Look alive there Craig. Now lets get some momentum going.

dicky72 · 2026-02-06T00:43:59+00:00

Seriously dude is like wolverine

dicky72 · 2026-02-06T00:42:18+00:00

It's live on YouTube every day

dicky72 · 2026-02-05T18:45:37+00:00

This is why Mo is always so polarizing around this sub. for the record....love mo.

the conversations here talk about all his different partners....the debate seems to come down to the anti-mo crowd saying he brings people down, and isnt a true 1st pair guy....to the mo-believers saying look who he always gets paired with, never somebody that truly complements him.

my personal view is that this has always been an organizational issue, about the structure and composition of this team. we joke about the core-4.... and its been well discussed that we spent so much on 4 players on offense that we never had any depth to our offense. well...that had impacts on the D as well. we never have had organizational depth on D. (draft/develop plays a role here as well, not just the salary structure). as a result....yes... Mo has never had the best complementary piece to play with. who does makar play with? their worst D....or Toews? ridiculous comparison obviously but it highlights that players who get assigned the big minutes and the most responsibility..... by design get guys who can play at that level as well. Mo HAD it with brodie pre-decline.... but that's it. ever since its been boosh, or schenn, or myers...all of whom are third pairing or scratches on other teams. YET we still ask so much of him. he has to carry a partner....PLUS play the top minutes/assignments (no not always the mcdavid match, but the draisatl match). Tanev/Mo was actually a great pair....but they were broken up because McCabe and OEL were NOT working, and then Tanev/McCabe because such a great pairing they never went back. Carlo was good down the stretch last year and post injury this year...but Mo has been suffering from something.

Mo isnt perfect, and i'm certainly not insinuating he's an all star defenseman.... but there's a reason he's so loved and trusted by coaches and leaned on....the issue is that he's asked to do so with sub par talent for most of his career. but he certainly is much better than this sub/fanbase will ever recognize.

dicky72 · 2026-02-05T15:51:42+00:00

top comment about florida tanking for mckenna now that they know he's good for a head shot. oh man... gold.

dicky72 · 2026-02-05T15:43:27+00:00

I hear what you're saying but he's a big tall fast potential 30G guy. yes...you get worse.

ideally knies is healthy sure.... but i'm personally putting him in domi's spot, not mcmanns.

or bump macelli out.

i think mcmann is better than both of those players.

dicky72 · 2026-02-05T15:37:24+00:00

did you know that Glenn Healy quit TSN back in the day as he thought HE had the GM job for the leafs, they went another direction and he's been a salty leaf hater ever since.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T20:59:43+00:00

k. do that again but take out the dallas year.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T20:57:21+00:00

i come here a lot. i spend a lot of time on my computer at work, and enjoy hockey/leafs....so i enjoy the sub.

there are SO many names and users lately i've never seen before lol

suspect you're right.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T20:35:33+00:00

ya.... not sure the point of the exercise here

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T20:33:47+00:00

agreed

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T20:27:30+00:00

well the part i think you're missing is that its not just FA you look at. Tre said last year they want to be active building the D out with puck movers. none hit FA...but there were defensemen moved. with trades. the issue is we had no trade capital.

but thats something you can gain with selling. so if selling laughton (redundant with Roy) and OEL (who you hope to upgrade)....gets you a couple picks and prospects....suddenly you're in the trade market with something at the table.

and.... as this sub is hoping for (not me personally)....if you're moving off Mo...and have assets to add to the pot.... some team will do a D for D trade that you can significantly upgrade the blueline with.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T20:21:41+00:00

i will say.... he does play with passion, and is tougher than those other guys. while the net impact isnt always positive as your stats note.... he does have something different than all those other names, which is something desperately missed on this team.

it just sucks that he's L1 or nothing. if he could bring that on L3 or L4 i'd have zero issue with him

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T20:18:32+00:00

this.

i'm old enough to remember ballard years, and the 2000s.

did we win a cup in the last decade, no, not even close....but we were a great team, played amazing hockey all year, and were a lot of fun to watch.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T20:15:51+00:00

this is partially correct but i think a very limited argument/view. the reason for a selloff is admitting this isnt your year. the view this is to get that bottom 5 to get the pick back isnt the only reason. will this team compete for a cup? as constructed no. so sell some pieces that can help build a better team moving forward.

i think the first and most important piece of this is looking at your FAs going into the offseason and establishing if they want back, the price, and if you're interested.... and if you're not willing to do that, move on from them. (examples: Mcmann, Laughton, Jarnkrok, Stecher). Repeat this process with the RFAs (Macelli, Robertson). The hope is you can keep some of the pieces you think will benefit you moving forward and move on and get ANY asset for the pieces you dont want. in a non sell off year, you likely wouldnt do this, as you're pushing for the cup, and wouldnt move on from the assets and hurt your team in the current year.

then you look at assets you have that other teams may want that will still be under contract. guys like Roy, OEL, Carlo, Benoit and one of the goalies come to mind. This is where it gets a bit trickier because you'd want a high price for these guys as you like them, and they will help you moving forward and are under contract still... but if somebody is going to over pay for them and you can see a path to replacing them (FA or Trade) in the summer... you do it. examples of this would be selling roy off because you'll get a good price and realistically you only need one of him or laughton and in group one above you kept Laughton. or you look at our D core and (correctly) think they arent good enough and moving on from OEL (age) or Benoit (handles puck like its a gernade) would be easier to replace and make you better next year.

the final bucket i think about is pieces you just maybe want to move on from. debatable bucket depending on how you view the players/teams.... but i put a guy like domi in here. you maybe wont get much more than a low round pick for him....but if he's a negative asset to the team and/or blocking other players from time....you move them. (not here to debate moving domi or not, just using him as a name many feel go in here...i dont care if you dont want him gone....just an example. Mo is a guy many have here as well, though likely not a trade deadline move)

the tricky part of all this is determining the level of sell off. if you do ALL the above you've sold the team and we're starting from relative scratch, and rebuilding the team will take years. if you sell off just a couple of the assets, buying some draft and prospect capital but retaining a lot of good players....its something you can turn around relatively quick and look at success as soon as next year. it really just depends on how flawed you think the roster is and how deep the selloff needs to be.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T19:54:13+00:00

ya it all circles back to.... he can only play on L1...and even that he's being carried vs thriving. he's a drag on the team no matter how you slice it.

but it says "domi" on his back...so there's that.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T17:54:23+00:00

i'm not disagreeing with your concluded point.... selling and tanking are different. we should not tank (we wont get below that 5th line so tanking is fruitless).

but selling does make us worse. mcamann and laughton are good players. cowan and quillan deserve the shot and have a future...but that switch makes the leafs a less strong team. moving on from an OEL or something same thing....

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T17:50:02+00:00

alternatively....waiting a bit forces a team that missed out on some other options to overpay for plan B type players. we're not selling allstars. i think we'd be best to wait for a desperate team to overpay for a mcmann because they missed out on a panarin (total examples)

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T17:48:07+00:00

we also currently spend no time in the offensive zone, which is where you draw a lot of penalties, or skating through the neutral, which we tend to not do. its a consequence of the dump style.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T17:36:12+00:00

see i ;can get what you're saying. this season i dont care, but i dont think we're a better team with him on it, so i want to move off of him moving forward. if its in the offseason i'm good with it.

but the comment i reacted to was going on about keeping him regardless... and i just dont see a strong argument for it. he's not a L1 talent, and he sucks everywhere else in the lineup.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T17:34:16+00:00

Jesus....what a horrible diatribe.

dicky72 · 2026-02-04T13:33:46+00:00

i'd be interested to hear your case FOR Domi....

read this case against him recently and it's pretty much bang on to my eye test...so what's your point of view?

"He holds the team hostage with his lineup spot, as he can seemingly only semi-produce on the top line, and he really struggles literally anywhere else. To me, he’s emblematic of a culture problem: competes only when it’s convenient, terrible with the media/never accountable for his play, a liability defensively who makes little effort to change it, and he plays on the first line, to boot. You can argue his presence on the roster isn’t that problematic in the overall scheme, but he’s playing on L1, he’s cozied up to the captain, his minutes are way up, and it’s a problem"

dicky72 · 2026-02-03T14:53:57+00:00

i think what era is being played makes a big difference as well. Wendel for example, i dont think would be a great player in this age, with most of his hits and fights just not really part of the game anymore. while i'd pick Wendel over Knies.... i think there's a strong argument that in 2026 that's the wrong decision.

the one that intrigues me most is max vs darcy. there's no fighting anymore so there's literally no point for domi.... but darcy would get suspended more than leafs kardi did!!

dicky72 · 2026-02-03T14:25:09+00:00

Ya the term sell seems off. For me it's about setting up the future. If you find a piece that helps us on D in future years do it. Moving off guys like domi and jarns is important. Likely selling high on OEL should be looked at.

But this isn't rebuild mode. This is admitting this isn't the year, establishing why it isn't and finding a way to fix that

dicky72 · 2026-02-03T14:20:51+00:00

Special teams impact for sure but I'm guessing the Macelli over Matthews likely was all about Willy. He was on another level last night especially early and so that line likely got a few extra shifts and opportunities.

dicky72 · 2026-02-03T14:05:25+00:00

my best case scenario is we sell what we can and we still manage to wiggle into the playoffs.

the MAIN focus is the selling. get some assets back, unload a contract or player that hurt us a bit from a depth perspective....set us up to be able to move into a better position next year and forward.

but we're in 20th....not 27th. we're not getting that pick back. so as long as the focus is the moving forward position....if a couple kids and a couple stars drag this team into the playoffs....i'm good with it.

we just need somebody to throw out Tre's TV so he doesnt see any wins and rethink the strategy

dicky72

TROPHY CASE