The Leafs top ten list

 

The last two offseasons have been dominated by the signing of one big contract for the Leafs. 

This year is more complex, and more likely to be filled with a series of minor moves as the puzzle pieces get shifted around to create whatever final form Kyle Dubas has in mind for the team.

Dubas got an early start with the Kasperi Kapanen trade landing very early in the playoffs, but there’s a lot more to be done. GMs don’t always get to decide what order things happen in, however; deadlines always shape their thinking to some extent.

October 9 is the likely date for free agency to begin, and that’s the big deadline. The other is October 6 when Qualifying Offers to RFAs are due, with a lot needing to happen in those three day, the to-do list goes something list:

1. With Kapanen gone, his replacement on the PK and on the wing, Ilya Mikheyev, needs a contract. He’s an RFA with arbitration rights, so if he wants to push it, that could delay the final number on his deal until November. Brendan Shanahan sent a message in his post-season presser when he talked about how it’s not fair, but a poor playoffs will affect his contract. Dubas will want this sorted out more quickly and with a team friendly result. The QO is only $874,125, but the final deal seems likely to be one million - something. The tricky part is the something. I expect this signing any day now, but you never know.
   
2. Newly acquired Evan Rodrigues needs a deal done before the QO is due because the Leafs aren’t going to get trapped into paying him either $2 million or an arbitration award. They didn’t take him in trade with the plan to just dump him, however. His deal might be the very next thing resolved, too, because if he wants to play on his hometown team, he has to know he needs to make a deal now that will let him prove that arbitrator’s award of $2 million wasn’t grossly inflated by ice time on a bad team. One year takes him to UFA status, so a cheap show-me contract could pay off for him next year. His alternative is to become a UFA one year early coming off a very bad season, so I think he’ll play ball.
3. Travis Dermott could get signed before the QO goes out too. His salary amount is the same as Mikheyev’s, it’s just one-way instead of two-way.I think its in his inetrests just to takethat one-yrqualifing offer, but he might want the security of a two-year deal now. It’s also not going to be large, and he has to decide how much he wants to play for the Leafs for the next couple of years. I don’t believe there’s any good reason for the Leafs to set out to trade him, but they aren’t likely to say no to a deal that includes him if it’s in their interests.
4. There’s other RFAs to sign, notably Denis Malgin and Frederik Gauthier. Gauthier is likely to sign a two-year minimum salary deal, which would make his AAV less than his salary in year two, something cap-strapped teams like. (Teemu Kivihalme’s deal is exactly this.) Malgin didn’t stick very well in the lineup after arriving in trade, and while he has arbitration rights, you can’t take a record like his to arbitration and come out the winner like Rodrigues did. He has had some good results in very limited usage in the past, and some fans like him because he’s the type of player they want to see on the ice, but he couldn’t take a lineup spot from Nic Petan, and that’s pretty much the recipe for a cheap depth deal or a flight back to Switzerland.
5. Jason Spezza is likely to be re-signed, but there’s not a lot of time pressure to do that right away.
6. Dubas has to decide if he wants Kyle Clifford or not. He should. He would likely announce ahead of the free agent date if the answer is no so Clifford can get other teams interested.
7. There are a host of NHL-contracted AHLers expiring as UFAs, and with Dubas on the AHL’s Return to Play committee, he will know how much effort he and Laurence Gilman need to put into sorting out the AHL roster. Normally that happens in the spring as college and junior players graduate off of teams, and then heats up just as training camp starts. This year, it feels like this might be a very last minute job.
8. Two AHLers are RFAs. One is Max Veronneau, whose arbitration rights coming off his ELC at 24 and his skill in the AHL make him worth signing early for something, maybe even his Qualifying Offer amount of $874,125. The other is Jeremy Bracco, who is at a crossroads in his career, and I can’t predict what will happen to him.
9. You may have heard that Dubas needs to find a defenceman. I’m not sure if that should be number one here or the last thing on the list, but it’s really what all the rest of this list is about. All of these peripheral players need to be squeezed, to be blunt, to make room for someone who matters a lot more. Someone who is at least better than Holl and approaching Jake Muzzin’s ability if not even better.
10. Dubas does not need to find more depth third pairing guys. There are at least nine NHL-probable defenders on the roster. That’s plenty at the bottom end. He doesn’t need to morph Dermott into a right-shooter of the same ability, either, because it’s just not enough of a difference to matter. If there are borderline top-four defenders out there like Dermott who can be had for low cap hits, that’s worth pursuing, but cheap depth is not the job here. A difference-maker is.

 

I am hopelessly optimistic about our chances, but I've been wrong more than I've been right. But with th right moves, we stand a better chance.

Canuckle Heads beat the Golden Knights

 

 

Thatcher Demko made 42 saves in his first Stanley Cup Playoff start, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 in Game 5 to extend their Western Conference Second Round series at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Tuesday.

"It's special ... it's my first time being in the playoffs," Demko said. "It's a unique circumstance (with goalie Jacob Markstrom being unfit to play), but playoffs nonetheless, and this is what I've wanted to be a part of since I was a kid, so being able to get this opportunity is super special. I want to just keep helping any way I can."

Brock Boeser and Elias Peterson scored, and J.T. Miller had two assists for the Canucks, the No. 5 seed in the West.

Shea Theodore scored, and Robin Lehner made 15 saves for the Golden Knights, the No. 1 seed.

"We just have to take a look at some video," Theodore said. "There were some mistakes that ended up in the back of our net, and those can't happen this time of year. We just kind of have to refocus and get ready for the next one."

Pettersson, who was the center on a line with Miller and Boeser in the third period, gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead on a deflection in front of Lehner at 3:19 of the third period.

Pettersson has 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in his past 14 games.

"We're been playing with each other all season, we have good chemistry, and I think it was good that we switched up the lines because the first two periods weren't good from our side," Pettersson said. "The coach made some changes, and it worked out."

 

Demko, a rookie, is the 15th goalie in NHL history, and second in two nights, to make his first NHL playoff start and win when his team was facing elimination. Michael Hutchinson did the same for the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 against the Dallas Stars on Monday.

 

"I think at this point you rely on the work you put in," Demko said. "I've been doing my thing in practice, making sure my details were where they needed to be. It's different than a game, but everything you see in a game, you've seen at some point in practice, and you just have to rely on that."

Markstrom (8-6-0) started the first 14 postseason games for Vancouver. As part of the NHL Return to Play Plan, a team is not permitted to disclose player injury or illness information.

Canucks coach Travis Green did not have an update on Markstrom's availability for Game 6.

"We'll see where he's at tomorrow," he said.

Lehner was back in net for Vegas afterMarc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves in a 5-3 win in Game 4 on Sunday, the second of a back-to-back.

"Demko had a good game," Lehner said. "I thought Vancouver played a little bit better defensively to limit our odd-man rushes against them. I think they played five guys pretty tight and kept us to the outside. We had our moments where we really pushed and got some good opportunities, and [Demko] was there to save them. We just have to go to the next game, and we'll be fine."

 Theodore went backhand to forehand down the slot before scoring on a wrist shot at 15:12 of the second period to give the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead. It was the 25th shot against Demko.

Boeser tied the game 1-1 on a deflection in the slot off a pass from Miller at 15:36.

It was Boeser's first goal of the series and fourth of the postseason.

"I know I haven't been scoring and I know I need to score goals, but I've been trying to bring my work ethic each and every game and contribute something to the team," Boeser said. "It was nice to get one, it'll definitely help the confidence."

Defenseman Quinn Hughes had an assist on the goal to set the NHL record for assists by a rookie defenseman in a single postseason (13).

"I think we got a really good team, we know that," Hughes said. "The coaching staff believes in us, and most importantly we believe in ourselves. We have good leadership, we knew we didn't play well in the first two periods, knew we had to push a little bit.

"The next game, it'll be important to do that for 60 minutes. But there's a lot of faith in the group. We know they're a good team, but we know we're a good team too."

 The Golden Knights lost for the first time when scoring first in the postseason (8-1-0).

The Leafs are constructed poorly, and the fault is Kyle Dubas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uncle.

Enough.

It’s time.

The Toronto Maple Leafs need defencemen.

Plural.

And, God bless Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren, but they need some defencemen who are proven.

Yes, that means they might cost more than $700,000. Yes, that means subtracting some cap-allotted dollars from the most expensive forward brigade in the sport.

Do you know what the NHL’s top nine defensive teams in 2019-20 all have in common?

They’re all alive and well in the playoffs. The real ones that start Tuesday. That group includes the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Do you know what the bottom 10 defensive teams in 2019-20 all have in common?

They’re all eliminated. That group includes the Maple Leafs, who lost Sunday’s decisive Game 5 by a score of 3-0.

They were also up 3-0 in a pivotal Game 3 and could not lock it down.

 

We’ve beat this drum before, like on the night Mitch Marner signed a contract rich enough to give Kyle Dubas’s lottery-bound squad the top three highest-salaried forwards in hockey. But circumstances have changed.

First and foremost, Dubas’s hefty financial commitments to John Tavares, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Marner were all made on the (very reasonable) assumption that the salary cap would not only continue to rise with each passing Canada Day but that it could take a dramatic spike when the next U.S. broadcast deal kicked in.

That, of course, is no longer the case. The cap will remain flat until the virus decides otherwise.

Second, instead of taking a step forward, the Leafs — as a whole — have stumbled back. More than half the NHL is still bubbled up and battling for the Stanley Cup. They are not.

The Nazem Kadri trade, though explainable at the time, was a whiff. When push came to shove, rookie coach Sheldon Keefe took Tyson Barrie off the No. 1 power-play unit and replaced him with Morgan Rielly. Alexander Kerfoot’s third line wasn’t awful, but he and Kasperi Kapanen were both handed nice raises last summer. Neither scored a playoff goal, despite Keefe’s proclamation that he expected production throughout the lineup.

During the regular season, Toronto has been one of the most dangerous clubs at even strength that money can buy.

The post-season is a different beast. One that has gnawed on this core for four years in a row, no matter who’s behind the bench or how much ice time the stars are handed.

As the buzzer sounded in their hollow home Sunday night and Toronto joined the budget-conscious, punchline Florida Panthers as the only two franchises of the salary-cap era yet to survive a single playoff series, a few snapshots spoke volumes:

• A white-knuckle sequence in the D-zone where both Tavares and Matthews were scrambling around without sticks in their hands, trying to get into shot lanes.

• Matthews, Marner and Tavares bent over their sticks, gasping for breath after playing 21-plus minutes apiece and still failing to score a fourth even-strength goal for Toronto over five games.

• A dour Matthews — arguably the series MVP in a losing cause — bluntly saying he didn’t have an answer for the trend he saw in the core’s 0-for-4 performance in elimination series.

• And Keefe praising the Blue Jackets’ forwards for being so good. The coach also brought up luck, which is seldom a good look. 

A little more luck, and it might be a different result,” Keefe said, noting his team scored on fewer than two per cent of its shots 5-on-5.

 

Because Dubas built his roster as the counter argument to “defence wins championships,” Keefe spent three months of quarantine and the entirety of reset camp tweaking his system and urging his players to buy into improved own-zone play by all five guys.

For the most part, it worked. The Leafs did a decent job keeping Columbus out of the danger areas and shut the Jackets out in Game 2. Yet it came at the expense of their identity, their strength.

The roster isn’t balanced, so it has fallen to two coaches and some ill-equipped personnel to mask that imbalance.

“I’ll be thinking about this one for a while,” a sombre Keefe said post-game.

The Leafs will pack their Louis bags and carry a 5-on-5 goal drought of 182:46 worth of game clock into 2020-21.

With no Plan B when the sticks go cold, a desperate Keefe tried to make William Nylander a centre. He bumped one of the game’s best forecheckers, Zach Hyman, to Line 2, and stacked his top line. He threw surprise Andreas Johnsson into the mix, even though the winger hadn’t played since before Valentine’s Day.

The coach second-guessed his own decisions and deviated from the centre depth that was supposed to attack in unrelenting waves.

That’s what solid, committed defences do to their opponents. They frustrate them. Make ’em blink.

“We can’t lose sight of who we are as a team,” Keefe said prior to Game 1, prophetically. “We need to be really good

Conversely, John Tortorella’s group rolled out a trusted game plan night after night.

No secrets to the recipe: Hard work. Heart. Two good goalies. And plenty of quality defencemen who couldn’t care less about their point totals.

“We’re not changing,” Tortorella said of Game 4’s epic collapse. “We pissed it away on a couple of bad plays and just within a couple of minutes, [but] we thought we played a good game. We’re going to go play the same way.”

“May the best team win,” Jackets captain Nick Foligno wished pre-game.

It did.

Not only did Toronto’s regular-season deficiencies on the blueline have Keefe and the Leafs second-guessing their own game plan, but the loss of Jake Muzzin — the club’s best pure defender — for Games 3, 4 and 5 underscored an organizational crisis.

If you truly have Stanley Cup expectations, one injured defenceman should not be a critical blow against a middle-of-the-pack opponent.

For 2020-21, Dubas has already committed $52 million to NHL forwards. On defence? Just $15 million.

That gap has to close. The books need a little balance. The Maple Leafs’ blue line is crying for more depth.

It’s time.

Enough.

Uncle.

Somewhere Mike Babock is smiling.

 

 

Maricin in for Muzzin, oh now

Martin Marincin will replace Jake Muzzin in the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup for Game 3 of their Stanley Cup Qualifiers series against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.

Muzzin is out for the rest of the best-of-5 series after the defenseman was hospitalized following an injury late in the third period of Game 2.

"Marincin is going to go in for sure and take on some of that responsibility that Muzzin had for us and we'll make a further decision from there," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said Wednesday.

The No. 8 seed Maple Leafs evened the series with a 3-0 win against the No. 9 seed Blue Jackets. The series winner advances to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Marincin skated on a pair with Tyson Barrie at practice Wednesday, and Travis Dermott was paired with Justin Holl, Muzzin's usual partner. Dermott played with Holl during the regular season when Muzzin was out of the lineup with a broken hand, sustained against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 25.

Keefe said he is considering whether to use seven defensemen in Game 3. If so, rookie Rasmus Sandin would make his NHL postseason debut.

"We're still talking about it, haven't made any final decision on what we are going to do there," Keefe said. "We've tried different things when we'd lost Muzzin before and went with seven defensemen. We're going to discuss it throughout the day and make the decision we think is best."

Muzzin was released from the hospital overnight and is at a hotel in Toronto, the Eastern Conference hub city. He was taken from the ice on a stretcher with 1:52 remaining in the third period at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday. The Maple Leafs said he will quarantine in the hotel and try to rejoin them when he recovers from the injury. As part of the NHL Return to Play Plan, a team is not permitted to disclose player injury or illness information.

Muzzin fell chest-first onto the legs of Blue Jackets forward Oliver Bjorkstrand to the right behind the Toronto goal. Muzzin was down for more than 10 minutes lying on his back before being immobilized and taken from the ice, with stick taps from each team.

Marincin has played six NHL postseason games, for Toronto in 2017. The 28-year-old had four points (one goal, three assists) in 26 games this season.

"We think that Marty brings some of the elements that Muzzin brings," Keefe said. "Obviously he doesn't replace Muzzin in the intangibles he brings; he's a very important player for us.

But there are some elements in particular, the penalty killing and the size (6-foot-5, 217 pounds), there are some similarities in terms of what he can provide us and we think that is important."

Muzzin was second among Toronto defensemen in shorthanded ice time at 3:00 per game through Games 1 and 2 against Columbus (Holl, 3:47), and was second during the regular season at 2:31 per game (Cody Ceci, 2:50).

Defenseman Morgan Rielly said Muzzin, who won the Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2014, is a difficult player to replace.

"It starts with the off-ice aspect in terms of what he brings to our group being a leader and his playoff mentality," Rielly said. "He has experience and he's played in these types of games before, so that'll be missed. On the ice, he plays tough minutes against the opponent's top line, playing penalty-kill minutes, he's a big, tough guy out there (6-foot-3, 217) that blocks shots and leads by example. We're going to miss him. You can't really replace Jake; you just hope to have guys rise to the occasion."

Prayers for the Leafs chances accepted gratefully. 🙏

Release The Kraken

The NHL’s Seattle franchise has chosen “Kraken” as its long-awaited team name.

As part of Thursday’s announcement, the Kraken revealed two logos, a wordmark and uniforms. The primary logo features a green tentacle shaped like an S, while the secondary logo puts Seattle’s iconic Space Needle inside an anchor.

The home uniforms feature four different colours of blue – deep sea, ice, shadow and boundless – as well as a red stripe along the edge. The road uniforms feature the same coloured trims while swapping the deep sea blue for white.

The NHL’s Seattle franchise has chosen “Kraken” as its long-awaited team name.

As part of Thursday’s announcement, the Kraken revealed two logos, a wordmark and uniforms. The primary logo features a green tentacle shaped like an S, while the secondary logo puts Seattle’s iconic Space Needle inside an anchor.

The home uniforms feature four different colours of blue – deep sea, ice, shadow and boundless – as well as a red stripe along the edge. The road uniforms feature the same coloured trims while swapping the deep sea blue for white.

According to the team website, the name originated from the Giant Pacific Octopus which lives in the waters of Puget Sound near Seattle.

“The Kraken represents the fiercest beast in all the world,” the team’s website reads. “Too large and indomitable to be contained by man (or finned mammal). It instills one message in all opponents whether in our waters, or theirs… Abandon all hope.”

The “S” shaped logo pays tribute to Seattle’s hockey history, specifically the Seattle Metropolitans, who in 1917 became the first team based in the United States to win the Stanley Cup.

Seattle will play in the Pacific Division starting in the 2021-22 season, meaning the Arizona Coyotes will move to the Central. The league’s most recent addition will give the NHL an even 16 franchises in the Eastern and Western conferences.

The Oak View Group, which includes sports executive Tim Leiweke, billionaire David Bonderman and filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer, was granted the franchise on Dec. 4, 2018 paying a US$650 million expansion fee.

As part of the application, the ownership group is financing a $660-million arena renovation, with the goal being to have the building ready for the 2021-22 season.

A leaf falls to Covid -19

Sorry Leaf fans, the news is not good.

Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews has tested positive for the coronavirus COVID-19, two National Hockey League sources outside Toronto have confirmed to the Toronto Sun.

Matthews, 22, has apparently gone into quarantine at his home in Arizona, hoping to be healthy enough and eligible to travel to Toronto and participate in the opening of Leafs camp on July 10.

Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen, who was spending much of the break from NHL play with Matthews’ at his Scottsdale home, did not test positive for COVID-19, the same sources indicate. Andersen is no longer living with Matthews – and is no longer in Arizona.

To date, the Maple Leafs have not commented on Matthews’ status and may have some kind of response later today or tomorrow. Apparently, the Leafs were seeking more “clarity” on the private matter before considering releasing a statement of any kind.

“There’s no blueprint for this,” one source said. “This is not an ankle injury.”

Matthews was not available for comment Friday and his agent, Judd Moldaver, did not return messages left by the Sun. Andersen was not available for comment but a source close to the goaltender confirmed he had not tested positive.

Matthews, who is in the first year of a five-year $58 million deal with the Leafs, is by no means alone in contracting the virus in Arizona, where cases have spiked in recent days. According to sources, a numbers of unidentified Arizona Coyotes players, who were training alongside Matthews, also tested positive recently. Players on other NHL teams have tested positive over the past few months. None have been identified publicly.

The breaking news of the positive test of the 47-goal scorer on his way to 50 before the regular season was called off, comes in the wake of the Tampa Bay Lightning closing its practice facilities and at about the same time the Philadelphia Phillies have had an outbreak of COVID-19 in their Florida training facility.

Matthews is alongside Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys as the highest profile professional athletes in North America known to test positive for COVID-19. Former NBA star Patrick Ewing has tested positive, as well, as has current NBA coach Mike Malone with the Denver Nuggets.

Eugene, what did you step in ??

Eugene Melnyk is stepping in manure, at every step he takes. Every single step.

He makes it worse by picking fights with his own organisation's Charitable Foundation, also at a time when there's no hockey , a global pandemic, and literally no sports on to watch. It's like a "look at me moment" in the making.

Eugene Melnyk's charity previously directed a small fraction of the money it generated toward its intended cause.

The Ottawa Senators owner created  The Organ Project - a private, Toronto-based not-for-profit foundation - in 2016, with the goal of ending the organ transplant waiting list and "changing the current environment so that, in the near future, nobody in Canada will die while waiting for an organ transplant."

However, while it gained $991,708 in revenues during 2018, it contributed barely $5,000 of that to organ donor awareness, according to Richard Gibbons, who cited filings from the Canada Revenue Agency.

Melnyk's charity is separate from the Senators Foundation - the team's charitable arm - which announced its intent to sever ties with the club last week.

The Senators Foundation donated $100,000 to The Organ Project at a charity gala in 2018.

Of the roughly $1 million taken in by Melnyk's charity, it spent $779,464 on fundraising costs and another $238,118 on management and administration, according to the filings obtained by Gibbons, who was informed that these types of figures are "almost certain" to be scrutinized by tax officials.

Unlike the Senators Foundation, the Organ Project doesn't require a board of directors to oversee operations, and according to Gibbons, the latter entity appeared to be directed solely by Melnyk. However, it shut down in 2019 and didn't fulfill a promise to reopen this spring.

The Senators and their foundation will formally part ways if they're unable to resolve their dispute by July 31.

In the meantime, Melnyk has 2 picks in the first 6 of the upcoming NHL draft, let's see if he's going to step in manure again.