2023-24 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion
- Thread starter herman
- Start date
Guilt Trip
Active member
Domi is 3C and it's about bloody time Knies gets moved up.herman said:
Teams still short a top-9 winger with Domi at C. Holmberg can't hang there. Either Robertson or McMann need to get a shot, they need to sign a Kane or Puljujarvi, or make a trade for someone.
Goaliedave31
New member
Robertson has been called up and Holmberg sent down. Let's hope Nick can keep up the momentum he had going with the Marlies
herman
Well-known member
CarltonTheBear said:
3 suitably 2-way lines has to be the goal. Ideally 4. Stacking two lines and having only one ever going off at a time (and sometimes zero) is no bueno. The secondary depth needs to have a role, and needs to feel like they can be a solution, and part of this team -- not just guys who are watching Mitch Marner get gassed with 27 min in early February. Coaching plays a part here in spacing out the skill and giving roles out to skaters and letting them work through it.
That means we need players who have wheels and can do the simple stuff routinely, and 1 more top-9 centre if not Nylander or top-9 winger, who can drive a line. This is not even taking into consideration the defense, which is in shambles on the right side due to injury and ineptitude. The early this correction is made, the more time they have to settle in.
This is without any major personnel moves:
Bertuzzi-Matthews-Jarnkrok
Knies-Tavares-Marner
Robertson-Nylander-Domi
Gregor-Kampf-McMann
Rielly-Brodie
McCabe-Liljegren
Giordano-Timmins
Lagesson
EF speculating Treliving would be attracted to Zadorov/Tanev from the Flames...
Matthews and Tavares can swap wingers as needed. We need a line 3 that can score on other bottom sixes to take the pressure off the top.
herman
Well-known member
Significantly Insignificant said:
I would have also split one of the stars into two slightly lesser stars at higher value positions (C), to pad the depth, but that ship has sailed.
I think Keefe might like some of the depth players he had cast off previously if they had a chance with some better linemates. Travis Boyd, Michael Amadio, Mason Marchment, and Alex Barabanov got only 4th line poop shifts; now they're middle six guys on other (usually worse, but keep beating us) teams. The ones that he did give top 6 roles to were forced to try to fit in with two very established partners (Vesey, Ritchie, Malgin, Galchenyuk, Bertuzzi, Domi, Bunting) and really only one has actually worked.
Matthews is paid extravagantly: he can carry wingers. Tavares has historically netted tremendous paydays for smart, ok players; he just needs speed help. Nylander excels in driving offensive specialist lines where he's the go-to. Let's give them a chance to elevate their teammates and create new chemistry.
Highlander
Active member
Goaltending woes, what Goadtending woes: Dennis Hildeby was strong in net for the Marlies, recording his first career AHL victory and first career AHL shutout after stopping all 26 shots he faced.
I think the Robertson-Domi-Jarnkrok line definitely has potential so I'd be fine giving this a decent run of games before we theorize about blowing up the lines again. As much as I'd like to see Willy at C putting Domi in that spot, where he's played his best hockey throughout his career, might be more important in getting him going.
Arn said:
With Liljegren and Timmins both on LTIR the Leafs have enough cap space for a 22-man roster. So once McCabe returns, which could be as early as tomorrow, hopefully Lajoie gets swapped out for McMann or Gambrell (preferably McMann but Gambrell is a bit more of a PK specialist and the team could use that for sure) just to see what life is like without Reaves in the line-up.
