26 Jul 2020 23:36:25
TOR:
Johnsson, Bracco
VGK:
Tuch, 3rd 2020

Tuch needs a new start as his stats didn't reflect his contract last year, so his trade value is probably low. Johnsson still played well but his value decreased due to injuries. Bracco isn't worth much but is just there to balance the trade a bit better.

TOR:
Reilly, Andersen
NYR:
Fox, Georgiev, 2nd

TOR:
Dermott, Kerfoot
Any team:
1st 2020 and 3rd 2021

Sign Brodie 6 mill 4 years

Re-sign Gauthier, Mikheyev, and Spezza

Goat and Spezza for league minimum, Mikheyev should sign for 1 year at around 2.5-3.5 mill depending on his playoff performance

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Mikheyev-Tavares-Tuch
Robertson-Nylander-Kapanen
Engvall-Spezza-Barbanov
*Gauthier, Agostino

Brodie-Fox
Muzzin-Holl
Sandin-Lehtonen
*Liljgren

Georgiev and Campbell run a tandem in first 30-40 games to see who gets the starting job.

27 Jul 2020 10:33:35
I like the tuch deal he’s a big power forward something we don’t have much off but putting Nylander at the 3C to me is counter productive he’s a more effective winger and to stay a 30 goal scorer we need him in the top 6 and I don’t think Dermott would fetch a 1st yes he has potential but he’s played bottom pair minutes since joining the leafs maybe a 2nd or 3rd.

27 Jul 2020 13:44:36
I think a team would be happy to pay a late 1st for Dermott+Kerfoot. Both are young and can move up the lineup if there is an injury.

Nylander at 3C was just an idea, but if you bring in Tuch you could also move him to LW as we have seen him play there a few times.

You could also ship Dermott and Kerfoot off for a young and cheap 3C like Zacha and simply send Robertson down or trade one of Hyman or Mikheyev.

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Nylander-Tavares-Tuch
Mikheyev-Zacha-Kapanen
Engvall-Spezza-Barbanov
*Gauthier, Agostino.

27 Jul 2020 14:19:28
Ya it tough to say with a flat cap to say any team is going to want to take on cap I think the leafs move Johnsson and Kerfoot for picks or prospects in order to shed the cap hits.

27 Jul 2020 19:02:10
I don't think Kerfoot goes before Kappy. Harder to find a 3C.

27 Jul 2020 20:36:12
I like the idea of Nylander as 3C. Especially if you think trading Kerfoot is a good idea.

It really depends what you want your 3rd line to be. You have Nylander, Robertson, and Kapamen there together, so I'm assuming you want to find three scoring lines. And knowing the way Dubas and Keefe want their team to play, this is more than reasonable to expect.

If you want to have your 3rd line operating as a checking line, you simply keep Kerfoot or put Engvall at 3C and move Nylander to the opposite wing of Tuch, and Bobs your uncle.

We don't have anyone else better than Nylander to cover that spot, and he has already said he wanted to run his own line. If we need to cut cap space by gutting depth, then substituting one of our top 6 into the third line to spread the skill a little isn't the worst idea.

27 Jul 2020 21:11:15
Nylander as a 3C doesn't work imo. Your paying his like a top 6 guy. You can't really play him 15 mins a night at this point.

27 Jul 2020 22:36:03
Your 4th line only comes out for pk so if you stay out of the box you run your top line 22 mins your 2nd line 20 mins and your 3rd line 18. I've been advocating run 3 lines with a pk line for over a year lol.

28 Jul 2020 12:32:23
You could do that Randy, or you could drop the 3rd line minutes some more and give Nylander the extra time on the power play.

At $7M, if he plays about 17.5 minutes a night, he not overpaid and is in line with his career average.

29 Jul 2020 01:47:42
So I looked into it. 17:30 would actually be a bit above career average for Nylander, who never played more than 17:00 atoi until this year when he lept all the way to 18:13, which is almost 3 full minutes above last year (when he did so bad after holding out), and is about 2 full minutes more than his career average (around 16:45 off the top of my head) .

So at 17:30, that's a number Nylander can achieve easily. The third line was getting between 12:00-15:30 minutes depending on the player. Guys like Engvall were lower than guys like Kapanen obviously.

But, and here's the key, the 4th line guys were getting close to 10:00 minutes a night. Clifford and Gauthier were 9:30, Malgin was 10:00. Petan was 11:00.

So, we can easily reduce some of the 4th line minutes. Cut them to 5:00-7:00 minutes a game, and give those minutes to the top three lines.

The 3rd line then averages about 15:00 each without special teams time. And Nylander (1PP) and Robertson (2PP) can pick up a few extra minutes playing special teams or having Matthews or Tavares double shift and centre them occassionally, to bring them up to 17:30-18:00 mark.

It can be done. We could easily room three scoring lines, each good enough to be a top line on most teams. The question is, how long can we afford to keep it together? Better hope Robertson and Sandin make Marner and Rielly redundant. Maybe Campbell carries net after Andersen leaves? I don't know. That's for later. We got one year where the Leafs can really play full tilt run'n'gun hockey with these kids. I say go for it.