Quoting: Rokk
They're a better team on the ice because he's all they got. He'd be more affective if he was on the 2nd line where he belongs. Instead of on the 1st where the team is actually counting on him to score. You can rely on metrics all you want. Metrics won't win championships on paper Toronto is listed as one of the best teams in the league almost every season. How close have metrics brought them to the cup. Hoffman would be a perfect fit playing along side Barzal because he knows where the net is.
With that said I don't think Lou's going for Hall or Hoffman. If he was at all interested he would have already cleared the cap space to sign them by now. My guess is our RFA's are being difficult in their negotiations and wanting more than the team can afford to pay.
Toronto has been great offensively, it’s the defense and goaltending that have let them down. Every team that goes far in the playoffs has some of the best analytics dept in the league. Colorado, Boston, TB, and Carolina are 4 teams that let their analytics department dictate what moves they make.
There is less than a 1% chance trotz would let Hoffman play with barzal, and that was pretty much confirmed by staple who said that because Hoffman is so bad defensively he would have to play on the 3rd line with pageau. Makes no sense to pay 6 mill for a 31 year old to play on the 3rd line.
It’s been rumored that Lou checked in on hall and Dadonov, so I think he’s interested. It depends if he can shed a few bad contracts soon, which will be tough.
I don’t think it’s the negotiations are a problem right now - I believe lou is focused on shedding bad contracts and then focusing on the RFAs. Toews and pulock field for arbitration, which is good because it means they want to sign and they can’t sign an offersheet now. Both will get done before arbitration IMO, ho-sang will be the only one to have. A hearing.