I would certainly be surprised if any team offers him 5 years at his age/injury history. If they did it would bring down the AAV tho, wouldn’t start at 5. I’m with you tho, I think a 3-4 year deal in between 4 and 4.5 could be had. There will need to be some cap gymnastics, Ritchie(could just buy him out), Kerfoot, Holl being moved but doable.

IMO I see Semyonov here this year and next. I think they are super high on him.

The Leafs next year will finally have options internally to compete for roster spots instead of dumpster diving for FA reclamation projects.

If you play in a junior and trying to get drafted in the nhl what do you do about school

Home school normally promoted through the junior team I think, but I could be completely wrong

Also high school hockey is though to watch. It’s probably different in college

Kinda crazy stat: Rasmus Sandin has more hits on the season so far (20) than Jake Muzzin (19) & Wayne Simmonds (17)TOR hit leaders:Ritchie: 23Sandin: 20Muzzin: 19Simmonds: 17Rielly, Holl, Bunting: 16TOR has 209 hits on the year which ranks 14th in the NHL.#LeafsForever

— Joseph Zita (@josephdzita) November 3, 2021

For a team that gets criticized for lack of toughness, they are 14th in the NHL for hits. 🤷‍♂️

I’ve got two Neighbors in the OHL, and the team contributes cash towards school and travelling costs and that’s how they get “paid

I mean 21 teams have played less games than them lol and I don't think other teams are overly worried about a couple 4th liners racking up hits if they can still steamroll the players that are good. It would certainly benefit the Leafs to add sandpaper to their top 6 if the guy deserved to be there on merit (like if Ritchie was actually good at hockey)

Uh did the Sabres just acquire Johnny Boychuk?

Why yes they did

The Leafs have lost in consecutive playoffs because of the lack of point production from their top players. 😆 toughness has not been their issue

Most players with a high number of hits and hits/60 are 4th liners.

Beauty add. Lol we added 6m and still have the most cap space

No they've clearly lost because they didn't have enough "character" guys for the analysts to fawn over.

Toughness...yes mental toughness cost the top players.

The goat

🤞that Greg Harden will be there best offseason addition

https://www.tsn.ca/new-peak-performance-coach-helps-leafs-sharpen-mental-game-1.1699660

Did we get anything in return?

air

You got the mysterious entity known as FC

As expected, NJD recall Alex Holtz. Looks like he will make his NHL debut this weekend in California.

I'm not the one trying to justify the Leafs being "tough" because the team is middle of the pack in hits lol. There are other types of grit which they are lacking, such as mental toughness, willingness to do literally anything to get the puck in the net, etc. Specifically Marner and Matthews, and honestly those are the most important players to have that. Having Ritchie and Simmonds go bang up some defensemen for 8 minutes a night is nice, but not a huge part of a team's success. Like Vegas has had success with Carrier/Reaves leading the league in hits, but that's not why they're tough, they're tough because guys like Stone and Patches are tough, reasonably physical, willing to take hits and go to the dirty areas, not phased by a bit of adversity, that sorta thing.

See above. If their top players were tougher they'd be more successful. Boggles my mind that Matthews especially hasn't simply decided to improve that aspect of his game, it's pretty clearly a flaw and players of Matthews's calibre can usually improve any part of their game that they decide to in a summer (see Crosby just deciding to get godly at faceoffs one year, McDavid improving his defense, etc.). Having 4th line bangers is good, but isn't very impactful overall.

Wonder what Vegas plans to do in 2022. As they will have 5 mill and need to sign 6 players

Guys who are up

Roy, Hague, Kolesar, Howden

Guys who will probs not return due to cap Janmark and Smith, and maybe McNabb

In general this probs be the year as next season their bottom 6 depth is gonna get weaker.

Hague is a really, really solid D. Kolesar is also excellent in a bottom six role. He's strong and very physical and he has some skill. Both need to be prioritized, imo.