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Leafs Acquired Jonathan Bernier

#1PilarFan said:
CarltonTheBear said:
One thing that is concerning is that the Leafs now have yet another hole to plug in their forwards. Gone (or likely gone) are Bozak, MacArthur, Frattin, and Komarov. Last season those 4 guys came in at a combined $6.875mil. It'd be mighty difficult to replace those guys at a lower or equal cap hit.
MacArthur, Frattin and Komarov averaged about 14 minutes per game each. These guys were not used a lot. Replacing Bozak will be tricky, but those three? You can find grinders/reclamation projects in the AHL and in free agency. Hamilton and Colbourne are two guys that could probably come in and replace their production for a minimal cost.

Nonis has said today that one of the reasons for a 2 for 1 trade was to open up spots for the Marlies - which I took to mean open up spots to call up Marlies to the Leafs.
 
#1PilarFan said:
CarltonTheBear said:
One thing that is concerning is that the Leafs now have yet another hole to plug in their forwards. Gone (or likely gone) are Bozak, MacArthur, Frattin, and Komarov. Last season those 4 guys came in at a combined $6.875mil. It'd be mighty difficult to replace those guys at a lower or equal cap hit.
MacArthur, Frattin and Komarov averaged about 14 minutes per game each. These guys were not used a lot. Replacing Bozak will be tricky, but those three? You can find grinders/reclamation projects in the AHL and in free agency. Hamilton and Colbourne are two guys that could probably come in and replace their production for a minimal cost.

It definitely depends on how they replace them, definitely. Komarov and Frattin shouldn't be too difficult, like you say. We should be able to replace them in-house. But if the Leafs feel that they need to dip into the free agent market to replace Bozak and MacArthur, we could be looking at doubling the cap hit for those two roster spots. Particularly if go after Weiss and Clarkson like some speculate we will.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
It definitely depends on how they replace them, definitely. Komarov and Frattin shouldn't be too difficult, like you say. We should be able to replace them in-house. But if the Leafs feel that they need to dip into the free agent market to replace Bozak and MacArthur, we could be looking at doubling the cap hit for those two roster spots. Particularly if go after Weiss and Clarkson like some speculate we will.
Replacing Bozak was always going to be difficult. But this trade has little bearing on that. Sure, the numbers may have gotten a little tighter, but it's still very early in the offseason, and Nonis has a few contracts that could potentially be moved in order to free up cap space (Liles, Grabovski, Kulemin) without really hurting the core of the team.

As for Clarkson, I think that he might be a bit of a reach for a team that has more quality wingers than quality centers. 
 
#1PilarFan said:
As for Clarkson, I think that he might be a bit of a reach for a team that has more quality wingers than quality centers. 

I think this is where my biggest concern is. Last season, I would have agreed with you that our wingers were solid. Solid enough to be mostly left alone with summer. Had we just lost MacArthur, I would have still been comfortable staying the course there. But I do think losing Frattin as well is going to force Nonis into bringing in somebody else from the free agent market. Whether it's Clarkson or somebody else, he's likely going to come in at over what Mac and Frattin cost combined.

Essentially, this is what we're left with on our wings for our top-9:

JVR-Kessel
Lupul-x
x-Kulemin

That might be stronger than our centre depth, but it's not saying much. Also, I don't think there's anybody in the organization that is ready to fill one of those wing spots right now. And if Lupul goes down with another injury things look downright bad.

It's not the end of the world, no. But I'm just not crazy throwing that much money towards the wings.
 
It's being reported that the Leafs are also taking back a cap hit of about $500k in the deal. Again, not the end of the world but a little strange seeing as how both players that the Kings received are on bargain contracts.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
It's being reported that the Leafs are also taking back a cap hit of about $500k in the deal. Again, not the end of the world but a little strange seeing as how both players that the Kings received are on bargain contracts.

I don't get that one.  Throwing away cap space for the hell of it. 
 
Meh.  Seems a little pricey to send 3 assets over for some goaltending depth, especially when there are way more pressing needs on this team that those assets could be cashed in for.

 
Green Leaf said:
We lost a man that delivers in Frattin, hope Bernier can do the same..

That breakaway in game 7 where he was so close to getting a shot on goal was awesome!
 
Man, I know I slept in late today but I didn't realize I slept completely through Matt Frattin's back to back 25 goal seasons.
 
OldTimeHockey said:
Nik the Trik said:
Man, I know I slept in late today but I didn't realize I slept completely through Matt Frattin's back to back 25 goal seasons.

Do you at least feel refreshed.

A little, but now I feel like I have to comb through the newspapers to see what else I've missed. How many Cups have the Leafs won since I've been asleep? Who's the Prime Minister? Have our Ape overlords established colonies on Mars?
 
Nik the Trik said:
OldTimeHockey said:
Nik the Trik said:
Man, I know I slept in late today but I didn't realize I slept completely through Matt Frattin's back to back 25 goal seasons.

Do you at least feel refreshed.

A little, but now I feel like I have to comb through the newspapers to see what else I've missed. How many Cups have the Leafs won since I've been asleep? Who's the Prime Minister? Have our Ape overlords established colonies on Mars?

What's a "newspapers"?
 
Seymore Pucks said:
I could see Hamilton replacing Frattin in the lineup.  I think Carlye likes his work ethic.

Certainly Frattin's last 21 games anyway.

I don't mind the deal, but like others have said, it's a bit on the high side and the deal could come out in our favour if Bernier steals the show.

Part of me is wondering if Frattin's knee issues are more of a factor in the Leafs being more willing to part with him in the deal. If it was Frattin of before the injury, I don't think we would have to had added anything to the deal. I think we should give Lombardi a bit of credit here also, for driving a fair to hard bargain here, he's a pretty good GM IMO.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Essentially, this is what we're left with on our wings for our top-9:

JVR-Kessel
Lupul-x
x-Kulemin

That might be stronger than our centre depth, but it's not saying much. Also, I don't think there's anybody in the organization that is ready to fill one of those wing spots right now. And if Lupul goes down with another injury things look downright bad.

Maybe, but I can't help but feel as though this deal at least suggests that they do think there are some guys who are going to get very serious looks with the big club next year. Whether it's giving Colborne a legit shot to make the team on the wing or someone like Ross I think they're probably going to at least try and fill these spots with some of the vaunted depth Burke supposedly left the team with.
 

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