Recent content by mr grieves

Brad cleaned up his own mess. Good. I think he's doing a pretty good job lately.

If Marner was only really interested in going to Vegas, I wonder what this deal would've looked like last off-season. We've heard that Treliving wanted Theodore, but that was a non-starter. So, Roy and... that other Nic, the defenseman? The rights to Marchessault? Karlsson, maybe? I think that...

Because the free agent market sucks and we got no picks! Just to get that turd the rest of the way down, here are the media availabilities from the locker cleanout day immediately before each could re-sign with the team. Marner’s been excerpted here before, as evidence that he announced his...

Which, to me, sounds like a guy who already knows the player isn't going to re-sign. We don't have much insight into what goes on behind the scenes--Treliving is pretty adamant about not detailing negotiations in public--but it looks to me like Marner's camp knew he wasn't coming back to the...

Perhaps he felt he could say that because he knew those players were willing to sign whereas he couldn't with Mitch because he knew he didn't want to be here? Here's what he said about Nylander being unsigned in October 2023: I am not going to get into any public discourse. I don’t say that to...

This is something I wondered about when it became clear that the flat cap was going to lead to the Browns, Kapanens, Hymans, Johnssons and the like getting moved out for a rotating cast of league minimum supporting players. Extreme wealth inequality and a hollowed out middle class isn’t...

It’s like Bender said, I think. In life, there are certain types of people always ready to be aggrieved, who marinate on and stew in slights, and push those self-pitying narratives to build up the sense of entitlement needed take, take, take every thing that they can, except, of course, any...

We’ve also heard every coach he’s had, at least since his first couple seasons, be very complimentary of him, talk about him as a “coach’s dream” etc. That’s true of Leafs coaches, tournament coaches, opposing team’s coaches. There’s a disconnect between how he’s perceived by those who would use...

With interest!

Your evidence for this is one pretty (and characteristically) mealy mouthed quote from Marner in spring 2024. On the other side of that, there’s how his team handled his last negotiation—took it past the contract’s expiry—and plenty of credible reporting from people who are around the team and...

Ah! I understand now. I don't remember anyone around here who's now "anti" Marner saying they wanted the Leafs to hold onto him even if his NMC was about to kick in.

Folks bemoaning how this was managed are bemoaning the management wanting to keep the core 4 together, because they (the moaners, not management) anticipated this outcome. “It makes no sense to bemoan signing David Clarkson on July 1, 2013; at that time they wanted him and signed him to contract...

I'd take a chance on Skinner and try to sign Burns as a 5/6 PP-specialist.

July 1, 2023.

What signing(s) today could've made it not one?