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2025 Offseason Thread: Spring Cleaning

ZBBM said:
So have we finally gotten our wish and rid ourselves of that loser asshole and all-around degenerate Mitch Marner so we can sign Lawson Crouse? I can barely function, I'm so excited.
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My wish was to trade him when the trading was good, so we could fill at least one of the centre or RD gaps in the roster with a legit player, and not have to deal with this.
 
We may not be looking back fondly on it now without knowing how this time line worked out, but what a start for Treliving if he had traded Marner a month into the job. Maybe we are comparing that trade to the Kawhi trade today. Now it looks like he just took the safe road and we got burned.
 
Joe S. said:
Almost no one - at the time - thought 7 years x 5.5 was reasonable for Hyman. Key is at the time.

And yes, Mrazek’s contract was ridiculous. We don’t criticize that one enough, I’d forgotten about it.
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For reminder, here’s the murderers row of goalies signed as UFA that summer:

Mrazek (3 x $3.8m)
Frederik Andersen (2 x $4.5m)
Brian Elliott (1 x $900K)
Antti Raanta (2 x $4m)
Jaroslav Halak (1 x $1.5m)
Braden Holtby (1 x $2m)
Martin Jones (1 x $2m)
Laurent Brossoit (2 x $2.33m)
James Reimer (2 x $2.25m)
Jonathan Bernier (2 x $4.13m)
Carter Hutton (1 x $750k)
Maxine Lagace (1 x $750k)
David Rittich (1 x $1.25m)
Philip Grubauer (6 x $5.9m)
Linus Ullmark (4 x $5m)
Craig Anderson (1x $750k)
Aaron Dell (1 x $750k)
Charlie Lindgren (1 x $750k)
Alex Lyon (1 x $750k)
Antoine Bibeau (1 x $750k)
Louis Domingue (1 x $760k)

Now remember they had ~$20.5 million in cap space that summer with only 7 NHL forwards, 5 D and one goalie under contract.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1937546890519658590
Petrielli on the team’s opportunity to remake the bottom six:

There is no more excuse for the bottom six to be on a budget. That is a positive.

The constant theme around Toronto is that it is eye-popping to see a 102-point player out the door, and that makes people nervous, but every single year, they couldn’t get it done in the playoffs. And it’s not just Mitch Marner; Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and William Nylander all took a step back in their play generally, and it was based on a model where those guys were making so much money that they had to carry the mail and make up for any other deficiencies in the roster because they coudln’t afford to fill the other holes.

The Leafs were running a third line against Florida that, ice time-wise, was generally Scott Laughton, Steven Lorentz, and Calle Jarnkrok. Those guys make $4.5 million combined, and they were playing a Florida line where Anton Lundell alone makes more money than they do. We haven’t even mentioned Brad Marchand yet.

They couldn’t fill it, and now they can. It would be nice to have a little bit more jam and energy down there in terms of players who are more physical, but we should never look at that kind of third line again going into the playoffs. There should be serious dollars and commitment put toward it now. You should be looking at it and saying, “It is genuinely a three or four-line team,” whereas the regular conversations in the past couple of years were, “If the top guys don’t do it, no one is doing it.”
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I liked this take on what should be a prime focus on the offseason, and while yes it sucks to see Marner walk for nothing there is something to be excited about when it comes to actually being able to afford having Lawson Crouse-type players on the team instead of a bunch of $10mil+ forwards and a bunch of $2mil- forwards.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1937531769625931860

If Seravelli is saying something like this without being certain that's a pretty bad look for him.

If this is in any way true the Leafs should probably be asking the league if they even care a little bit about tampering or not.
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I'll just say that last offseason Seravelli said there was a 5% chance that Marner would return to play for the Leafs and we saw how that proclamation turned out.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1937546890519658590


I liked this take on what should be a prime focus on the offseason, and while yes it sucks to see Marner walk for nothing ***there is something to be excited about*** when it comes to actually being able to afford having Lawson Crouse-type players on the team instead of a bunch of $10mil+ forwards and a bunch of $2mil- forwards.
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With all due respect, my friend: no, there isn't. The Leafs won't recover anytime soon from losing Marner for nothing.
 
LOL at Petrielli's pretzel-like answer to the question of whether the Leafs are going to take a step back.
 
ZBBM said:
With all due respect, my friend: no, there isn't. The Leafs won't recover anytime soon from losing Marner for nothing.
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I think this feels a little extreme. This isn't like when Columbus lost Panarin for nothing. If there's a team anywhere that can afford to lose an elite talent for nothing (which again I do stress sucks) it's one that still has 2 other elite talents already on the team.

This is probably a better question for a week or two from now but what does "won't recover" even mean? Where do you think the Leafs go from here... struggling to make the playoffs? With two elite forwards, the defence that's locked in, and the goaltending we have I'll find it difficult to believe that Treliving won't be able to assemble another 100+ point team next season. Maybe not if Matthews is cooked but at that point nothing would really matter anyway.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
I think this feels a little extreme. This isn't like when Columbus lost Panarin for nothing. If there's a team anywhere that can afford to lose an elite talent for nothing (which again I do stress sucks) it's one that still has 2 other elite talents already on the team.

This is probably a better question for a week or two from now but what does "won't recover" even mean? Where do you think the Leafs go from here... struggling to make the playoffs? With two elite forwards, the defence that's locked in, and the goaltending we have I'll find it difficult to believe that Treliving won't be able to assemble another 100+ point team next season. Maybe not if Matthews is cooked but at that point nothing would really matter anyway.
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Exactly. A step back, sure, but won't recover? Hardly. And, with the right moves, they could potentially come out ahead when it really matters.
 
I mean it kind of depends on whether they can improve their play controlling vs last season. They won a ton of 1-goal games last season and it’s possible a bunch of those games flip the other way next season with some worse luck.
 
Unless Matthews returns to form, I doubt they'll win the division next year, so I suppose that's a step back. Depending on how things go they could even be in a battle to earn a playoff spot, which might not be a bad thing for a team that has pretty much coasted into the playoffs almost every year. But assuming they make the playoffs, there is a good chance the team could be in a better position to make a deep run. Treliving will have to be both smart and lucky but if he can put together a roster that makes sense - especially avoiding the "spare parts" construction of the bottom 6 that we've been dealing with - I could see a deep run.

I figure there's probably 3 years left with a really good shot - basically the remaining Matthews contract years. By the time that runs out the defensive group will be pretty old, we'll still be lacking prospects and draft picks, things could go downhill pretty rapidly.

Of course, signing McDavid could change that outlook...
 
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