Lol.

But where's the 4th line gritty guys to grind it out?

Do you think the Penguins can extend Galchenyuk (3 years 15 million AAV) and Schultz (3 years 18 million AAV) and then send them to the Leafs along with a first round pick for Marner?

No. I doubt Marner ever goes anywhere, and that's a good thing - he's a heckuva hockey player, even if he is overpaid. But it is interesting to think about what 11M of cap space can get you given team needs.

The leafs have placed their bet on their core and this cap structure . I'd imagine they'll ride that bet for a few years to see what it brings them. And I don't think it's a bad bet at all. But we'll see.

This might be a hot take and I typically don't comment on other teams because I'm not knowledgeable enough but from an outside perspective:

Babcock is probably 25% of the problem here. When you're paying guys like Marner, Matthews, Tavares, Nylander you'd hope those guys are pulling your teams to win. Draisaitl and McDavid make about Matthews and Marner money so you'd hope you're getting more production from your top guys.

You guys arguably have one of the best forward corps and they can't figure it out. You guys lost 6-1 to a Crosby-less Pens team. You're top 4 (3 without Marner) should be able to get more than 1 goal for your team and that's not the coach's fault.

I don't think that's a hot take at all. Seems like a pretty spot on assessment, imo.

It is kind of a mystery as to where the leafs offense has gone. I'd say Babcock is at least 50% of the problem and the other 50% is on the players.

But you can't fire the whole team. So, fire Babcock, solve 50% of the problem with one move and sit back and watch the other half of the problem improve as a result.

I think that this team needs time to gel. Most of the critics fail to acknowledge that Barrie and Ceci are new to the team. When your two top defensemen on one side are becoming familiar with the rest of the squad, there are going to be bad results on some nights, and some other nights will look downright brutal. By the TDL, this team should be ready to go -- unless I'm overestimating the commitment of guys who are going to be UFA's when the season is over. (I'd think they would be making their best effort whether they want to stay in Toronto or not, in order to get the most lucrative new contracts possible.)

The 4th is there, Goat with mikheyev and spezza.

Matthews and Tavares both play about 18min a game. This is with kerfoot and marner out. Babs refuses to give the top two lines more ice time than third line. So I have removed it.

But that makes them third line. Everybody knows that Babcock needs his fourth line for all defensive face offs in all situations or we're lost. .

That’s why Goat and spezza are on the fourth line. My point here is that a third with spezza at centre should never get the same amount of ice time as Matthews line.

Yeah, I gotcha. It's a bit hard to figure out why Babcock makes the deployment decisions he does. It's one thing if his approach was working, but it's not, and it hasn't for some time. Refusing to change with the mounting evidence that what he's doing isn't working should be a fireable offense in itself. I was just trying to make a funny out of it and keep it light

Babcock just hasn't got the team to buy in, he wants them grinding, they want to fly, they end up stuck in the middle, and its terrible. Not to mention that they somehow get under 18 minutes each.