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Training Camp Thread

Bender said:
I wonder if Findlay gets a bit of a look.
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It's early for him, but he and Watling have really impressed me, seem like prototypical modern bottom 6 players, skate well, defensively sound and are involved in smart offensive plays.
 
Bender said:
I wonder if Findlay gets a bit of a look.
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I doubt it. He's signed to an AHL deal and the Leafs are pressing up against the reserve list limit for contracts - they have one spot available, and that's only if Nylander doesn't make the team (if he does, they'll be maxed out). They'll almost certainly be keeping that spot open just in case they want to keep Tallinder or Mikkelson around. They'd pretty much have to move someone out to sign him, and there's a lot of more experienced and cheap competition for the spots he'd be fighting for. He's pretty much a lock for the Marlies.
 
bustaheims said:
He's signed to an AHL deal and the Leafs are pressing up against the reserve list limit for contracts - they have one spot available, and that's only if Nylander doesn't make the team (if he does, they'll be maxed out).
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I actually asked the capgeek guy on twitter about this today, he said Nylander would count against the reserve list even if his contract slides while in the AHL. It's only if he was sent to the OHL that he wouldn't take up a spot.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
I actually asked the capgeek guy on twitter about this today, he said Nylander would count against the reserve list even if his contract slides while in the AHL. It's only if he was sent to the OHL that he wouldn't take up a spot.
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Or Sweden, I imagine. So, basically, if Nylander plays professional hockey in North America, the Leafs have no reserve list spots available without moving someone.
 
bustaheims said:
Bender said:
I wonder if Findlay gets a bit of a look.
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I doubt it. He's signed to an AHL deal and the Leafs are pressing up against the reserve list limit for contracts - they have one spot available, and that's only if Nylander doesn't make the team (if he does, they'll be maxed out). They'll almost certainly be keeping that spot open just in case they want to keep Tallinder or Mikkelson around. They'd pretty much have to move someone out to sign him, and there's a lot of more experienced and cheap competition for the spots he'd be fighting for. He's pretty much a lock for the Marlies.
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I meant more in a general sense. Maybe he will be getting more attention while down in the A rather than being considered filler.
 
Bender said:
I meant more in a general sense. Maybe he will be getting more attention while down in the A rather than being considered filler.
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Maybe, but, I have my doubts about that, as well. He looked good in the rookie tournament, but, playing against pros - even in the AHL - is a completely different ballgame.
 
Leafs? Kessel not hot on Spott?s breakout strategy: Feschuk

http://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2014/09/17/leafs_kessel_not_hot_on_spotts_breakout_strategy_feschuk.html
In the days after Steve Spott landed a job as a rookie assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs in July, he was tasked with a bevy of responsibilities by head coach Randy Carlyle.

...

?Spotter said that when he went to Phil (with the breakout play), Phil said, I?m not doing it,? said one of the attendees, a former professional player.

Said another: ?Spott was saying (that) these are the things I?ve got to deal with now that I?ve never had to deal with. In the AHL (where Spott coached last season with the Toronto Marlies), when you?re the coach what you say goes. Whereas now that I?m here (in the NHL), I?ve got a guy telling me: No. I?m not going to do that.?
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Potvin29 said:
I certainly believe Steve Spott said all this to random minor hockey coaches.
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Especially weeks before he was part of any practices as part of the Leafs' coaching staff and so soon after he landed the job. He'd definitely say those things in front of anonymous minor hockey coaches. I can certainly see why Feschuk would think we'd believe that.
 
Man, who the hell approved that article? It's all a bunch of hearsay. One of the direct parties involved (Kessel) said he had no memory of it, and the other (Spott) didn't even bother commenting on it. Does anybody seriously think that Spott would go around and say "Phil hates coaches. He hates Randy. He hates me and I don?t even know him yet" to a bunch of nobodies?
 
Ok, so I'm still pretty sure that entire article is make-believe, but if it isn't then this might be the funniest bit:

The Leafs assistant shared other tidbits. He told the clinic that the team?s search for better defensive play will see them strongly discourage defencemen from making high-risk keep-in plays at the opposing blue line ? pinching, in the parlance. Spott said that Toronto?s defencemen will be instructed to ?never trust a forward? to backcheck or cover.
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That would be some top-notch coaching.
 
Ok, one more from me about this tonight:

Spott also told the group that the Leafs need to improve communication with the AHL Marlies. While the NHL team and its top minor-league affiliate conduct practices in rinks separated by the lobby of their Etobicoke training facility, Spott said there wasn?t enough synergy between the clubs last season; their Xs and Os on power plays and penalty kills, for instance, differed. Since the Leafs have repeatedly spoken of the importance of developing players through the minors, Spott said it would make more sense for the Marlies to mimic the game plan of the Leafs.
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"Spott" knows that he was the coach of the Marlies last season, right? If he wanted to mimic the Leafs specialty teams I'm sure that could have easily been accomplished. Also, this is Spott talking to MLHS in August about the relationship between the Leafs and Marlies systems:

The 5 on 5 systems are the same. Where we have some creativity and some flexibility is in our powerplay and our penalty kill. With the Marlies, those might have been a little different than what Randy did last year. But the 5 on 5 systems are the same, so when the players get called up they know what to expect.
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That sounds like two pretty different takes on the situation.
 
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