Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Waiting On The Core In Toronto

07/04/2022 at 10:10am EDT

from Damein Cox at the Toronto Star,

Nathan MacKinnon is now 26 years old, and was drafted in 2013. Victor Hedman, the unusually talented big man who dominates the Tampa Bay defence, was drafted in 2009 and was 29 years old when the Lightning captured the “summer bubble” title in 2020. The Leafs obviously are hoping that Mitch Marner (now 25, drafted in 2015) and Auston Matthews (24, drafted in 2016) are getting to the same point in their careers as those players, but there’s no guarantee.

Instead, showing that not all seven-game, first-round playoff losses are created equal, this off-season seems mostly about the Leafs not necessarily improving themselves, but making sure they don’t get worse.

Not exactly exciting, right? But in a salary cap league in which big trades involving star players are mostly a thing of the past, that’s the way it is for most teams.

You can always hope another club makes a big mistake that benefits your team. Colorado certainly feels that way about how they acquired Nazem Kadri from Toronto. Tampa still can’t believe it got Mikhail Sergachev from Montreal for Jonathan Drouin. Or you can hope that money and/or cap woes motivate teams to dump good talent, like Minnesota recently did with Kevin Fiala. Arizona is apparently trying to get its payroll as low as it can go as it prepares to further embarrass the NHL by playing out of a 5,000-seat arena, so maybe some team will land talented defenceman Jakob Chychrun for some combination of prospects and picks.

Teams in Toronto’s division are making moves. Boston hired Jim Montgomery to coach, and Detroit did the same with Derek Lalonde. Montreal, with the first pick in the draft, will get a big-name prospect this week, and Ottawa will continue to try to chart its future in the post-Eugene Melnyk era.

The Leafs, meanwhile, have bumped Jason Spezza from the fourth line to the front office, signed Mark Giordano and Timothy Liljegren to very affordable contracts and fired their goaltending coach. Ilya Mikheyev has apparently been deemed unaffordable, and there’s some concern Rasmus Sandin could be an offer-sheet target.

more

Create an Account

In order to leave a comment, please create an account.

About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

Email Paul anytime at [email protected]