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NICK RITCHIE TRADED

I'm not really sure I get this deal from Arizona's perspective. A physical defensive defenceman like Lyubushkin and decent speedy depth forward like Dzingel together would probably be able to net you a 3rd round draft pick at the deadline. So they just take Ritchie, and his $3.3mil salary next season, on top of that as well? And the Leafs didn't have to retain anything? There were definitely worse ways of getting out of that contract.


 
Joe S. said:
Guilt Trip said:
princedpw said:
What do the leafs d pairings look like?  Does this help with the 2nd pairing at all?
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Not sure how much it helps. Leafs need a puck mover to play with Muzz. Don't know how good Lyubuskin is at that. He's a PKer and defence first guy so maybe you let Muzzin lose a little more? He's bottom pairing at worst I believe.
I think Dzingel goes on waivers
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At the end of the day this is a cap move no? Did anyone really expect to get an impact player for Ritchie?
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A distant 3rd to get rid of a $2.4 mill contract seems cheap to me.  To get Lyubuskin, whose name I?ve at least heard bandied about as a useful target for the leafs on top of that seems really cheap.  This isn?t a cup-winning deal but I now look at Dubas?s offseason as unbelievable value.

Bunting $950k 2 years
Kase $1.25
Spezza $750
Simmons $900
Kampf $1.5 2 years
Mrazek $3.8 3 years
- 2023 3rd round pick

If a 3rd round pick was the price of taking a risk on Bunting, Kampf and Kase, it sure has paid off.
 
But looking at next year, I have no idea how they can make the cap work while icing a team as good as this year with Reilly, Sandin, Liljegren, Campbell, Kase, Engvall, and Mikheyev all needing new contracts or being replaced.

Trading Muzzin, Dermott and Holl?  But we need a guy who can defend like Muzzin did last year.
 
Dubas isn't done with the defense.  Last night's game was a template for how we lose in the playoffs:

Whistles away
Jack not brilliant
Too much traffic allowed in front
Opponent winning puck battles
Top line shut down or misfiring
Etc

The d needs further stoutening to give us a chance in games like these.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

 
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
Dubas isn't done with the defense.  Last night's game was a template for how we lose in the playoffs:

Whistles away
Jack not brilliant
Too much traffic allowed in front
Opponent winning puck battles
Top line shut down or misfiring
Etc

The d needs further stoutening to give us a chance in games like these.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
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I worry about the goaltending first and the top line shut down ? they really didn?t seem to have their normal ozone possession last night.  O?Rielly and the blues played stellar defense against them.
 
I'm not sure if they try this right away, and it might not work out well, but I wouldn't mind experimenting with this at some point:

Rielly-Lyubushkin
Muzzin-Brodie
Sandin-Holl/Liljegren

I don't think Liljegren on the 2nd pair would work right now. Maybe if he was paired with last years version of Muzzin, but Jake has certainly taken a little bit of a step back this year. Maybe pairing him with Brodie will help settle his game down instead of expecting Muzzin to carry his partner.

Lyubushkin on the top pair is definitely higher in the line-up than he'd ideally be but he has played the majority of this season alongside Chychrun and the season before that OEL so he has experience playing in the top-4. I think his lack of puck skills would mean he'd struggle alongside Muzzin just like Holl has this season, which is why I don't think he'd be a good fit there. But Rielly would obviously be able to make up for that on this pairing.

The goal here is mostly trying to get Muzzin back to playing at the standard we've been used to seeing him at since we acquired him, and I think putting him with Brodie might be the only way to do that at the moment. So the other pairings just fall into place after that.
 
princedpw said:
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:
Dubas isn't done with the defense.  Last night's game was a template for how we lose in the playoffs:

Whistles away
Jack not brilliant
Too much traffic allowed in front
Opponent winning puck battles
Top line shut down or misfiring
Etc

The d needs further stoutening to give us a chance in games like these.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I worry about the goaltending first and the top line shut down ? they really didn?t seem to have their normal ozone possession last night.  O?Rielly and the blues played stellar defense against them.
Click to expand...
Not too concerned about the Matthews line despite not scoring, which they're not going to do every game.
Their numbers.... 66.67 CF%, 12 SCF-7 SCA, 7 HDCF- 4 HDCA, on for 1 goal against.
Despite scoring 2 goals, our worst line statistically was the JT line, who were 50 CF%, 4 SCF- 6 SCA, 2 HDCF-1 HDCA, on for 2 goals against.
Didn't like the rebound on the first goal from Jack and despite the guy being wide open, the 2nd wasn't the greatest either but hard to lay that on him. Not much he could do on the 4th and 5th goals.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
I'm not sure if they try this right away, and it might not work out well, but I wouldn't mind experimenting with this at some point:

Rielly-Lyubushkin
Muzzin-Brodie
Sandin-Holl/Liljegren

I don't think Liljegren on the 2nd pair would work right now. Maybe if he was paired with last years version of Muzzin, but Jake has certainly taken a little bit of a step back this year. Maybe pairing him with Brodie will help settle his game down instead of expecting Muzzin to carry his partner.

Lyubushkin on the top pair is definitely higher in the line-up than he'd ideally be but he has played the majority of this season alongside Chychrun and the season before that OEL so he has experience playing in the top-4. I think his lack of puck skills would mean he'd struggle alongside Muzzin just like Holl has this season, which is why I don't think he'd be a good fit there. But Rielly would obviously be able to make up for that on this pairing.

The goal here is mostly trying to get Muzzin back to playing at the standard we've been used to seeing him at since we acquired him, and I think putting him with Brodie might be the only way to do that at the moment. So the other pairings just fall into place after that.
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Good assessment. I think Keefe will try a bunch of different pairings and see what happens. Th key is absolutely getting Muzz back on track and Liljegren isn't ready for that role just yet. Next year probably.
 
Keefe said that Dzingel will be waived today, if he clears he will report to the Marlies.

Sandin on a paper move back to the Marlies.

Lyubushkin will join the team Tuesday.
Mrazek will start in Montreal.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
I'm not sure if they try this right away, and it might not work out well, but I wouldn't mind experimenting with this at some point:

Rielly-Lyubushkin
Muzzin-Brodie
Sandin-Holl/Liljegren

I don't think Liljegren on the 2nd pair would work right now. Maybe if he was paired with last years version of Muzzin, but Jake has certainly taken a little bit of a step back this year. Maybe pairing him with Brodie will help settle his game down instead of expecting Muzzin to carry his partner.

Lyubushkin on the top pair is definitely higher in the line-up than he'd ideally be but he has played the majority of this season alongside Chychrun and the season before that OEL so he has experience playing in the top-4. I think his lack of puck skills would mean he'd struggle alongside Muzzin just like Holl has this season, which is why I don't think he'd be a good fit there. But Rielly would obviously be able to make up for that on this pairing.

The goal here is mostly trying to get Muzzin back to playing at the standard we've been used to seeing him at since we acquired him, and I think putting him with Brodie might be the only way to do that at the moment. So the other pairings just fall into place after that.
Click to expand...

I thought of this too to help Muzzin, but I have imagine Reilly's 5 on 5 time would be reduced unless Lyubushkin really steps up.

I'm hoping for a legit top four guy and keep Lyub for the 3rd pair and lead preserving squad.
 
Shame it didn't work out here for Ritchie. A local kid who seemed like a good guy and who was worth rolling the dice on. Unfortunate he couldn't be the sandpaper-y but still offensively proficient guy they probably still need.

 
Nik said:
Shame it didn't work out here for Ritchie. A local kid who seemed like a good guy and who was worth rolling the dice on. Unfortunate he couldn't be the sandpaper-y but still offensively proficient guy they probably still need.
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I honestly thought he was going to replace hyman without missing a beat.

I don?t think it was a matter of effort, for the most part with him. Just didn?t work out.
 
At first I didn't think this made a lot of sense from the Coyotes' side but I guess they're just trading for big, strong dudes so they can save on movers.
 
Nik said:
At first I didn't think this made a lot of sense from the Coyotes' side but I guess they're just trading for big, strong dudes so they can save on movers.
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That was cold, man.  (Not that they understand that concept in PHX.)
 
Arizona can still flip Ritchie before the deadline if looks good in their top 6. Neither Dzingel or Lyubushkin individually would produce a 2nd/3rd rd pick in a trade. They have a chance to scoop up a little more if they want to.
 
herman said:
Neither Dzingel or Lyubushkin individually would produce a 2nd/3rd rd pick in a trade.
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If Lyubushkin is a legitimately good stay at home D I don't really think that is a fair thing to say definitively.
 
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