Armchair GM 2016-2017
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Britishbulldog
Active member
Nik the Trik said:
I agree 100%
I hope the 3rd pairing has pending UFA ex-Red Wing Brendan Smith on LHD.
Guilt Trip
Active member
And we want no part of Shattenkirk...He didn't impress me at all...I think the Leafs will be calling the Ducks...They can't protect all of their D.
herman
Well-known member
Are there any young Matt Niskanen type defense in UFA this year? He was more the type of player I think the Leafs could conceivably make a pitch for, and kind of the characteristic opposite to Shattenkirk.
Lower goal scoring = cheaper, but defensively sound puck mover (i.e. Who I hope Zaitsev will be long term).
Lower goal scoring = cheaper, but defensively sound puck mover (i.e. Who I hope Zaitsev will be long term).
herman said:
Brendan Smith is probably the closest there is:
Good skater, but basically no threat offensively. Could form a good 2nd pairing with Rielly to help get his shots against numbers down or with Carrick to get a stabilizing 3rd pairing.
Zee
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:herman said:
Brendan Smith is probably the closest there is:
Good skater, but basically no threat offensively. Could form a good 2nd pairing with Rielly to help get his shots against numbers down or with Carrick to get a stabilizing 3rd pairing.
Good Mimico kid, Shanahan will like that.
cabber24 said:
He was quite possibly their worst defencemen through 2 games and the team was almost definitely better off with Nate Schmidt in the line-up over him.
I know that this won't exactly be popular, and no I'm not basing it entirely on his performance in the playoffs, but I really think that trading Zaitsev for a quality left-winger might be something that the Leafs should look into this offseason. I don't think that we'll get as lucky as New Jersey did with Larsson for Hall, but if we can get anything close to that it's something we should at the very least explore. I'm also just not convinced that his value will ever be higher than it is right now.
I will add the one condition being obviously that we need somebody to replace his minutes on the right side for next season if we want to still compete. But since this is an armchair GM thread I'm going to armchair GM.
-Trade Zaitsev for 'mystery top-6 left winger for Matthews'
-Sign Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith
-Clear cap space where necessary, starting with Bozak. While his play has absolutely won me over, I think his value too is at the highest it will ever be
-If we end up losing Martin in the expansion draft or trading him, I'd bring back Boyle for the 4C
-*shudders* bring back Hunwick. If it's a cheap deal, the extra depth can't hurt. I just hope he doesn't get guaranteed minutes again
(Zaitsev)-Matthews-Marner
Leipsic-Nylander-Kapanen
Komarov-Kadri-Brown
Hyman-Boyle-Soshnikov
Leivo
Gardiner-Shattenkirk
Rielly-Smith
Marincin-Carrick
Hunwick
Andersen
I will add the one condition being obviously that we need somebody to replace his minutes on the right side for next season if we want to still compete. But since this is an armchair GM thread I'm going to armchair GM.
-Trade Zaitsev for 'mystery top-6 left winger for Matthews'
-Sign Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith
-Clear cap space where necessary, starting with Bozak. While his play has absolutely won me over, I think his value too is at the highest it will ever be
-If we end up losing Martin in the expansion draft or trading him, I'd bring back Boyle for the 4C
-*shudders* bring back Hunwick. If it's a cheap deal, the extra depth can't hurt. I just hope he doesn't get guaranteed minutes again
(Zaitsev)-Matthews-Marner
Leipsic-Nylander-Kapanen
Komarov-Kadri-Brown
Hyman-Boyle-Soshnikov
Leivo
Gardiner-Shattenkirk
Rielly-Smith
Marincin-Carrick
Hunwick
Andersen
cabber24 said:
Honestly, you're right. But I don't think his play in these playoffs was anything very different from his play throughout the season. He was arguably their worst defenceman throughout the regular season too. Alzner probably used to be a very good defenceman, but his play has seriously dropped and it's not going to get any better.
Kin
New member
CarltonTheBear said:
I have two problems here. One, and I've said this before, I think scoring wingers are probably where you can best use the UFA market. Using a commodity like Zaitsev in search of one seems like a bad use of assets.
Two, I think you're almost certainly paying a heavy premium for defensemen on that market. I think Shattenkirk is better than we saw in this series but I think we have to be realistic about the fact that signing him probably means committing to pay him in the area of 7 million a year for his 34-36 seasons.
That said, ignoring defense for a second, I do agree that the one piece the Leafs could really use is a sort of Andrew Ladd scoring but also tough and good in battles winger to play with(hopefully) Matthews and Marner next year.
bustaheims
Active member
On the blueline, I wonder if maybe Kulikov can be picked up on a cheaper, short-term deal. He's not the right-handed shot people crave, but he's decent with the puck and could be decent defensively in a 3rd pairing type role.
Nik the Trik said:
I think that my general feeling here is that if we're going to use the UFA market to improve our team we have to accept that whoever we get is almost certainly going to be overpaid. That's just how that market works. So I'd rather overpay for a top-3 defenceman than a top-6 forward.
Nik the Trik said:
I guess it all depends on who that winger is. I mean last year we saw Backes, Ericsson, Lucic, Okposo, and Ladd all get $6mil with varying degrees of term. If those are the type of options available to us I think Shattenkirk at $7mil with term would probably be better for our team.
And just to expand a little on my original though: I only really brought this up because I felt that a) we could get a team to possibly considerably overpay for Zaitsev by exploiting the idea that right-handed defencemen are worth a ton more than scoring wings and b) we could replace/even improve on Zaitsev's contributions to the team through just the use of cap space. I do admit that being successful on both those counts is a bit pipe-dreamy.