If the HFBoards Ran the Leafs
By Jon Steitzer
10 years ago
Coming off a historic collapse, and missing the playoffs for the 8th time in 9 years it seems reasonable that the Leafs are badly in need of change. The Shanahan hiring is a good start, and we hope Carlyle will soon be shown the door, leaving us with two birds left. The General Manager and Assistant GM team, and the players themselves. I’ve decided to take the two birds with one stone approach and today we’re going to hand the GM duties over to the HFBoards and let them rebuild the roster.
I selected the first four Leafs trade threads I could find on the trade proposal board, and we’re going to see what happens with the roster. I excluded trades that involve a player who has already been moved in a prior HFBoards deal. Deals involving Leafs draft picks will always assume the highest pick the Leafs hold in that round will be moved. Here we go…
This starts off strong as the Leafs rid themselves of a boat anchor without taking on any salary (in yo’ face Leino) and they will have the joy of facing said boat anchor several times a season. Clearly the Leafs are fleecing Buffalo, but may the original poster of this thread can provide some insight into why the Sabres make this deal.
“Taking on salary isn’t a problem for Buffalo, and we could use some veteran leadership and grit going forward. Even with the awful season Clarkson had, he would still play top 6 in Buffalo with Ennis or Hodgson. He would play PP and PK for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if they slapped the C on him right away.” -Stokes84
Trade Advantage: Toronto
Plausibility of this deal: 2/10, new GMs of building teams generally don’t want their early deals to look so questionable.
Trade #2: Phil Kessel and Carl Gunnarsson to Nashville for Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg and Colin Wilson
Finally the Leafs get rid of streaky scorer Phil Kessel in favour of non-scorer Colin Wilson, an up and coming prospect, and a bit of an upgrade over Gunnarsson in Josi. As excited as I may be about Forsberg and Josi, I’m less excited that 60 point guy JVR is now the Leafs top scoring forward, and with 4 deals still to come it seems unlikely that he’ll survive the moves. Colin Wilson is a nice replacement for Clarkson though.
This HFBoards user is upset that the Leafs aren’t swinging for the fences…
“thats some good young talent from Nashville, but if kessel is involved you know the only guy leafs would want back is Weber.”
Trade Advantage: Nashville
Plausibility of the deal: 4/10 (nice score for HFBoards), the Leafs trading their rosters bright spot for collection of young players sounds marginally probable, but points are deducted for the lack of grit coming back.
Trade #3: Leafs trade their 1st round pick (2014) and Dion Phaneuf to Edmonton for their 2014 1st round pick
With Clarkson, Kessel, and Phaneuf now gone it’s amazing how much cap space Nonis will have to work with. He might even be able to re-sign Bolland. It seems a little step to give up a top pairing defenseman to move up 5 spots in the draft, but in giving up a top pairing defenseman the Leafs may have the chance to draft potential top pairing defenseman Aaron Ekblad. Wheeeeeeeee!
Here’s a rare dose of common sense
“The leafs defense gets significantly worse, which is easily the leafs biggest needs, to add a prospect that may take years to even add any significant contribution to the team. Why would you think the leafs would even consider this in the slightest?”-Hennig
Trade Advantage: Edmonton
Plausibility of the deal: 3/10 While this doesn’t sound like something the Leafs are incapable of, the idea of the Oilers fleecing anyone this badly is laughable.
If you’ve been worried about what the Leafs have been doing so far, and are wondering what the Leafs will do with all that excess cap space, fear not. Paladin2799 is about to blow your minds…
I’m going to assume Paladin2799 is a Leafs fan from Thunder Bay. I am also confused why Jared Staal wasn’t included in this deal. Without him I’d have to believe the Leafs would say no. This deal certainly speaks to Carolina’s desire to shed salary, and Jordan Staal fits the Leafs mold of expensive 3rd line players, but I can’t help but think the Leafs might be getting two established players for pennies on the dollar. My bias against the Staals prevents me from liking this deal, but even with a nice draft pick this seems like a little much (remember this was originally posted when the Leafs held the 11th overall pick). Maybe the HFBoards have opinions on this…
“why would anyone want Jordan?”
“Probably enough for Eric, but both of them together would take a bit more.”
“This is embarrassing.”
Trade Advantage: Immediate edge has to go to the Leafs
Plausibility of the deal: 1/10 The Staals have not suddenly become the Sedins and do not need to be moved together. If Ron Francis is in fact taking over the GM role this spring he’s probably not looking to leave a crater where his centermen used to be.
So what have the HFBoards left Toronto with?
van Riemsdyk-E.Staal-Wilson
Lupul-Bozak-Forsberg
Ashton-J.Staal-D’Amigo
Leivo-Holland-Orr
Josi-Rielly
Gleason-Franson
Granberg-Percy
Bernier
Reimer
Shockingly Reimer, Franson, and Bozak survived the HFBoards fall out. Of course Reimer, Franson, Holland, D’Amigo, and Ashton all need contracts still, but don’t worry the HFBoards has left us with over $20,000,000 to spend.
While the Leafs clearly have established themselves down the middle with four respectable centermen, they’ve managed to create new holes on the wing and take a horrible defense and make it worse.
It’s also noteworthy that the Leafs now don’t pick until the third round of the draft.
The HFBoards have made bold moves, but have wound up with a product that seems vaguely familiar to a roster you’d expect out of John Ferguson Jr. It is my conclusion that none of these people should even be allowed to manage a Fantasy Hockey Team.
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