NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[StCapps]

The Leafs don't want Tavares, they want somebody like Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

The Leafs want Tavares more than they want Marleau. Sure they'd rather have a defensemen, but you could use the cap space to make a move for one of them too. Signing Marleau limits your options, it's just not a wise use of cap space, even if Marleau was your favourite player, you should be able to admit that, at the very least. Better shit to spend the money on, even if you have to get extra creative to make that work, save the money for something else.

[Smitty-48]

I don't see the cap hit as crippling, if they needed to get creative, they could get creative, if there was an Oliver Ekman-Larsson in play, they could make room for him.

Tavares doesn't make any sense for the Leafs, they have Matthews in that slot already, and Matthews is the better player already, they could use another center, but not at $10 million plus, and they're not giving up what it would take to get Tavares, just for one year, not to mention that the Islanders wouldn't trade Tavares to the Leafs under any circumstances, if they're trading him, they're not trading him in their own division, particularly not to a rival.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the other hand, I could see that, but Arizona would probably want Nylander.

[StCapps]

I don't see the cap hit as crippling, if they needed to get creative, they could get creative, if there was an Oliver Ekman-Larsson in play, they could make room for him.

Tavares doesn't make any sense for the Leafs, they have Matthews in that slot already, and Matthews is the better player already, they could use another center, but not at $10 million plus, and they're not giving up what it would take to get Tavares, just for one year, not to mention that the Islanders wouldn't trade Tavares to the Leafs under any circumstances, if they're trading him, they're not trading him in their own division, particularly not to a rival.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the other hand, I could see that, but Arizona would probably want Nylander.

The Leafs and Islanders are in the same Conference, not the same Division. Leafs are Atlantic, Islanders are Metropolitan.

[Smitty-48]

Close enough, the Islanders hate the Leafs, the last thing they would do, would be trade him to Toronto and then have him come back down to the Island in Blue & White, would be bad enough to have to trade him, but if they do have to, you don't trade him to Toronto, never mind that the Leafs wouldn't trade for another franchise center, you concern troll about cap room, then you concern troll about the Leafs not getting Tavares when what they need is Ekman-Larsson not Tavares, concern trolls gonna concern troll.

[StCapps]

Close enough, the Islanders hate the Leafs, the last thing they would do, would be trade him to Toronto and then have him come back down to the Island in Blue & White, would be bad enough to have to trade him, but if they do have to, you don't trade him to Toronto, never mind that the Leafs wouldn't trade for another franchise center, you concern troll about cap room, then you concern troll about the Leafs not getting Tavares when what they need is Ekman-Larsson not Tavares, concern trolls gonna concern troll.

Whatever bro. It's quality concern trolling, or you wouldn't feel the need to rebut it so damn often. Making fun of the Leafs signing Marleau, it's just fun to do, and it gets under your skin, quite clearly. It's almost as if, deep down, you know it's a bad signing, you just refuse to admit until you see him in Blue and White for yourself, too much trust in the brain trust to always make the right call and know something that you don't. Either that or you're just some weird Patrick Marleau fanboy who can't see straight regarding him and can only see the positives, and that's even funnier.

[Smitty-48]

I was just shooting the breeze, keeping the thread going, if you're not into it, my bad I guess. /shrugs

[StCapps]

I was just shooting the breeze, keeping the thread going, if you're not into it, my bad I guess. /shrugs

I enjoy making fun of your Patrick Marleau fixation, keep going by all means, I got ammo for years on the Patrick Marleau front. That's why I like to bring it back up every now and then, keep you on your toes, I get to make fun of the San Jose Chokes and their former Captain, win-win. I don't hate Marleau, he's cool as far I'm concerned, he's just cursed is all, unless he's on Team Canada and isn't getting much ice time. The Hockey Gods seem to loathe him in the playoffs for whatever reason, that's why they keep him healthy, so they can torture him even more come playoff time.

[Smitty-48]

I'm just in wait and see mode on Patrick Marleau, I can't make my judgement on it until I see him play, he could be a disaster, could be great, could be something in between, but I'm more concerned about how he plays, I'm not worried about the cap hit.

[StCapps]

I'm just in wait and see mode on Patrick Marleau, I can't make my judgement on it until I see him play, he could be a disaster, could be great, could be something in between, but I'm more concerned about how he plays, I'm not worried about the cap hit.

I'm in wait and see mode on Marleau as well, I just lean heavily one way beforehand, based on the historical record. Can you blame me? This is the Captain of San Jose Chokes through all off their playoff failures over the last two decades. Excuse me for questioning his ability to show up when it really matters just because he puts up good points in the playoffs before he and Sharks choked again and again, year after year.

I've acknowledge I could be wrong, but like what are the chances? It's not one year he and the Sharks choked, they've been doing it for two whole decades, with maybe the odd year here and there were they were actually legitimately beaten by a clearly superior team and didn't choke during that stretch. That's as epic a choke streak as I have ever witnessed in hockey history, this isn't a one-off. There is like one team Marleau always shows up against in the Playoffs, and that's against the Avs, go figure lulz.

[Smitty-48]

I'm not blaming anybody, I'm quite positive about the Leafs, I'm not declaring them to be a cup favourite at this point, but I think they have an outside shot to contend if they can get the D-man, if not, I expect them to be competitive anyways, in what is only year two of a full scale down to the wood rebuild.

As for Marleau, I'm not expecting the wheels to have come off this year, and as long as he can still skate, I think he can be effective, I do see the third year as being a plausible bridge too far, but by then the Leafs will be having to bring up kids to fill the slots anyways, so one year of having to eat Marleau on Robidas Island or whatever, it doesn't concern me for the long term, might have to do that, but once JVR, Bozak, Komarov, and Gardiner are gone, the Leafs are going to have to retool anyways.