Can the leafs trade Thornton to this team -_-

The leafs aren’t winning **** ... dk why he picked them

With that goaltending duo nah. Both guys get injured to often and are inconsistent.

I think they’ll upgrade at TDL (expectation not a sure bet) but they definitely need to IMO - grubauer is good but the Avs shoulda beat Dallas - they were the better team it seemed

Need a solid back up/ replacement

Francouz has a concussion in 2019....what are you talking about.

I mean talk about getting into a hissy fit bc a sharks fan thinks the avs would be a better team for Thornton to win a cup with...yourr statements are just like saying wait till freddie has to play in an elimination game and post a sub .900 performance

This team is indeed pretty solid.

not just backup. They need a new goaltending duo

Only guy they may get is Raanta but the injury fairy has his number to

Grubauer is solid - we can’t just assume he’ll injured again (just like we can’t assume we won’t get injured) - he’d be a useful piece for this team especially if he’s healthy

With mostly Maker bonuses, aren't you @ -3m ish cap. Is a Cole or Compher deal needed?

No the bonuses can roll over

Obviously, but not helpful with future cap. Next year's raises puts you over the cap.

They won’t be over the cap, they will lose someone in the expansion draft and promote guys internally to fill roles

They will be fine

Stars still beat this team in 7 games. Toews is the only upgrade. Saad may not even be healthy. Goaltending was not addressed. The defense is overrated. Makar wasn't as good defensively as he is touted to be. Watching all 7 games, the stars (one of the lowest scoring teams in the league), made him look silly at times. They'll look good in the regular season and make everyone swoon and then they'll choke again.

Oh my gosh. Man this forum. Where the excellent Avs duo is a 'problem' and Korpisalo (career .908 sv%) is apparently now very good due to 9 playoff games.

Grubauer is one of the most consistent goalies by sv% of his generation, really hard given numbers fluctuating much more in smaller sample sizes, wow.

The end of the Dallas series was crazy unlucky and their injury history isn't that bad. Maybe y'all shouldn't read heavily into small sample sizes? Golly.

Two quality goalies making it less precarious even

Chiasson started his NHL career with 6G in 7G. After 8 seasons he still hasn't hit 100 despite a bunch of time beside Connor McDavid. Small samples unreliable.

colorado hasn't got further than the second round since 2001 lmfao.

This stacked team hasn't gotten to the conference final despite being cup favourites every year. Yeah they were injured, but the leafs also lost Kadri two years in a row, Muzzin (their best defender) etc.

The leafs are just as likely to go deep as colorado lol, they have equal star power, better goaltending, better defense (relative to previous years, not better defense than colorado)

I just don't know why there's such a huge gap between Toronto and Colorado when really their results are not that dissimilar

....did you seriously just imply Toronto is more of a Cup Contender than Colorado...?

Not more of a cup contender, but like, the idea that Thornton should've OBVIOUSLY picked Colorado when they have a first round exit and 2 second round exits to their name pisses me off

The leafs are a good team who's gotten unlucky, no different than colorado has. If Colorado has been in and out of 2 cup finals, a couple conference finals then yeah, Colorado is obviously a way better choice, but Colorado doesn't exactly have a stellar resume in the last 5 years. At least the leafs have a couple 100+ point seasons under their belt lmao

If the logic that "colorado hasn't been playing to their potential, they totally can win a cup" applies to them, idk why it can't apply to the leafs, because on paper, the leafs are very good, there's no denying it.

Idk bro, I just got triggered by the thornton comment >: ( didn't mean to text wall on a colorado post

They had the 4th highest team save percentage in the league last season. I guess both guys getting injured in the same playoff series once equals too often.

I don’t doubt Toronto is a good team but Toronto is not a cup favourite. Colorado was literally better than Dallas this past year. They lost due to goaltending (their own goaltending and AK playing unreal for Dallas). Colorado upgraded their : offence, they upgraded their defence, and they have makar who is expected to continue his development into becoming a star. Colorado also has the second best (and a case for being better than McDavid, a CASE, not saying he is that’s a subjective argument when it comes down so close) player Mackinnon. Colorado also has room to upgrade their goaltending situation which I think they do, especially if byram steps into the NHL this year.

Cup favourites imo are:
Vegas, Tampa (still well see what they look like), Colorado, St. Louis, Philly, Dallas. (No order)

Then we got a grouping of (imo) (no order) :
Wash, Boston, Carolina

Than:
Toronto
Montreal
Isles
Vancouver
Calgary
Columbus

I don’t see Toronto coming out the east compared to Philly, Wash, Tampa. I could see them beating Boston, Carolina. But they gotta go through any of (in order of strength): Tampa, Washington/ Philly/ Boston/ Carolina, then Montreal, Isles and Columbus. It’s just a brick wall - it would be incredible to see them take those guys down (3 teams obv) but I doubt it

I see Colorado being able to beat:
Dallas
Vancouver
Calgary

I see St. Louis x Vegas x Colorado coming down to TDL moves and play. The west is weak (all Cali teams are useless, Arizona went from hero to zero, Calgary just isn’t doing it for me IMO, Vancouver has potential to upset but still aren’t there yet IMO (soon), EDM doesn’t have a good enough team, Jets got potential, Chicago is done - so is minny - so is Nash imo.

The chances of Colorado out of the west is much higher then Toronto out of the east.

That's true, Colorado is an absolute beast, they are cup favourites. I just didn't like the assumption that Toronto is absolute garbage and that Thornton was dumb to come here

Toronto is not a cup favourite, but they aren't drastically behind other teams who are regularly in the conversation to go deep.

Khudobin had a crowd pleasing .899 save percentage in the series v. the Avs. Combined with the half a period that Bishop tossed out Dallas had a combined .890. Maybe they needed to address their goaltending. If the Avs hadn't played 3 games with a goalie with a broken hand and another 3 with Michael Hutchinson they likely would have routined Dallas in 5 or 6 games. Even with those guys plus Landeskog, Donskoi, Johnson and Calvert out it took Dallas going to OT of Game 7 to win. It's really amusing how Dallas fans are all up and hard about their mediocre team catching a bunch of breaks and making it to the Final before a good team dusted them, Good luck running that back.

Yeah - it think a lot will come down to Brodie’s play. Can’t say I’m a fan of him but I can’t say he’s garbage (nor the leafs). Especially compared to Ceci+Barrie the leafs actually have a competent back end now with Brodie adding a lot of stability.

Toronto could easily beat their first round match up if it’s Montreal/ Canadian team/ Columbus - they could beat Boston but we have to assume if Tuuka is playing and he’s playing like Normal Boston will be much better this year than forcing halak to play + we also assume Boston is gonna add a UFA to their top6 or trade for a top 4 d (or at least do something).

They just got a much more difficult path (which also can lead to a much more gratifying story if they can pull it off)

Khudobin made the saves when he had to, otherwise we wouldn't have won. The Avs have a lot of firepower. I'll give you that. Offensively, they are elite. Defensively? You cannot refute the fact the Stars were 30th in the league in goals forward, and yet, they scored The Stars played to Colorado's game and beat them. That's it. You can argue all you want that Colorado was a better team and injured, but they didn't win. That's it. The only part of this that matters. Dallas was also injured. Did you see that injury list after the finals? If not, I'll summarize. They had 10 starters injured or out in some way shape or form. But regardless of all that, Dallas won that series because they scored 28 goals and the Avs scored 27. Wouldn't have mattered if Grubauer was in. Wouldn't have mattered if Johnson was in. The Avs defense is simply not good enough for a deep run if they plan to give the team that was 30th in the league that many scoring opportunities. Will the Avs be better with Toews? Absolutely. Will Makar get better than average defensively? Sure. Are the Avs a better team? Yes. Can you beat Dallas as currently constructed? No. I don't see this Avs team as being much better than last year. A seven game series and the round robin plus the fact they were 0-2-2 vs dallas in the regular season. That makes them 4-5-3 vs Dallas. That's 12 games. Not a small sample size. If the Avs prove me wrong, that's fine. It could happen. But I don't see enough yet.