Monday Mailbag: 2018 edition

It’s a New Year, but you’re still stuck with h0ckeyfan. Sorry.

Letang’s an interesting beast, seeing as he’s got five years left on his deal at age 30 and at a cap hit of $7.25 million. Whether he’s actually being shopped or it’s just a rumour, it’s hard to tell, but every time there’s a big name player we’ll shoot the poo and speculate about it a little. Pittsburgh’s in a situation where we’re again wondering what their arc is in the future. Currently sitting second last in a tough Metropolitan Division, trading away a star like Letang while still having Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin sends an interesting message as to the future of their franchise. Pittsburgh likely won’t ever go in full rebuild mode as long as they’ve got #87 and #71 around.  The key piece heading the other way would likely be Jake Gardiner… or even Timothy Liljegren. Trading Nazem Kadri and his great contract to fill a hole only creates another one, and trading Liljegren severely limits the Leafs depth down the road. If there’s a Gardiner + deal on the table you have to consider it… but at the same time, you have to wonder if Letang’s ceiling is worth the risk of injury and decline as he heads into his 30s.

That’s a lot of banter and no clear answer, but I’d definitely at least give up a couple of Oreos and my lunch tomorrow if that’s good enough.

The Leafs have bought themselves a bit of bubble room in the standings to try out Dermott if they’d like, but I really do think that Polak and Moore stay on the roster for the remainder of the season. Why Mike Babcock continues to play them frequently baffles a little bit, but I do think it’s unlikely they’ll be replaced at this point if they haven’t already.

I think a real intriguing trade partner right now would be, honestly, the Senators. They’re a team who’s caught in a weird franchise flux with their owner and needs to figure out their future with an upcoming RFA deal needed to give to Mark Stone next offseason. They should trade for Erik Karlsson today.

In all seriousness, Detroit’s Mike Green remains a UFA for next offseason and has managed 22 points so far this season while still playing 22 minutes a night. Former managing editor Jeff Veillette remains adamant that he’s a good fit, and he seems like the perfect add to the Leafs’ defensive core.

Other than that, there’s likely little market for Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov as a late-season add for most teams, and the Leafs probably aren’t pulling off blockbusters anytime soon as they appear content enough with their current core.

Probably Fancey. Newfoundland folks love to party.

We’d suggest Mitch Marner, solely based off of his four-point performance on the afternoon that day.

Polak’s a polarizing player for many reasons, but out of all of the team’s defencemen, both his results and the eye test have been less than appealing this season.  His foot speed isn’t great, he gets caught behind the play a lot and takes bad penalties, provides little offence and this season has hit the net just 18 times on 48 attempted shots. He’s been a positive possession player just once in his career.

And yet, at even strength, he’s putting up an expected goals % of… 57.6 percent, highest among Leafs defencemen. He’s been on the ice for 13 goals at even strength and 13 against, but his biggest detrimental value comes from the high amount of minor penalties he takes and inability to defend zone entries (often leading to, you know, penalties). If he didn’t take so many penalties, he’d probably be more well respected, but he isn’t doing himself any favours with silly play. Playing in a bottom pairing role, Polak has been, well, okay.

He isn’t the worst player in the league and is far from the best, but if he stopped taking minors and getting caught in bad positions he’d be far more valuable.