Toronto Maple Leafs Plus Minus: Trade Rumours, WJHC and More

The Toronto Maple Leafs may or may not play a game of hockey one day soon!

Even as we patiently wait for the NHL to tell us when we can expect to see T.J Brodie make his Toronto Maple Leafs debut, there are still new and interesting hockey stories happening every single day.

If you’re new, PLUS/MINUS is one way in which we do that here – we take all the weeks NHL stories and decide if they are good or bad by using the PLUS/MINUS format, which I developed over years of research.  Basically, what you do is you take the NHL’s most outdated and useless stat and you put it to good use!

Let’s get on with it!

Toronto Maple Leafs PLUS/ MINUS

MINUS: Another NHL Labour Dispute? I’d rather watch an Iron Man sequel starring Gwyneth Paltrow.  Actually, even though I am pretty sick of the NHL and NHLPA fighting over our money, but that’s maybe going too far.

PLUS:  Three Leafs prospects named to Team Finland in the WJHC. Also the WJHC itself is awesome under normal times, but it’s going to be extra special this year.

PLUS:  Mank, the first David Fincher film in six years was released this week and is the second best movie I’ve seen this year.  A masterpiece in every way, it is outstanding.  100 stars.  (The best movie was called Palm Springs).

MINUS:  Nylander Trade Rumours.   Give it a rest.  Nylander and trade rumours are fast becoming the Oakley and Goatee combo of NHL trade rumours in that no one likes them and you can’t believe people are combining them.

MINUS: The complete and utter lack of realistic NHL trade rumors right now.  If you can’t watch hockey, the second best thing is discussing hockey transactions and there doesn’t seem to have been one in months.

PLUS: Mikko Lehtonen is averaging a point per game and is on pace for about 25 goals so far in the KHL, significantly improving on the season that earned him the title of best player not in the NHL.

The future Toronto Maple Leafs rookie is set to fight for ice time in the NHL whenever it resumes, but he’s looking more and more like he could be a star player. If Lehtonen lives up to the hype the Leafs roster goes from “maybe” the best in the NHL to “probably” the best in the NHL.

PLUS: The Vancouver Canucks fired their Anthem Singer for being an idiot.  It’s nice to see it.

MINUS:  I can’t fire my wife’s Uncle Greg.

MINUS: Wilco (my second favorite all-time band after REM) recently re-released their best album, Summerteeth, but the packaging is cheap and the outtakes/rarities disc only contains maybe two songs I’ve never heard before.  I know I would have paid an extra ten or twenty bucks if there was more new music, some post cards, stickers, better packaging etc.

PLUS:  Auston Matthews is the best goal scorer in the NHL since the day he entered the league, and he’s still getting underrated because he plays for the Leafs. You can’t even be mad about it, its so dumb!  I can’t wait until he scores 75 goals and the writers find away to give the Hart Trophy to someone else.

MINUS: The NHL has pushed back their target to return to Mid-January.  Unacceptable.  (Unless it is for medical reasons, which does not appear to be the case).

MINUS: The Rangers will not let Alex Lafreniere play in the World Junior Championships.  This is such a garbage decision for so many reasons, all of them selfish.  I get why a team wouldn’t want the future of their franchise to play for someone else, but I don’t have to like it.

PLUS: Despite always taking heat for their blue-line, it’s entirely possible that Morgan Rielly, T.J Brodie, Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl end up being the best top-four in the NHL.

PLUS: I constantly am forced to write about bad NHL coverage from the likes of Brian Burke and Craig Button, but there are a lot of good NHL analysts out there too.  Shout out to Mike Johnson, Scott Wheeler, Corey Pronman, Craig Morgan and JFresh.

MINUS: Much Music used to show music videos and contribute to Canadian culture and even though almost all of their VJs were the worst, we were still better for having them.  Now all they do is show a constant stream of dumb people making fun of even dumber people in internet videos, and even worse knockoff versions of those already bad shows.  Such a shame.

PLUS: Rick the Temp.

PLUS: Mats Sundin, the undisputed heavyweight champion of Leafs Nation.

Thanks for reading, have a wonderful day.