Exactly! This team is amazing! You got good goalies, good defence men, and forward group with a lot of potential! Good job, this is a very good team!

Realistically I don't think this team competes for a cup

It does. You have 2 of the 10 best forwards in the league, one of the most underrated 2C in the league, their D-core and G are elite and they have a lot of quality F depth

I agree with the other guy, but think its a team that could compete for a cup but its got an awful lot of muckers and then Crosby's line. The defence is good but I am not sure its as good as you think its going to be and the overall skill isn't nearly as high as many other teams. The age of the squad as well is detrimental to long term success. Its a team that would be trying to contend right now knowing their window is very short. I think a fast team with more skill could handle this team. Or a team that is all defence and has more depth, take out their top line and I think their bottom 9 forwards will lose to a lot of contending teams right now.

Parayko: top 3 shutdown d-men in the league
Brodin: can do everything from moving the puck to hitting to putting up pts
Ellis: elite at everything
Lindell: very underrated
Pionk: the perfect number 4, 2nd PP unit guy
Nutivaara: the perfect 3rd pairing guy


Also you don't take out Panarin/Crosby so easily

Parayko is deserving of all the praise he gets, he's terrific. Ellis is good but he's injured almost as much as he's healthy and for all his elite play, Nashville sucked this year. Brodin is a very solid player as well but he's a secondary guy, also he doesn't put up the points, never has, his career high is 28 points. The rest is just good players sure but none are game breakers. You must be a huge fan of the Islanders. They operate with the mentality you seem to like, just be blue collar, lunch pale players and work hard and you'll win. Skilled guys aren't needed just hard working guys.

As for Crosby and Panarin, they are both terrific and would be hard to stop, although I am not sure they'd work well together. Crosby is not an easy guy to play with which is why he's always had weird linemates.

I like hard work more than a lot of things because it's not automatic... getting talent is easy, tank, get the 2nd overall pick, draft Eichel, BOOM got talent, you can trade for it

Where as hard work is a skill on its own, just watch the Darren Helm shift on a PK against CHI, that's what I LOVE... relentlessness, grit, fast players... AKA Gallagher, Hyman...


Edit: does it surprise you that Hyman is my 2nd favorite Leaf after Rielly?

How is Lehner signed for $1.4M?

Basically he was signed at a 5mil AAV on July 1st, 2019... he was moved to Vegas with some retention, then Vegas sent about 1 mil of his deal to TOR and a 5th rounder

Getting talent is certainly not easy. Finding offense is exceptionally hard, its literally what everyone who is any sort of hockey person says, scoring goals is the single hardest thing to do in the NHL. Working hard, playing defence, that all can be taught. What Matthews can do better than pretty much anyone (Scoring goals) isn't something that is easy to find, what Marner can do, or Nylander can do or JT or Rielly, those guys can do stuff the vast majority of players will just never be able to do. I love Hyman, he's terrific but you can find others that do what he does, you can find other who do what Kapanen does, or Bryan Rust, or insert any secondary player who performs with stars. The difference between those guys and any other NHL player isn't much, its hardwork (Hyman works harder than most guys with his skill set), luck and chemistry. The difference between Matthews and Hyman though is massive. This is why TO pays their top end guys big money and everyone else gets squeezed, they just aren't comparable. Matthews, Marner and Nylander are all coming into their own though, they are going to be hitting their prime much like MacKinnon did in his 4th or 5th season. When that happens, and they learn to be consistent, this team will be so dangerous all the time and with Keefe's system protecting the net, they will be stifling. Lesser teams won't be able to get the puck from them and when they do have the puck won't have many opportunities to score. Now if only they can figure out how to get a better PK unit, this team will be contending for the next 6-8 years.

They need one more d-man who can play that, which is why I keep making teams with 11 F and 7 D

Rielly-Guy that will play PK, call him Savard if you want
Muzzin-Dermott
Lehtonen-Holl
Sandin

If you are going to go with 7 D why not just use Marincin, for all his problems he is absolutely a terrific penalty killer. Although I don't think any 1 defenceman is going to make a significant difference on the PK. Chara might just because he's so big but beyond a huge player, I don't see any defenceman making much of a difference. What really is needed is someone to win draws on the PK. If I was Keefe, I'd use JT to start PK's and even Matthews if he has a hot hand on the draw. Get the puck and then dump it down and change for Hyman or Kap or whichever top PK guy. Using Hyman and Kapanen on the draws just doesn't work. The Leafs have been one of the best FO teams in the league for 3 straight years and yet on the PK they lose 55% of the draws. A lot of those lost draws end up in the back of the net. Flip that to 55% in your favor, that a lone would bring the PK from bottom 3rd to at least the middle of the pack.