What Will The Maple Leafs Lineup Look Like Next Season? | SDP

What Will The Maple Leafs Lineup Look Like Next Season? | SDP

I had to adjust my brain like, “Oh man, the Leafs still got to trade David Camp. They got to trade him.” No, they don’t. You have to trade him if you don’t have space. They do. So, what’s the problem? Even if they sign Robertson, they have space unless he gets five or something. They’re they’re going to be totally fine. Um, every team is going to be able to make a move, which is rare with the exception of like I don’t know, maybe I know Vegas is cartoonishly over the cap and Dallas is Montreal’s over the cap. I want to talk about them in a in a bit. They’re over the cap though cuz Carrie Price Carrie Price and No, Patrick Lene too like Eric Engles pointed it out in his article like they he thinks that and this is why I want to save it, but he thinks Patrick L might be the guy to move there, right? But if you take $10 million and you throw that on LTIR like Well, yeah. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Like the the Montreal cap number is never a true number cuz you have $10 million sitting there on car price. When’s that over? Next year. Oh wow. Okay, that’s sooner than I thought. Yeah. Um here, Jesse, I I want to play a little game. Are you able to change the spots of the players on that? Uh I can if I go into GM mode. Yeah, if you go into GM mode. You mean in the Toronto lineup? Yeah. You got to remember there are people listening to this. Oh, I know. So we I just When you say, are you able to change the spots on it? Is it a Is it Is it leopard or what are we doing here? Well, hey dad joke. Very good. Very good. No, I cuz it’s July. What day is it? July 8th. And I want to figure out what is going on. What does this team look like? I mean, it looks better today than it has on days uh in the past. So, I would swap Michelli and Knander, I think. Or maybe not. Would you swap Machelli or Knander? I would put Doy up with Matthews. It worked. I don’t understand this. You know what? Sure. Let’s do that. Doy on the right. Yes. I would I hate him on the left anyway. So that’s fine. Nice Matthews. Do me. Great. I’ll try it. Tvaris Knander. Machelli. Yeah. Machelli’s a disher. Neander is a score. Boom. Done. Um, let’s H. Now, here’s what I’m trying to figure out because I actually think I want Scott Lton on the third. And I know people aren’t going to like that, but like just think of it as bottom six, top six. Put Wah in the middle there on the fourth line. Yep. Okay. It’s shut down line, right? But he scores more than Lton does. Goals. Yeah. Points as Lton. Okay, you could or you could just Why wouldn’t you just So, here’s my question. You have Bobby McMahon. Uhhuh. Nicholas Wah Scott Lton. Why isn’t that a line? Bobby McMahon. Nicola Wah Scott Lton. Yeah, you could do that. You could. But here here’s So here’s what we got right now. N Matthews, doy. You got N Matthews Disher. And we’ve seen doi work with Matthews. We know N works with Matthews. Great. Why not try it? Sure. Machelli, Tvaris, Nelander. We know Tavarus and Knander work. Disher Machelli great all you know bottom six line whatever you want to call it. McMahon Len Yarncroak I’m not in love with it but like they’re capable of scoring. They’re they’re defensively responsible. Great annoying shutdown line camp Wah Lorent. It’s big. You have right-handed faceoff guy raw. You have left-handed faceoff guy camp. Lorren can even take them as well. There’s no one you could kick out of the dot and have it be a problem. I don’t know. You head into the season with that, it’s not the end of the world. Why not the all bastard line? Do you want Nick Robertson as an extra? Sure. Oh, okay. So, no. The all the the only person he kicks out to me is Yarn Croak. So, you could do McMahon Lton Yarn Croak or McMahon Wah Robertson I think is weird. Or sorry, McMahon Lton Robertson. McMahon Wah Robertson. Like he’s he’s a very interesting player to me. Like what? No. Uh uh Robertson like he’s still so young. Like we all think he’s like 26 27 at this point. He’s still at an age where it makes sense for him to get better and also not be the best version of himself. God, wouldn’t it like what a boon it would be to get this guy who magically emerges as a 15 20 goal guy who’s also an everyday player and responsible and not like just hucking grenades uh everywhere and getting absolutely pancake shift in and shift out. the the one one thing that’s that’s frustrating me a little bit like as a Leaf fan trying to fantasize about what the team is going to be is I want them to get better but I also want them to get a fit for what they are and I don’t see it out there like Rosik is not a fit. He can help you get through the regular season. He he’d be a fine addition to this lineup and, you know, put up 20 goals, whatever. He was a healthy scratch for Carolina like in the playoffs. You know what I mean? Well, who’s who’s out there who matches Craig Barub hockey? It’s tough. Like, you’re going to have to trade for it and you’re going to have to get creative. Yeah. That’s why we were promised a whole bunch of activity on the trade market, but it hasn’t emerged. Yeah. I don’t think it’s going to happen for a bit. I’d love to know like what’s holding it up. Is it just everyone is taking a breather? Is it they’re trying to figure out like I mean who is also giving up what the Leafs want? Yeah, it might not be anything holding up. It just might not have existed. You know, it might have been it might have been in line with the thinking like it might have been correct like oh there’s not a lot of good free agents guys are going to have to go make trades but in reality I don’t know if those trades exist because people want to keep their good players really giving them up. I almost wonder if like salary arb like sort of gets the ball rolling because like that that’s quite a few teams that are affected and they’re good teams some of them. Yeah, but those names aren’t anything that should move the needle. Oh, Maxim Ciplov give me something. Valardi is a pretty big one. Yeah, but he’s going to get but like how’s that? I don’t know if that’s affecting like big trades. No, I don’t think so. A Gabe Valardi deal. I don’t know. I’m just I’m trying to listen. You’re trying to will I’m trying to will something interesting to happen? Absolutely. But the reality might just be that it’s boring. You have to I think you’re missing a great prime opportunity for an all bastard line of uh McMahon, uh, Lton, and Wah. I don’t know why you wouldn’t do that cuz those guys would be a pain in the ass. And then you have the all no scoring line of Lorent, Conf, and Yarn Croak. And if you need some scoring on it, put Robertson in it. Into it. Right. Great. That to me is like, you know, and and you can have Wah and Lton trade off faceoffs, right? Right and left shot. Uh, you know, Camp could play fourth line center. You know, he can kill penalties. This team is not going to be short on pretty good penalty killers, at least right now. Mhm. Um, I know that, you know, there is a uh, to quote the CJ show, a martyr sized hole there, but they are going to have guys that can do that. They really got to And if if you can I hated that title. If you can convince I hated that title. If you can convince Bobby McMahon to be a little meaner and a little more attitude, who I which I think he’s capable of, that could be a really fun line. Scott Lton’s not a fun guy to play against. Neither is W. So, let’s figure this out, then. Um, so can you take camp out of the lineup entirely? Uh, drop Lton down to 4C. Lorent and Yarn uh, switch Yarn Croak and Lorent. Put Wah in the middle on line three. Oh, you want Lorance over here. There you go. There you go. Uh, so this allows you to have a Lorent Len Yarn Croak line, which is what you had in the playoffs. Then you have McMahon, Wah, and Blank Space. Likely Robertson. I assume the blank space is Robertson. And then you have Camp and Pazetta as extras. Mhm. Robertson doesn’t play the right side really though. Yeah, he does. He does. Yeah. Yeah. Because like I I look at this lineup and I I like W on the wing there because at least you’re utilizing your uh right shot players like on the right side. Knander, Wah, and Yardro are your three righties that exist in your whole lineup and I think that’s kind of a best That’s crazy by the way that Yeah. Well, so then they still need a 3C. No, I wouldn’t move. You have David You have David Comp. Lot Yeah, there’s another option. This No, this is what we had before. I we switched Lorenzo and the same option. Yeah. Like I liked I liked where it was. I didn’t think it needed to be moved. Like you’re going to have to use David Con if you’re paying him $2.4 million. I feel like that’s an adequate 4C because we know he can do that. And at least you have a W as your right winger with a right shot. Yeah. The big one is if you scroll down to the defense uh after the inflation of this uh of this uh free agency, there are zero bad contracts. None. Ecman Larson was a little rich. Not anymore. I saw somebody try to make the claim that either. I’m like, you’re out of your mind. Yeah. Not Morgan Riley either, honestly. Morgan turned the tide on that. Uh, dude, Morgan Riley on free agency today gets that since 2022. But that means it’s been a bad deal for half of the contract. Since 2022. And what’s his play? Give me a sec. Okay. Since 2022. I I came across this when I was doing the Bard video for scoring by defenseman over the last three or four seasons. He’s a 10th or 11th in the entire league. And he’s not making 10th or 11th in the entire league money. Poorest at times. Better with Carlo. Better with Carlo. Better with Carlo. Yeah. But he is going to do wonky [ __ ] And he’s only in what? He’s going into year five of this contract. Yeah. It was It was the theme of the Leafs at the time. Yeah. No, Kyle was awful at this. He was awful at the whole contract thing. Like it’s it’s interesting seeing him in Pittsburgh doing exactly what he was great at in Toronto, which is just selling the farm and getting 40 million picks. He was legitimately very good at that. Um this contract thing, he’s miserable. He’s got to be bottom five in the league. Yeah. And they’re hanging on to Tristan Jarry there. Good old times. Like Well, and the goalies, forget it. I The thing that scares me most about Morgan Riley is I think the worst game of his career was game seven against Florida Panthers. Yep. He could not have been worse. And in those moments, like I feel like that carries more weight than anything he does in the regular season. And I’m going to always remember that. And that’s the type of performance we’re going to get out of this player. The the problem with him is like his offense does elevate in the playoffs, but like is that what we need out of you? Not at all. Well, and and I I also think like uh Jesse makes such a good point like people are really hard on Cali Yarncroak for his lack of goals in the playoffs, dude. That era is over. The era of nickel and dimeming is over. The Well, but my my point is you need your best players to be their best in their best games. It’s why Carolina didn’t stand a chance against Florida. Their best players looked tiny and small. And I’ve I’m not buying what they’re selling. Well, and so and you talk about Rosovich, the guy’s over 6 feet tall. He’s 80th percentile in terms of speed. He’s a ranked average center who scores at a half a point a game pace. I think he adds significantly to this lineup. Center center center wing. Like I would get him just to have him as an option. Well, you could have three centers on the third line with a guy like that. I I wonder what he’s asking for. Well, I I would hope it’s a lot. Yeah. 22 goals. Yeah. Like, so I see Christian D’vorak and I’m like, well, I’m at least him. Yeah, but you’re No, you’re not making that playing for the Leafs. You want to go sign with the Flyers or the Blackhawks, you can make that kind of money. You’re not making that. The Leafs also like they can’t spend too much cuz I still think they need bodies. The competition we the stuff we were talking about going into training camp, they need more people to be in competition for these spots. They have that $4.9 million in cap space and they have right now Michael Pazetta and Nick Robertson and Ryan Reeves fighting for the last couple lineup spots. Reeves is going to be sent out. I would like better humans to be fighting for those spots. I’d like another situation where you have a guy like Matt Patcheretti coming in at training camp and fighting for that. So, I hope they utilize that $4.9 million on like one-year deals that are 900 grand or a million, you know, just to have people in there who because this lineup’s not going to be healthy for the entire length of the season and your only extra forward is like Ethan Cowan or Pazetta or Reeves. Like, they need depth here. They actually lack a lot of depth in the forward group. That’s where uh Cowan comes in. You’re right. That Grul guy is sort of an interesting signing. Who exactly? That’s fair. He’s got three names. I forget what. Well, what about the five guys they signed to the Marlies today, gentlemen? Today. Today. They just signed it as of the start of this show. Now, are they NHL contracts or a They’re AHL, but you know, they can always be upgraded. All right. Like they got Gunner Wolf Fontaine. Yo, the Leafs got Gunner Wolf Fontaine. They did from the legend. That’s right. What a name. Wow. Uh Ben King, Nick Graome, Marco uh Sikich, and Ryan McCclary. So I think I recognize him. Yeah. Uh, and I think McCclary is from the Cincinnati Cyclones, so that’s their ECL. Good for him. Good for him. Little uh little Gunner Wolf Fontaine. It’s our guy. It’s our guy. I need to know more about Gunnar Wolf Fontaine. That’s so good. It’s they they need more humans in their in their roster, in their organization to compete for NHL spots. They they did get Vinnie Lati who is like an NHL option. Oh. Um, Travis Boyd is a good depth option. They picked him up as well. He can play in the NHL. I I see where you’re getting at, Jesse. I see where you’re getting at. The things you’re offering me aren’t of highest quality. Yeah, but like but like what is your 13th 14th forward supposed to get you out of bed? I last year when they brought in Alex Knander, it felt like something of like, oh, there’s a formal former top 10 pick who you can throw in your system. They needed him during the regular season last year because of all the injuries. They called him up, played a couple games, wasn’t spectacular, not coming back, whatever. But at least there was an NHL body ready to go. And I feel like they’re lacking those guys right now in the system. But it’s July, what is it? 8th. It’s July 8th. There’s four months to solve that. Yeah, you got the date wrong. I’m not I’m not too concerned. It’s just on the list of things they need to check off in the next 4 months. So, this isn’t like I’m not like pissed off at the least need more guys. Jesse walked in here. I’m just saying like they need to do this eventually before October hits.

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde and Jesse Blake take a crack at building the 2025 Toronto Maple Leafs lineup using their current roster.

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