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2024-25 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion

I think Morgan Rielly is a pretty good dman
I glanced over the rosters of his 12 years here.
Maybe I've missed someone but I find it kind of stunning that they have never provided him with a top 2/4 right handed dman to partner with for any credible length of time. Was left handed Brodie playing the right side as close as they got?
 
dappleganger said:
  • The playoff exit that hit him the hardest, which uncharacteristically made him cry was the loss to the Flyers in 2004 - Roenick's OT winner in Game 6.

The fact this is the only Leaf game where I remember the exact date it was played, probably was for me too. Of course, Mats played great in the game assisting on the Leafs first goal and scoring the game tying goal.

That 2004 team had all the pieces to win, and that game was the beginning of the end for that era of the Maple Leafs.
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Kapanen Sr. was a hero dragging his unconscious self off the ice post Tucker hit allowing the play to continue resulting in the JR goal. That was a wild sequence and a vivid memory.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl...panen-moments-later-roenick-eliminates-leafs/
 
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1868723256712442268
Marner and Nylander are particularly effective — especially evident when the power play got hot — at moving around in the zone and creating passing/shooting lanes with their legs. Marner likes to catch the puck high and go “downhill” with it, such as in the example below against Boston. He caught it high, skated in, froze the defenders, and then bumped it high to a wide-open Rielly, who had all day to shoot.


Nylander has every trick in the bag. He’ll beat defenders with power moves, he has a bomb, he can move the puck, and if nothing is working, he’ll skate around and create options with his legs. Marner will do the same thing. That’s not really Matthews’ specialty, and the power play can become quite static as a result.

Over the past two games, the Leafs didn’t only put Rielly back on the top power play; they went back to the Nylander-Rielly-Marner trio up top as their base setup. They have scored power-play goals in both games since. Nylander and Marner have also been their primary drop-pass options in the two games.
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cw said:
I think Morgan Rielly is a pretty good dman
I glanced over the rosters of his 12 years here.
Maybe I've missed someone but I find it kind of stunning that they have never provided him with a top 2/4 right handed dman to partner with for any credible length of time. Was left handed Brodie playing the right side as close as they got?
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1839386467619180576

Rielly is 3rd among dmen in Even Strength P/60 playoff scoring over the last 4 seasons. Only Makar & Toews are slightly better in that stat.
 
11 games, 2 goals, 4 points.

37.7% CF, 40.4% xGF, 4-3 in terms of actual on-ice 5-on-5 goals.

Most common linemates were Robertson, Lorentz, Domi, Holmberg, A. Nylander, and Grebenkin.

Sending him down is probably the right call for his future, regardless of the roster crunch. But yeah definitely showed a lot of promise in his stint here. Looked a lot better than the 4 games he played last season.
 
I think the stint with the Leafs only helps his AHL adjustment at this point. He knows the NHL speed now, and will know how quickly he'll need to play going forward. I look forward to seeing him getting more reps as 1C to see how high his offensive ceiling can go.

Also, thankfully, he's not going to be super expensive on contract 2.
 
Minten showed a bunch of good things. Big improvement over last year.
Still looks like a keeper to me.
He proved he could be more physical and blocked more shots.
He did not look totally out of place on the PK or PP.
His .36ppg is top 9 for a NHL forward so he's improving there, (small sample size)
As so many have said, he's a smart player.
From this experience, he's learned what he has to work on - things like: faceoffs, puck battles, reads, anticipation, Berube's system, etc.
He'll go down to the AHL to work on those things and should be better when they call him back up.
At the very least, he's credible depth for the playoffs
He'll probably be out of the AHL by next September if not sooner.

Now, we're going to find out if Kampf can contribute
 
I know I’m not supposed to care what happens on L4 outside of the playoffs, but why the heck is Dewar, a key PK cog, sitting for Reaves, first choice to serve a bench minor, when Kampf returns?
 
herman said:
I know I’m not supposed to care what happens on L4 outside of the playoffs, but why the heck is Dewar, a key PK cog, sitting for Reaves, first choice to serve a bench minor, when Kampf returns?
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Anyone who thinks there's a chance Reaves sees waivers at some point this season is kidding themselves.

Now to be clear I will throw a "Reaves was waived" party if that happens, I just think the odds of Treliving and Berube coming to that decision are slim to none. The org loves him.
 
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cw said:
They seem to have very good doctors.
What is wrong with "It is going to take a few days for testing, etc Let's see what our good doctors have to say about it ... until then, nobody knows"
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Yeah. There's nothing with saying "we won't know for sure for a few days, but we're hopeful it's nothing serious" or something along those lines for situations like this.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1869062934212845571

Leafs seriously need to stop commenting on injuries the day after.
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It's not just the day after. It's multiple days in a row of them calling Stolarz and McCabe day to day. I'm fine with not disclosing the exact nature of an injury but the intentional. Matthews was fine.

I get we aren't entitled to the intimate details of players health but I think there is a reasonable in between from just lying and being vague.
 
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