Extensive imagination.

I think they’ve screwed it up with this core. Obviously, anything can happen, but I don’t think it happens with the Matthews - Marner - Tavares core.

I don't think you read the post. I predicted they will win the cup with McDavid instead of Matthews. But, for that matter, I disagree. Matthews is not far behind McDavid.

I remember the 62,63, and 64 and 67 Cups, In the spring of 2030, I'll be 77 years old, so I should see another Leaf Cup by your prediction. Thanks for the optimism (if not realism)

I mean, it's kind of betting on the fact McDavid comes home, which might not happen, but I do think there's about a 50% chance they win in the next 10 years.

Toronto can win the cup every year.

They will win the cup the year after Seth Jones becomes a UFA

I would put my money on McDavid coming to the Leafs as a UFA,

For Mcdavid to come to Toronto requires 3 major things to happen (some of which you laid out):

1. Matthews walks as a FA, leaving a hole and opening cap space.
2. Edmonton has to be bad the entirety of his current contract (right on pace for that lol). If EDM wins a cup he won't leave.
3. The Leafs can't win a cup before MCdavid's contract is up, if they do I think Matthews might stay and the core might stay intact (likely no cap space for Mcdavid if this happens).

Wouldn't necessarily say that. But I'd bet on him leaving Edmonton. Who knows tho, too far away to predict. All depends on Oilers next few seasons. He can't waste his entire career on a bad team, if they turn it around he'll stay, if he not, he can't.

The only reason Thornton joined the Leafs is that the Leafs have a possibility (a slim one) of winning the Cup. Gee the Leaf fans, were weren't even born treat the Cup winners of the 60s like heroes. Gotta think McDavid might want to cash in commercially if ever he could bring the Leafs the a Cup in about 2030, the first one since 1967.

Leafs going to the west after the Canadian division, might be interesting, if everything was normal and remained the same a lesser Bruins/pens/wsh starting to come the end of there run and ahead of ott/nj/nyr builds, and abit of a banged up Tb, and close to cap hell. The window for Toronto is getting wider and wider open. Just about a east final or cup final prediction from me. In the west and Canadian division a little up in the air but they would be favourites for the Canadian division. If they stay in division and meet a colorado or Vegas might be trouble, but that’s why they play the games.

You think it will be that late from now?

I don't like any of this, especially losing Matthews.

Nah, they will be keeping Rielly. No need to replace him, even if Jones is a bit better.

I agree. The question is not if, but when. If Edmonton turns out to be very good, he will likely stay there, and come to the leafs in about 2035.



I agree dzad. In this, 2 of those happened. I also think edmonton will be bad enough that McDavid will leave.

They get McDavid! That's an upgrade.

I don't see McDavid coming to the Leafs. He will be 29 when his contract ends. He will want to win a cup to cement his legacy.

What do you mean? Coming to the leafs with Marner and Nylander would give him a good chance at that.

A team doesn't win a cup based on 3 players. This team is going to decimate it's future over the next 3 or 4 years (already started with terrible development - sacrificing the long-term future for the most minimal short term gain) in a quixotic attempt to win a cup with Matthews.

They'd still have Robertson, Rielly, Sandin, Liligeren, Amirov, and in this scenario, Kuemper, and the 2nd overall pick they got (just made that up, whatever). Who's development have they wrecked?

Dubas has already thrown out his entire philosophy of development with Sandin, Liljegren and Robertson to try to save his ass because of the badly underperforming team he constructed last year. That won't stop. It has done a complete 180 from saying that the team has to do what is right by the young players, to the young players only matter in terms of how they can help the team today.

Remember come the end of this season that Leafs' fans (and indeed most experts) had Sandin on par with Romanov (and most Leafs' fans had Sandin well ahead) and hopefully recognize that the massive canyon that will exist between them by the end of this season (and which to a lessor extent already exists between them now because of Toronto's irresponsible development over the last 12 months) is because of good development vs terrible development.

How did they develop Sandin so poorly though? I don't think people value him much less since last year. Toronto being a win now team is a good thing. And the leafs are not sacrificing their top prospects development to do it (although I am disappointed they aren't playing Robertson).

"We don't want our players going up to the Leafs before they're ready, and we don't want them shuttling up and down. We want players to be called up to the Leafs when they're young and on the first two years of their entry-level contracts ONLY when they prove that they can be a Leaf, all the time."

Dubas knows that bringing in players on the first two years of their entry-level contracts before they will be permanent is harmful, so harmful that he emphasized that they would only ever bring those players in when they were confident they would be permanent - and yet he has brought all 3 of his top prospects into the NHL before they will be permanent.

Then you compound that stupidity with, when it comes to Sandin, telling him to stay in game shape from March until August so they could not bother to dress him in the return to play, instead of having him start offseason training in March so that he could have taken advantage of what would have been the best opportunity he will ever have in his career to gain mass and strength (again going from: the team has to do what is right by the young players, to the young players only matter in terms of how they can help the team today). That left him needing to try to do so for a couple months in the fall, when he could have actually been playing in Europe. But instead he will go 10+ months without playing and then play some games in an AHL that will be of much lower quality than the league has ever been.

Leafs' fans (and most experts) compared Sandin with Romanov (with Leafs' fans generally putting Sandin ahead, often far ahead). By the end of this season it will be considered a joke to compare them. Romanov will be that far ahead, and Sandin will never catch up. Incidentally, both of them desperately needed to get bigger and a year ago Sandin weighed a couple pounds more than Romanov. But Sandin, due to the Leafs' irresponsibility is actually coming in several pounds lighter than he was a year ago, while Romanov under the guidance of Montreal now outweighs Sandin by over 20 pounds. Montreal will ensure that Romanov is not shuttled up and down, and they ensured there was a pathway for him to move to the top-4 quickly (likely by the end of the season at the latest). Sandin on the other hand will become the 4th D to play enough as a teenager to burn a year of his ELC and then get buried in the minors the next year. It is no surprise to those who understand development (as Dubas does as per the link above) that the other 3 never turned out (despite being high touted prospects and two being top-20 picks).

You might be right about some of the stuff you've said with Sandin. But let's pump the breaks on Romanov a bit...