The first difficult offseason of the Matthews era awaits

Keep Dubas
Trade marner
Trade for a 2c who can skate
Maybe fire Keefe (not sure if MLSE will allow even if we wanted to)
Figure out the goalie situation

And I do not want to hear any more "we have progress/a good core"

Shut up. Show up once in your ****ing lives

If im Dubas or the new GM here is what I do

1. Explore either or both a Marner and Nylander trade. Do not just make a trade

2. Try and extend ROR, Acciari, Schenn

3. Decide Goaltending

Kadri 2.0 incoming

I dont see any way they win or break even on a Marner trade and it will end up being another Kadri trade

At least with Nylander u can break even

That said do not bloody rush into a deal. As there will be a bidding war for Nylander.

Please stfu

The only players allowed to make **** comments are Willy and mo. Everyone else can **** off and die

My offseason

1. Extend ROR, Acciari, Schenn

2. Sign Killorn

Killorn-Matthews-Nylander
Knies-JT-Marner
Robertson-ROR-Jarnkrok
Lafferty-Holmberg-Acciari

Rielly-Schenn
McCabe-Liligren
Brodie-Timmins

Woll/?

If I hear about the god damn foundation one more fukcing time... THE FOUNDATION HAS BEEN THE SAME FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS AND THE ONLY PROGRESS YOU GUYS HAVE MADE IS WINNING 1 SECOND ROUND PLAYOFF GAME. DO NOT TALK ABOUT BELIEF. DO NOT TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT THIS TEAM IS. IT IS NOT. BE BETTER

Man I just know it MLSE is gonna **** this up badly to the point where its gonna take another 19 years to win a round

JT is right there is a foundation and roads been rocky. So do not **** this up MLSE. Your team won a round good but there is more work to be done before we can go cup

Explore options via trade or FA and go from there

Thanks for the riveting insight Sheldon. If only you weren't such a dunce and did something about that

At the end of the day the issue with this team is really simple.

They dont got that dawg in em. Like at all. Mitch more then anyone else of note

This starts with offering Mathews an extension.
15 Million / season for 8 yrs.
If he doesn't sign it... trade him.
If he does sign it... you then have to decide "Do we trade Nylander and keep Marner.... or sign Nylander and Trade Marner". For me that's the dilemma.
Personally (and this is based on last three years of play-offs) I keep Nylander. The Leafs had 5 guys who stepped up and brought it for these two play-off rounds - Morgan RIelly, Noel Acciari, Luke Schenn, WIlliam Nylander and David Kampf. You can nit-pick all you want and say "Kampf was useless in such-and-such a game, or Nylander disappeared for a couple of games", but over-all I think they rose to the occasion more often than not.
The guys who under-performed were Holl (just awful), Giordano (too old and slow), Mccabe (too often outclassed), Jarnkrok (That was 11 games of absolutely nothing), Marner (too soft for play-off hockey), Mathews (a complete mystery to me) and Kerfoot (just not a factor).
The reasons for keeping Mathews are simple - he's a superstar who can score 50-60 goals. You can't just toss that aside. But Marner, as skilled as he is... continuosly shows that he is not built for play-off hockey. Other than game two vs Tampa... he was a complete mess. I have said this for 4 years now "All a team has to do is shut-down Marner and you eliminate 50% of Mathews offense." With nobody to make room for Mathews, he becomes useless. He cannot drive play on his own.
If Mathews signs and you extend Nylander (10 million for 8 yrs - which is fair value)... YOU HAVE TO TRADE MARNER!!!
The key to fixing this team is 11.6 million in cap space to use on the type of depth players you need to compete in the play-offs and a NEW COACH!!!
Sheldon Keefe... sorry, I like you and think you're a good coach... but we need another level of coaching.
BARRY TROTZ!!!!
... and that's a no brainer.

Just to add.... with Marner gone and 11.6 Million in cap space - I would resign David Kampf (priority)... re-sign Noel Acciari (this is a Toronto player!!!!)... re-sign Ryan O'Rielly (if he's willing to sign in the 4-5 Mill range) and bring back LUKE SCHENN!!!

Another little wrinkle if the Leafs are going to explore a Marner trade is they've gotta do it sooner than later. His NMC kicks in July 1. I thought it was only the last year of his deal...

That’s the same with Matthews, like TOR NEEDS to figure out is Dubas staying, if not hire a new GM in the next few weeks and have him try to get Matthews signed long term. If they don’t have some type of assurance that before July 1st (the same date his no movement clause kicks in) you HAVE to trade him before. You can’t let him potentially walk for nothing.

Fml there is so much riding on the couple of weeks.

Yeah, I knew Matthews, just thought Marner's NMC didn't kick in for another year. Unpleasant surprise.

Yep. Huge stakes this offseason. And I've got no idea what the right play is tbh. So many different ways it could go.

Likewise, just get younger and quicker.

I didn't realize these guys had a NMC (likely I forgot). I thought NMC should be shown on team page. Maybe Cap Friendly should use a "NMC>" for a NMC that will kick in at some future date.

https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/mapleleafs

Offer Matthews +/- 0.5M of 14M. If he takes it, keep him. If not, trade him and Nylander for picks and NHL ready young players/prospects. Still think we'd be playoff competitive and sometimes you need to take a step back to take a step forward.

Gentlemen, pains me to say it - and this isn't just me being angry after that series (I am, but not why I'm saying this) - Matthews and Nylander should be traded.

I didn't believe it earlier but I do now, I am not particularly confident that they will re-sign. And I think how they go about their situations will define the team's outlook for the next ~10 years.

Go to Matthews, say if you're thinking about leaving we'd like every party to be done right. We'd like a list of ~3 teams that you think are reasonable and that you would be open to extending with. Let's work out a deal Tkachuk style where all parties part ways respectfully.

If we don't and he walks, this franchise will struggle insanely short of some miracle draft picks. And then by default of Matthews leaving you likely sell off Willy as well. JT is immovable, and Marner - if we handle this right and build a team destined for quick turnaround - is likely to stay as the hometown kid.

If we can sell high now on Rielly I'd also consider it, hell of a playoffs but with that contract you just have to wonder how many more runs he'll be worth the money for.

I'd also try to structure as many deals as possible on 3 year terms to leave money open in case McDavid entertains coming home. That's more of an afterthought of all of this but I'd still rather be prepared to be able to do it in case, he's that much of a gamebreaker.

The exit meetings will happen soon (like within the next few days). After that I expect to see some kind of movement one way or another.

Explain how Matthews has earned a raise at all?
Dude shouldn't top mcdavid at all. Big boy cheques are for closers

U move those 2 your basically moving towards rebuild territory. This is the prime definition of MLSE ****ing up. Got a feeling priority is Matthews and Nylander will be moved for the right price

earned or not someone would pay him that at least, just what it'd take to keep him in all likelihood