Yeah he's been on my radar for a bit now i'm a fan. Wings are just pathetic when it comes to defense & contracts really frustrates me. And Howard / Bernier aren't getting younger & more talent any time soon.

Hopefully Ben isn't a one hit wonder so to speak and can carry the blues to their first cup. O'Riley seems like a good fit.

i'm just surprised NHL correctly identified what Kadri did was not a hockey play tbh

Tough loss.... Especially with the upcoming cap implications. Some extremely difficult choices to make such as:

Marleau with one year left on a NMC. He is not worth 6.25... Thing is I don't know the value of his locker room presence and he has close ties with Matthews. Not a good situation for the Leafs to be in cap wise and team wise.

What do you do with Kadri? He has brought grit and drive, which the Leafs need. However he has also proven to be a lose cannon who has been in trouble with suspensions numerous times. He is also a long term contract.

Mitchell Marner has an expiring ELC. This kid is a solid talent and he will get paid. Question is how much? At the very least a good asset will have to be moved in order to keep him. If the Leafs could not make it passed the first round with the current team, how can they be expected to do better next year with less to work with?

Kasperi Kapanen is also on an expiring ELC and will need a huge raise to stay as well. Can they reasonably expect to keep this guy when you have so much money tied up with Matthews, Tavares, and Marner (no chance they let him go and he will get paid well).

Jake Muzzin also needs a new deal. Some of this can be cleared by Ron Hainsey and his 3 million deal moving on, but will that be enough to keep him under the cap?

/e Also what should be done with Nylander. He got his deal and it is clear he has talent, however I was disgusted with some of the soft plays he made during the series. I am sure that does not sit well with the team and coaching staff. Imo he does not have a winning attitude. I expected him to be eager to prove his worth.


Aside from the heaps of contract troubles.... What about Mike Babcock. He is being criticized for ice time allocation and failing to make the necessary changes to win the series, among other things. How much blame should he take after this disappointing first round exit?


I ask many questions because I am looking from opinions from Leafs fans so I can get a better understanding of how the team should proceed going forward. I look forward to the feedback.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Apr 23 2019 10:05pm

o reilly, parayko, and binnington are our most important players


parayko can do as good as anyone at shutting down an elite player like mckinnon/patty kane/etc, where ROR drives our team

Dont really think its babs fault. Boston was the better team during the season. They were favored to win and thats what happened. In 7 games.

I dont know how much of the series you watched but there were definitely coaching issues throughout.

Additionally was a dumb move by kyle to keep nylander, a forward we never really needed.

Yeah i didnt watch much. To be honest ive just read about some of the shitty alocation of ice time now.

Put all the parade decorations back in storage boys, you can pull them out again in October

I feel like coaches are just the easiest target. Hear me out

If you can blame 2-3 just plain stupid passes on a coach, u can literally blame everything on the coach with the same logic. With that logic you have to say Kadri is not at fault for his suspension and Babcock is 100% responsible.

You are simply taking the blame away from players and putting every bit responsibility on the coach as if he is holding an xbox controller and moving the players himself.


You can argue you didnt like his lines, or stretch pass was overdone, or AM didnt get enough minutes, or marleau got too many, the matchups were bad, etc.
Those are things a coach actually controls. But i thought he actually did a good job with all of those.

Babcock cant stop Gardiner from making that stupid play and I dont get how Gardiner is less at fault than Babcock for that play.

The no look pass that got taken away was more than 2-3, it was consistent every period in a 7 game series, that's a pattern and the coach absolutely is responsible for coaching his team out of making ineffective plays or adjusting plays to better fit your match up.

I do think Babcock has to take some responsibility for Kadri's suspension, one time its a player mistake, second time its the coaches fault to some extent for not knowing how to manage that player, or if the player is unmanageable having that conversation with the GM. I'd love to know what Babs had to say to Kadri after the alleged knee on knee before kadri's cross-check.


But more than just plays a coach is responsible for morale, Leafs didn't look like they were fighting to take the bruins out in game 6 and they didnt look like they were fighting for their lives in game 7, lighting a fire under your players IS part of a coaches job, they should be inspirational and make you fight for the win.