Tom Sestito

A lot of those guys you mentioned literally don’t put up points. I don’t care about size when it comes to ability to defend. Fox plays against other teams best players and doesn’t get scored on. Same with Toews, same with McAvoy. Being small doesn’t negate your ability to defend lol.

Hedman didn't have a good year defensively while playing through injuries but you can include him here. Fox plays against the other teams best players and has stellar results. Devon Toews, Mackenzie Weegar, Charlie McAvoy are all excellent defensive players who produce offensively.

Which is objectively great news. If true *

Sure, I totally agree it’s subjective. I don’t think that changes the necessity of being aggressive. We have a two year window here before JT/Bo are UFA’s. Both will require significant pay raises. Either you are aggressive to improve into a top team (not just one that squeaks in because of a bad division with no real chance of winning multiple rounds) or you take a step back here and don’t sacrifice the future to make win now moves. I don’t like what the team is were we to maintain status quo or close to it.

Because Benning said they're going to be aggressive this summer? Because Miller/Bo only have one year until they hit UFA? Because you risk an Eichel type situation with star unhappiness with EP if you're bad again this year?

Not that I disagree with you, but how do you propose we get those players and the subsequent capspace needed without overpaying the available assets we have to dump salary? We need a 1st pairing defender, 2nd line winger, 3rd line center, and second pairing defender at the minimum (~20MM) We need to move on from 75% of Myers, Eriksson, Beagle, Roussel, Holtby, Jake to get there. This is why I don't understand how we can be aggressive this summer?

it's a hand shake deal that we're going to protect him and benning isn't the kind of guy to then expose him regardless of the likelihood of seattle taking him being minimal

Which mental gymnastics? I said the leafs failed to meet the expectations they set and pointed out numerous flaws that no one here would disagree with. They failed in execution. So uh, what's the mental gymnastics here?

&^@# everyone else and do what's best for your own mental health. She's awesome.

A plan can be good in theory but poor in execution. Matthews contract is poor in term because he can bolt early in his eligibility & Marner is overpaid. They made a lot of poor pro scouting decisions on the back end and in the bottom six (Zaitsev and Barrie among the most notable ones defensively). They rode out babcock for too long and the players hated him. Keefe OTOH was a rookie coach coming into a win-now situation which was a poor hire to make. I don't have an issue with a rookie coach growing with a group of players, but you can't bring one into

https://hfboards.mandatory.com/threads/2020-2021-around-the-league-thread-playoff-edition-iii.2825507/page-40 everyone in there is loling @ the leafs as well but good try

All ik is Horvat and EP stepped up to the plate in the playoffs and didn’t mental midget like Matthews and Marner

that's not a great comment w the insinuations on the botchford thing 1. that's not botchford's writing style and isn't close to it 2. the last time that account was accessed was in 2020

There’s really no point of just trying to take a shot in the dark squeaking into the playoffs when you’re this far behind teams like Colorado, Tampa, etc. They are so good.

I much prefer Parayko and Cernak as targets on the ice even forgetting the off ice stuff.