Jonas Siegel : Est-il temps pour les Maple Leafs de réexaminer l’expérience Core-4 ? (juin 2021)
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@Maple Leafs de Toronto
Jonas Siegel : Est-il temps pour les Maple Leafs de réexaminer l’expérience Core-4 ? (juin 2021)
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vec-u64-new
15 Comments
I thought this was interesting to re-read given that it was after the disappointing loss the Canadiens.
Some excerpts:
> A key injury or two — to Tavares and Jake Muzzin (in back-to-back playoffs) — along with little finish from the stars and the Leafs sunk both times to inferior opponents.
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> It’s undeniable Marner has lacked his usual bounce the last two postseasons. He has only three 5-on-5 assists in his last 19 playoff games — all during a shaky series against the Canadiens last month.
> Was his skittish play the result of pressure — of trying too hard to deliver for his hometown or justify his controversial contract? Was he worn down from playing the most minutes of any NHL forward during the regular season? Has he not adjusted to the tighter terrain of playoff hockey?
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> As for Tavares: Where does the captain go from here? He’ll turn 31 in September. Can the Leafs’ plan really work if Tavares is merely a very good — not great — player who has one of the largest cap hits ($11 million) in the league? If his production slips from the 31-goal, 76-point pace of the last two seasons to 20 to 25 goals and 60 to 65 points next year, with less impact in the playoffs? What then?
> And how much will Tavares’ decline matter if Matthews, Marner and Nylander deliver as expected? Even a lesser version of Tavares probably betters most second-line centres across the league but that price tag complicates things.
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> Their top-heavy approach comes with inherent vulnerability. If the stars go cold or if one gets hurt, the roster often lacks the talent to make up the difference.
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> The question the Leafs front office doesn’t appear inclined to ask is whether the team’s chances of winning are higher with the removal of one Core Four piece. Matthews is obviously off the table. Tavares holds a no-movement clause on his pricey contract. If the Leafs ever considered it, a trade would have to come down to Marner or Nylander.
> Nylander may never have more value, coming off a solid playoff performance. And while he feels somewhat underrated across the league, there’s been interest in the past. Of the four big contracts, he might deliver the best bang for the buck, with a cap hit of $6.96 million for the next three seasons. It would be hard to do much better with those cap dollars.
> Marner’s contract, however, accounts for almost $4 million dollars more on the cap at $10.9 million. He’s also among the top 30 players in the world. Consider the possibility of moving Marner and the Leafs would have to ask themselves: How exactly are we getting better? The answer, in theory, is by putting Marner’s cap dollars to work more effectively.
Maybe against the grain but I don’t think it was time for them to give up on the core 4 back in 2021.
Things have changed since then but I think it would have been premature to pull the plug back then.
Personally I think it was time to give up on the core 4 in 2018 when Willy held out on the team for months.
Should have either traded him then or sat him for the year and trade him in the following summer. Alas, we didn’t, and now everyone’s salary is inflated.
I am starting to believe that a healthy part of the fan base would sooner get rid of players than try to improve the team.
No is the simple answer.
Hey ChatGPT rewrite the article from last week
Hindsight is 2020 (no pun intended) but fuck I wish we could’ve traded Marner and used the savings to sign Hyman and Pietrangelo
Prescient as heck. And has held for every year since, also.
I just don’t know what we should do. I personally like Marner, while many have been and are now calling for his head. And understandably. He is a magical regular season player. But we all know what has happened every playoffs. And not only with him. But I’ll feel so haunted if, as happens with many ex-Leafs, getting rid of him burns us, and he becomes a big part of someone else’s deep run…if not all the way.
Donno, man. As much as some of us liked Dubas over most years, he really screwed us with these contracts. Tavares is now an albatross versus his contract (we ruined those windows when he was really good). We just overpaid Willy, too, good as he is. Matthews is still the only total given and will likely be asking even more his next contract. And Reilly we can live with as his new contract will likely look ok over all those years as the cap grows.
But it is all so frustrating. And I wonder what a new coach and staff could do with this team and its playoff garbage. But, beyond that, a shake up in players, also, is all but required.
To me a main prioritity has to be to land a 1st pair RH D man. Who not only needs to be great defensively…but has to puck move, and have a bomber from the point – we need more O from our D And we can’t deny we need a big improvement in goal. So far Woll’s bricks are brittle, much as he could be great for us.
First thing we wait for is who will be the next coach. And we’ll have to sit with bated breath on what else happens from there…
Feel for all of us. This has been pretty damned painful. We all had such high hopes since we lost to Washington. And we’ve mostly had nothing but post-season pain other than one winning round…
One thing is for sure…protect Bobby Hastings at all costs…lol.
No fucking shit
I was about to make fun of this because I thought it was a current column.
I’d like to point out that:
– Alex Kerfoot had a multipoint game in this series
– Jason Spezza had a multipoint game in this series
– William Nylander had multiple multipoint games in this series
– Morgan Rielly had a multipoint game in this series
– ALEX GLACHENYUCK had a multipoint game in this series.
The first line however:
Matthews – 5 points in 7 games
Marner – 4 points in 7 games
Hyman – and this is often glossed over because he plays a style that people find aesthetically pleasing, 1 point in 7 games.
The idea that we didn’t get depth scoring is false. We got depth scoring. The guys that failed were Marner and Matthews and I’m sorry to piuss off the Hyman fanboys but Hyman played on the top line that entire time.
“Survey participants included 21 NHL player agents, and Custance asked them a wide range of questions over a wide variety of topics. The particular question and responses I’ll discuss here are the player agents’ responses to a question that asked them to name high-profiled NHL star players they thought might be traded during the coming season.
Obviously, the Buffalo Sabres Jack Eichel and the Winnipeg Jets Patrik Laine’s names were mentioned. Everyone has heard those rumors. However, the NHL star that collected the third most votes on the list of soon-to-be-traded stars was none other than the Maple Leafs young winger Mitch Marner.”
-from 2020. Player agents are smarter than Shanny
https://thehockeywriters.com/marner-trade-maple-leafs/
I haven’t seen an experiment go this wrong since that paper mache volcano I made for the grade 6 science fair
Now is the best time to examine the core 4 and I would think that Treliving and company are looking/watching the current playoff games and examining what needs to be tweaked. So many examples of the different types of players required to go deep into the playoffs. As an arm chair GM my focus would be D-men and then critique the goaltending position, build from the backend up
I’ve been thinking a lot lately that the issue is not directly « the core 4 » but rather the locker room culture and dynamic – and the vibe that is set by a vocal passionate coach and captain. I love Tavares, but he’s a « quiet strength » kind of guy – add to this that Keefe had a similar quiet style. A new vocal passionate coach that shows maturity and strength goes a long way. And arguably moving the « C » off of Tavares might be it….. These two changes could impact the locker room culture and team loyalty to each other.