heres my question though. is losing to a back to back champion or the best team the panthers have ever iced worse than what happened last year? yeah it still sucks but youd be losing the the best. i dont wanna lost but its not like losing to the habs

I’ve been watching nearly 50 years worth of losing. I’m tired of it no matter who is beating us

How about trading one of the big-name players?
These arent bad but would you consider moving any of them if they don't win a round this year, a move has to be made sooner or later

I would trade Marner right now. I’m convinced he will never be a clutch player, poor man’s Kane

lol facts shoulda moved his last summer IMO but he has increased his value this year I think
imagine what they could do with 11 mill
Never shoulda gave him more than 9 AAV same with Tavares,
Dubas definitely folded in the neogations after loosing out on Stamkos
Who could they get for tavares or marner

Just gotta keep running it back with this core… imagine if wsh traded one of their core guys after losing all those times in the 1st and 2nd round. You have to remember Matthews, Marner, Nylander are all 25 and younger. Still lots of growing to do both hockey wise and leadership wise. The time will come, no need to make knee jerk decisions bc u lose to a stacked Florida team or the back to back champs.

how many times are they going to keep running it back with no success? I understand that they are still young but still, there comes a point where change is needed.

Washington didn’t sign their core to idiotic contracts

Matthews has two years left on his deal after this year... No way he stays if he doesn't make it out of the first round in that time, especially after Arizona offers him like 15mil.

Something's gotta give if they get knocked out of the first round again, even if it's against a team as good as one of the Florida teams.

If you think about all the “failures” of the past 5 years their has actually only been 2. CBJ and MTL. Caps we had no business being in that series, BOS the 1st time same thing. BOS the 2nd time I would say BOS were slight favourites going in and then became heavier favourites once the leafs only advantage (depth at centre) was taken away by yet another Kadri suspension. You can argue Anderson has to make a few more big saves but at the end of the day still were the underdogs bc of Kadri.

Now CBJ is a different story. Leafs just got goalied. Merz and Korp put up the one of the best save percentage in a series in NHL history.

MTL Campbell matches Price’s play and the best goal scorer and one of the top point getters in the league combine for 1 goal in 7 games. That is an anomaly!!! Don’t get me started how they out chance MTL 12-0 in OT and lose off a lucky deflection. That series ended up boiling down to the leafs being very unlucky. They dominated Montreal in 6 of the 7 games.

Which contract is idiotic… Matthews easily could have gotten mcdavid money if he signed 8 years. JT was offered 2-3M more in NYI and SJ yet took a pay cut. Nylander got what he deserved in the 11th hour. Look at comparable contracts (pastrnak, gaudreau, etc) a season before Nylander signed. Nylander put up a higher ppg then all comparable and had better underlying numbers. Not to mention the cap also jumped 1-2M therefore the percentage of the cap is the same/lower when signed. Marner’s contract was the slightest of overpayments. Realistically I also think he should have gotten only 10-10.5m when you compare him to guys like kucherov and the 9.5 he got. But it boils down to kucherov lives in a tax free state while Marner lives in Ontario where he is taxed just over 50% by the province. So what contract are u talking about. The leafs realistically got screwed by the cap staying flat as the cap was projected to go up 1.5-2.5m every year for the next 5 years before the pandemic hit

Matthews ain’t going nowhere. He would be stupid to leave a the hockey City for the dessert. And let’s be honest ARI isn’t gonna be in ARI for that much longer. Houston or Quebec City coyotes by 2023-24 for sure.

Marner’s contract is a good 2 million or more over what he’s worth. Matthews is not McDavid and although he isn’t overpaid by much he’s still a bit overpaid. Tavares never should have been signed. I like him but you can’t pay two centres 11 million plus a year. Nylander’s deal is the only one that’s good.

Now onto more stupid management of money… signing Mrazek was beyond stupid. Should have went after a cheaper goalie knowing Campbell’s contract only had one more year. Overpaying Rielly next year is only going to kill our cal even more. We have to find a way now to move Muzzin or Brodie. Kerfoot isn’t overpaid but I’d love to have Kadri as a second line centre for a few million less than Tavares makes.

Why even watch the games if you just give yourself heart palpitations and stress this much.

Lol ok the guy with 45 goals already this season is overpaid. Give me a break.

Your second point is valid, the big 4 contacts are what they are, If they are committed to them, there is basically no room for error on any other deals. They nailed the cheap signings this off season but spent over 6 million on mrazek and Ritchie. Not back breakers long term, the deals can be moved, they already moved Ritchie. Problem is they could of came into the season with 2-3 million cap space, and then had lots of space by the deadline.
If they are gonna stick with the big 4 they should come into the season with cap space so they have the room to go trade for what they need once they know what they need the most.

That’s Dubas biggest failing in my opinion, more than what he paid the big guys.
Kept Anderson last year at 5 million, it could of been spent better.
Year before had ceci at 4.5. You can’t have these mistakes when the cap is this tight. You need room to make the trades to improve.

Completely agree. If the leafs just missed the playoffs Matthews’s first two years would that be better? Then it just be 3 in a row.
I think people get too caught up on 5 in a row and forget the context of it.
They should of bet Columbus but that was a weird year because of covid and I think everyone forgets the leafs we’re not very good before covid shut the season down, Florida was right on then for the last playoff spot.
If they bet Columbus Tampa would of took them out, which technically would of still been a first round exit.

It’s only last year they completely choked and couldn’t get the job done, it makes it so much worse for the fan base that it was Montreal. As much as I don’t want to deal with another off season after losing in the first round, if they play Tampa or Florida hard and lose a close series, it is what it is.
Problem is they gotta keep Matthews happy and willing to sign an extension above anything. As long as he is here, there’s a window to win. If somehow they don’t win a round this year or next, why would he sign an extension?
Unfortunately they are in a spot where they have to make progress even tho it will be their toughest matchup yet.

So many hind sight Henry’s on this site… like u can’t tell me when JT was signed u were like “that was a dumb decision… why would they sign a top 10 C in the league while he’s in his prime?”. In terms of Marner, he should have taken the 10mx8 that was offered but 900k is not a ball busting amount of money. And too your second point Ritchie is gone so idk why u still talking about that. Mrazek is easily moveable in the off-season, never really like the signing either tbh. But ur whining for the sake of whining. Bet u were praising Dubas when the leafs were rolling into December. Campbell will get back to form and everything will be fine. No need to panic brother.

Value for Brown and Forsberg is close but seriously hope the Sens just extend them. They are needed.

I though Dubas was a moron the second he signed Tavares and traded Kadri

Kadri I can understand some didn’t like that trade even tho he played 6 out of 14 playoff games due to his wires crossing and costing the team the only advantage against a stacked Boston team. But JT idk… can’t see how anyone hates that signing.

He isn’t worth 11 million a year. Crosby doesn’t even make that

Crosby signed his deal 2013-14… when he signed the most he could have made was 9.5M a year. JT signed in 2018-19 when the most he could have signed for was 16.1M. 14.5% of the cap for crosby when signed as an RFA vs 13.84% of the cap as the best UFA to ever hit the market in NHL history