guilt Trip]

Yup. Be careful what you wish for. That's a lot of points out the door and even more if JT leaves. Add in 16s defensive game and that's a huge hole to fill. Going to be interesting to see where they go. I know what I would try.

 

[L K]

Let's go down that list:

FORWARDS

Most G heading in to free agency - John Tavares (38), Ryan Donato (31), Matt Duchene (30), Mitch Marner (27), Brock Nelson (26)
Most A heading in to free agency - Mitch Marner (75), Matt Duchene (52), Mikael Granlund (44), Nikolaj Ehlers (39), Patrick Kane (39)
Most P heading in to free agency - Mitch Marner (102), Matt Duchene (82), John Tavares (74), Mikael Granlund (66), Nikolaj Ehlers (63)

DEFENSE

Most G - Dante Fabbro (9), Ivan Provorov (7), Brent Burns (6), Dmitry Orlov (6), Nicklaus Perbix (6)
Most A - Matt Grzelcyk (39), Aaron Ekblad (30), Ivan Provorov (26), Vladislav Gavrikov (25), Brent Burns (23)
Most P - Matt Grzelcyk (40), Aaron Ekblad (33), Ivan Provorov (33), Vladislav Gavrikov (30), Brent Burns (29)

Roster Currently Under Contract

McMann (1.35M) - Matthews (13.25M) - Nylander (11.5M)
Laughton (1.5M) - Domi (3.75M) - Jarnkrok (2.1M)
Cowan (905K) - Kampf (2.4M) - Quillan (875K)
XXXXX - XXXXX - Ryan Reaves (1.35M)

McCabe (4.513M) - Tanev (4.5M)
Rielly (7.5M) - Carlo (3.485M)
Benoit (1.35M) - OEL (3.5M)
Myers (850K)

Woll (3.667M)
Stolarz (2.5M)

Notable RFAs: Pontus Holmberg, Nicholas Robertson, Nicholas Abruzzese, Atex Steeves, Matthew Knies, Dennis Hildeby

This roster has 23.9M to work with to fill a minimum of 2 holes. Those two holes are the top goal scorer and the top point producer in the regular season.

One on hand I think you want to find a way to move on from Jarnkrok and Kampf, but who is coming in to kill penalties while losing Marner on top of those two.

On another hand you want to upgrade on Morgan Rielly but who is going to move the puck on that blueline...and who are going to convince to take Rielly on.

 

[Zee]

Let's go down that list:

FORWARDS

Most G heading in to free agency - John Tavares (38), Ryan Donato (31), Matt Duchene (30), Mitch Marner (27), Brock Nelson (26)
Most A heading in to free agency - Mitch Marner (75), Matt Duchene (52), Mikael Granlund (44), Nikolaj Ehlers (39), Patrick Kane (39)
Most P heading in to free agency - Mitch Marner (102), Matt Duchene (82), John Tavares (74), Mikael Granlund (66), Nikolaj Ehlers (63)

DEFENSE

Most G - Dante Fabbro (9), Ivan Provorov (7), Brent Burns (6), Dmitry Orlov (6), Nicklaus Perbix (6)
Most A - Matt Grzelcyk (39), Aaron Ekblad (30), Ivan Provorov (26), Vladislav Gavrikov (25), Brent Burns (23)
Most P - Matt Grzelcyk (40), Aaron Ekblad (33), Ivan Provorov (33), Vladislav Gavrikov (30), Brent Burns (29)

Roster Currently Under Contract

McMann (1.35M) - Matthews (13.25M) - Nylander (11.5M)
Laughton (1.5M) - Domi (3.75M) - Jarnkrok (2.1M)
Cowan (905K) - Kampf (2.4M) - Quillan (875K)
XXXXX - XXXXX - Ryan Reaves (1.35M)

McCabe (4.513M) - Tanev (4.5M)
Rielly (7.5M) - Carlo (3.485M)
Benoit (1.35M) - OEL (3.5M)
Myers (850K)

Woll (3.667M)
Stolarz (2.5M)

Notable RFAs: Pontus Holmberg, Nicholas Robertson, Nicholas Abruzzese, Atex Steeves, Matthew Knies, Dennis Hildeby

This roster has 23.9M to work with to fill a minimum of 2 holes. Those two holes are the top goal scorer and the top point producer in the regular season.

One on hand I think you want to find a way to move on from Jarnkrok and Kampf, but who is coming in to kill penalties while losing Marner on top of those two.

On another hand you want to upgrade on Morgan Rielly but who is going to move the puck on that blueline...and who are going to convince to take Rielly on.

Vancouver should be an easy sell for Rielly, a hometown guy with a chance to write his redemption arc close to where it all started. You pitch it as a late-career resurgence, a veteran presence on a team that's knocking on the door. They’d eat that narrative up. And let’s be real: if there’s a GM out there willing to believe Rielly’s got another gear left, it’s the one in Vancouver.