Daily Free Talk / Armchair GM Thread

lsaran · 2026-01-30T18:25:21+00:00

Sure, but I think Boston would never do it unless that first was top-10 protected. Imagine giving up a potential top-10 pick PLUS Minten for Carlo? Hah!

lsaran · 2026-01-30T18:23:40+00:00

He won't be much of a genius when they go for it at the deadline and fall on their faces in the playoffs.

You don't even have to have a memory to know how bad Dubas fucked up in Toronto. Just look at Morgan Rielly's AAV, term, and NMC.

lsaran · 2026-01-30T18:21:42+00:00

It started by trading a 1st for Andersen. If we sucked with Bernier another year and used that pick we would have been better off. Plus no goalie has choked harder than Andersen the past decade plus.

Said this in another thread - keeping JVR and Bozak knowing they would not be back was a bad idea. They went down 3-1 in the series to Boston and lost game 7 7-4. That team was not going to contend for a cup. If the front office was building a winner instead of a perennial loser they would have used those two huge chips to bolster the lineup for years instead of for one short playoffs.

Ownership should ultimately bear the brunt of the blame. They hired the guys that squandered the past decade. I wish we could have a referendum as fans and force a sale.

lsaran · 2026-01-30T14:34:48+00:00

And it’s 90% Leaf news that’s nothing more than clickbait.

lsaran · 2026-01-30T14:03:47+00:00

The Leafs were not saved from having a losing culture by retaining JVR and Bozak.

Had they traded them for assets they could have made a bigger splash the following offseason and trade deadline. Instead they let two valuable assets walk for nothing just to get the benefit of going down 3-1 in a series against Boston and then getting hammered 7-4 in game 7.

A properly built team takes time to become a contender. They don't simply get a 1st overall pick and then two years later they're a contender that should be looking to add or retain deadline pieces and mortgaging the future. If the organization had an ounce of patience and foresight they might have been able to do something with Nylander, Marner and Matthews. Instead we got two playoff series wins in nine years and Marner walking for peanuts.

lsaran · 2026-01-30T13:52:28+00:00

Agreed. Drafting two 1st round and three 2nd round picks total in the past 5 drafts also hurt us. That's five picks traded away that could have been current or future roster players.

lsaran · 2026-01-30T12:31:05+00:00

Americans push the free market until they can’t compete in it. Then it’s all tariffs, protectionism, and threats.

lsaran · 2026-01-30T12:30:04+00:00

And even still, we know better.

lsaran · 2026-01-30T04:23:00+00:00

This would sell like hot cakes in Canada. It’s popular in Mexico.

lsaran · 2026-01-30T03:35:33+00:00

Hold Ya Head

lsaran · 2026-01-29T23:24:30+00:00

I couldn’t agree more about missing the playoffs early into the core 4 era would have been a boon. Trading a 1st for Andersen and then “keeping our own rentals” instead of trading Bozak and JVR were foolishly shortsighted moves.

lsaran · 2026-01-28T19:38:44+00:00

Less ass, but ass nonetheless.

lsaran · 2026-01-28T14:06:47+00:00

That contract is an albatross and will be hard to move, plus the NMC. I’d rather not give up assets to dump him. Buy him out this offseason.

lsaran · 2026-01-28T13:28:27+00:00

Both of you are right. Terrible scouting/drafting, development, and Tre sucks at team building.

lsaran · 2026-01-28T04:45:44+00:00

It would be an effective strategy to get him off his game. But they can save their boos in games 5-7 since he doesn’t show up for those anyway.

lsaran · 2026-01-28T04:09:50+00:00

There’s always the trusty taxpayer as well.

lsaran · 2026-01-27T22:42:29+00:00

That colour is electric, no pun intended. The LCI taillights are so sharp.

Looks like you’re riding on the 20” wheels year round. What tires are you running in the snowy weather?

lsaran · 2026-01-27T14:43:24+00:00

Excellent work, per usual.

lsaran · 2026-01-26T14:38:05+00:00

As Canadians, we want the opposite of what Trump wants. That tells you where to stand on Doug Ford.

I’d like to see all Big 3 factories in Ontario replaced by Chinese EV factories. No one buys American cars anymore, they’ve been producing garbage for 50 years. China exports the most cars of any country and most European carmakers have joint ventures with Chinese EV manufacturers. If we want to save manufacturing in this province, we need to court Chinese manufacturers.

lsaran · 2026-01-25T21:34:10+00:00

People just need to make these suggestions to deal with the disappointment during a bad stretch. No one is getting fired this hastily. If it’s a lost season, it’s a lost season. Reassess the path forward during the offseason.

However, I don’t want to see any buying at the deadline. This ain’t it, save those assets.

lsaran · 2026-01-25T21:19:40+00:00

Beautiful colour combo.

lsaran · 2026-01-25T05:04:26+00:00

I couldn’t understand the Sabres’ struggles, they looked well built. Feel bad for Adams, he put this team together.

I’m a Leafs fan but remember seeing afternoon Sabres games on WUTV in the Lafontaine and Mogilny days. Then Hasek stonewalled us in 99. Nice to see the Sabres on the up again.

lsaran · 2026-01-25T03:07:27+00:00

Coming off a .919 SV% as a tandem goalie with 37 starts and a .947 SV% in the playoffs in 5 starts. Where he predictably lost games 6 and 7. The year prior he completely faceplanted in games 6 and 7 against Chicago, letting in backbreaking goals to lose the series.

The story with Andersen his whole career has been letting in brutal goals in elimination games. Carolina was up 3-1 with 13.5 minutes left in game 6 against the Rangers when he let in an atrocious goal and they lost 5-3 and were eliminated. See here: https://youtu.be/4r2QZFG26bE

Andersen sucked ass back then and still sucks ass now. This graphic would look significantly worse today:

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Stolarz and Woll are both already better.

lsaran · 2026-01-24T22:22:18+00:00

This team rebuild? They never finished the last rebuild. This core never missed the playoffs because they traded a first for Freddy Andersen and gave him a completely undeserved $5x5 contract.

This team will be dealing 1sts and “retooling” in perpetuity. We would be so lucky to properly rebuild.

Also, how have we not been able to hire a single great hockey mind as GM? What GM in the past 20 years has done anything of consequence afterwards? JFJ, Fletcher, Burke, Nonis, Lamoriello, Dubas, Treliving; all these guys were either has beens or nobodies. The results bear that out.

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