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General Leafs Talk

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Grading the free agency signings...not that everyone will agree...

Toronto Maple Leafs
By now, the Tyler Bozak (5 years, $21 million) and David Clarkson (7 years, $36.75 million) contracts have been picked apart to the cent. Bozak is the overpaid faux first liner who?s actually a drag on his buddy Phil Kessel?s stats. Clarkson?s contract promises value in the first couple of seasons, before what Mirtle believes will be a sharp decline.

The Bozak signing is nepotism; you can almost feel the tap on the shoulder to Kessel saying, ?Hey, champ, see what we did for your boys? How about that contract extension?? The Clarkson signing would be a good one at the right price; but at seven years and a cap hit of $5.25 million, he will be afflicted with Chris Drury Disease ? player with great intangibles seen as a hapless bust because his numbers don?t sync up with his contract ? by Year 3 at the latest.

They won?t miss Komisarek. They will miss MacArthur and, especially, Mikhail Grabovski, inexplicably allowed to walk in order to pay Bozak.

GRADE: D

Ouch!


http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/puck-daddy-2013-nhl-free-agent-frenzy-report-213232584.html
 
One thing I think we need is more speed. We defintiely lost some wheels. For those that watch the Marlies regulary is there anyone that can be brought up that can fly but also contribute? Like is D'Amigo fast? Ross?
 
Boston Leaf said:
One think I think we need is more speed. We defintiely lost some wheels. For those that watch the Marlies regulary is there anyone that can be brought up that can fly but also contribute? Like is D'Amigo fast? Ross?
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I dunno the way I see it Gardiner and Kadri should get more minutes this year and those guys are pretty quick.  JVR is pretty fast and Lupul's got wheels too if he can stay healthy...
 
pnjunction said:
Boston Leaf said:
One think I think we need is more speed. We defintiely lost some wheels. For those that watch the Marlies regulary is there anyone that can be brought up that can fly but also contribute? Like is D'Amigo fast? Ross?
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I dunno the way I see it Gardiner and Kadri should get more minutes this year and those guys are pretty quick.  JVR is pretty fast and Lupul's got wheels too if he can stay healthy...
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Having Gardiner eating up minutes on the blueline will change the dynamic of the team for the better.

As we witnessed in both Round 1 and in the Finals, Boston's defense, as it good as it is, had no answer for top notch skating D-men like Keith and Gardiner who could gain entry to their zone and pressure them. A lot of teams seem to struggle with that.

It might take a while but when Rielly joins the mix, man, it's going to be an exciting team to watch.
 
Another report card:

"Dave Nonis chose Tyler Bozak over Mikhail Grabovski, which will be a source of conversation until global warming drowns us all in 50 years, while paying David Clarkson an exorbitant amount of money to play hockey for his team despite Clarkson not being all that great. They are inexplicable contracts that highlight an inexplicable offseason in which the Leafs solved their nonexistent goaltending crisis by trading for a goalie that has never started in the NHL.

I try to look past contract terms and salaries when judging free-agent signings because if you go by that, you will hate every contract. Everyone is overpaid. But Bozak is not very good at hockey unless you put him with very good players. You know how you can put literally anyone (P.A. Parenteau, Brad Boyes) on the right side of John Tavares and that player will have great numbers? That?s Bozak. He?s the center of Tavares right wings.

As for Clarkson, I think he will be a consistent 20-goal scorer but not much more for the Leafs. He?s the right wing of Bozak, who is the center of Tavares right wings, so I feel like the Leafs are slipping down this wormhole to where Bozak and Clarkson will find themselves on a line with Tavares and no one will score.
Where was I? Oh right. The Leafs gave 12 years and $57 million to two players who can?t create their own offense and rely heavily on star players in order to get their numbers. If Judd Apatow represents Patrik Elias and Phil Kessel, Clarkson and Bozak are the Leslie Manns of the NHL, fine in their own rights but finding themselves in great situations because of who they spend a lot of their time with."

link: http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2013/07/08/free-agency-bag-skate-weekend-winners-losers-and-everything-else-among-the-nhls-30-teams/
 
Even if you agree that those players are complimentary rather than outstanding in their own right, so what?  How many teams can ice even 1 let alone 2 lines of 3 Tavares-calibre players.  If we want to talk salary, it seems people keep forgetting that contracts signed today can't be compared to contracts signed last year or two years ago (even then Tavares contract is nuts, 5.5Mx6 coming off a 31G 81P season and still on an upward trajectory? his agent sucks). 4-5M is what mediocre top-6 players are getting on the open market these days.  How much would Tavares get on the open market, 8M, 9M?  Paying that isn't even an option, those players simply aren't available (and dreams of them being so get crushed every single year).

IMO we have offensive sparkplugs in Kessel, Lupul, and Kadri but there are two areas where the team has been weak: toughness/grit in the top-6 and faceoffs.  Clarkson can hopefully help with the former and Bozak at least helps us from losing water on the 2nd.

I'm not over the moon with these signings but I can see why Nonis did them, and even he will probably admit they are a gamble (if not today then sometime in the future). An argument that these guys are crap because they don't Tavares-level skill is absurd.  I don't think we were the only team looking to ink these players for similar money/term.
 
I think a more judicious take on the Leafs off-season moves so far (as opposed to grading them at D) is that the character of the team is more in the mold of what RC wants (Simmons is essentially right on that) but that the speed/skill level is at best the same and more probably a slight drop-off. 
 
Clarkson was rated the best free agent this year by many folks. Yes a long contract but a tradeable one at some point as part of a package. Grabbo was not on Carlyles good guy list..I loved him but I am not the coach so we have to get over it...or quit (which we won't)....Bozaks numbers do not sustain the bad vibe on his play..he has more potential than we have seen.  Yes everyone is overpaid...that is the reality...has the team gotten better from these moves....of course they have...Bernier will surprise and be a Potvin for us..everyone forgets we were two minutes from moving to round 2....we are on the right track.  Keep the vibes positive.
 
pnjunction said:
IMO we have offensive sparkplugs in Kessel, Lupul, and Kadri but there are two areas where the team has been weak: toughness/grit in the top-6 and faceoffs.  Clarkson can hopefully help with the former and Bozak at least helps us from losing water on the 2nd.
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It's pretty up in the air whether faceoffs matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, and IMO, not enough to value keeping a player if that is their greatest contribution.  The differences over periods of time between face-off guys and their % isn't that great, and for many players, not repeatable.

I like having someone who is really good at faceoffs, but not at the expense of other skills.
 
Potvin29 said:
pnjunction said:
IMO we have offensive sparkplugs in Kessel, Lupul, and Kadri but there are two areas where the team has been weak: toughness/grit in the top-6 and faceoffs.  Clarkson can hopefully help with the former and Bozak at least helps us from losing water on the 2nd.
Click to expand...

It's pretty up in the air whether faceoffs matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, and IMO, not enough to value keeping a player if that is their greatest contribution.  The differences over periods of time between face-off guys and their % isn't that great, and for many players, not repeatable.

I like having someone who is really good at faceoffs, but not at the expense of other skills.
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Speaking of winning faceoffs, and it's importance in the playoffs, for example, the fact that Tyler Bozak did not play in that crucial Game 7 against the Bruins, how significant a factor could Bozak's faceoff-winning skills have contributed to the outcome of that fateful game?

It is understood it's a team game and one player does not always a difference make, but in the situation of the Leafs, taking into account that Matt Frattin was contributing zero and hardly even playing, had it been Tyler (Bozak) out there, as he had done in a previous Leaf victory in Boston (scoring on a breakaway, winning faceoffs tnus taking away more from the Bruins in that category), would it be too much to say that having Bozak in that Game 7 might have altered something in the Leafs favour?

Let's say it was he (Bozak) to have taken that breakway instead of Frattin, and had scored instead, or, if he had won important faceoffs so as not to enable the Bruins to be too advantageous.

Any idea on how these 'little' things -- afterall, sometimes it's the little things that make up the bigger picture -- may have benefitted the outcome in that game in favour of the Leafs?
 
hockeyfan1 said:
Potvin29 said:
pnjunction said:
IMO we have offensive sparkplugs in Kessel, Lupul, and Kadri but there are two areas where the team has been weak: toughness/grit in the top-6 and faceoffs.  Clarkson can hopefully help with the former and Bozak at least helps us from losing water on the 2nd.
Click to expand...

It's pretty up in the air whether faceoffs matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, and IMO, not enough to value keeping a player if that is their greatest contribution.  The differences over periods of time between face-off guys and their % isn't that great, and for many players, not repeatable.

I like having someone who is really good at faceoffs, but not at the expense of other skills.
Click to expand...

Speaking of winning faceoffs, and it's importance in the playoffs, for example, the fact that Tyler Bozak did not play in that crucial Game 7 against the Bruins, how significant a factor could Bozak's faceoff-winning skills have contributed to the outcome of that fateful game?

It is understood it's a team game and one player does not always a difference make, but in the situation of the Leafs, taking into account that Matt Frattin was contributing zero and hardly even playing, had it been Tyler (Bozak) out there, as he had done in a previous Leaf victory in Boston (scoring on a breakaway, winning faceoffs tnus taking away more from the Bruins in that category), would it be too much to say that having Bozak in that Game 7 might have altered something in the Leafs favour?

Let's say it was he (Bozak) to have taken that breakway instead of Frattin, and had scored instead, or, if he had won important faceoffs so as not to enable the Bruins to be too advantageous.

Any idea on how these 'little' things -- afterall, sometimes it's the little things that make up the bigger picture -- may have benefitted the outcome in that game in favour of the Leafs?
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It was a close game.  Any bounce could have made a difference.  You can probably argue that substituting just about any player in the NHL this side of Colton Orr in to the game for one particular play could have made a difference.
 
louisstamos said:
Leafs Re-Sign Joe Colborne, and Troy Bodie
http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=677563

No Financial terms yet...
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Cap geek has it up at 600,000 for Colborne right now albeit in their faded "We don't really know" type.
 
BlueWhiteBlood said:
Is Troy Bodie playing with the Marlies? Otherwise, I'm not sure why we signed a player like that when we're short on cap dollars.
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He's likely Marlie bound, yeah, but, he could also nap a 4th line spot in camp. The team has plenty of cap room to add a few guys like this on contracts near the league minimum. They have about $16M in usable space, as long as a little more than $6M ends up in the AHL.
 
BlueWhiteBlood said:
Is Troy Bodie playing with the Marlies? Otherwise, I'm not sure why we signed a player like that when we're short on cap dollars.
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Well, he's either Marlies bound or he's going to be an end of the bench guy and considering that he's likely to have only signed for around the league minimum the Leafs reason for signing him would seem to be that they need league minimum guys to sit in the pressbox.
 
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