The Toronto Maple Leafs are rumoured to be involved with every free agent, every player who could get traded, every player who might get traded, and some players who might not even exist.
The fact is, we are smack dab into the fun part of the NHL off-season: that is to say, the time between the draft and free agency, and if you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, it’s extremely exciting to see what they’ll do in order to try to at least get out of the first $$$$$$$$ round.
Ethen Bear, John Gibson, Jake Muzzin, Alex Kerfoot………the list goes on, and on and on. It’s fun for the whole family (or in my case 40% of my family).
Today we flash back to the past and revive an old gimmick in order to talk about all this stuff. Plus/Minus may be the stupidest stat in the hockey universe, but let us bask in the glorious return….
Toronto Maple Leafs PLUS / MINUS
PLUS: I don’t know how or why these rumours get started, but William Nylander – a franchise player on any team who doesn’t use him as it’s fourth option – being traded for John Gibson is absolutely hilarious.
If you can stop making fun for a minute, this trade rumour is truly ridiculous. The worst Leafs fans just won’t accept defeat, and they keep trying to trade everyone else’s favorite player. It ain’t happening, and especially not for a goalie who has declined for three straight years and has one of the worst contracts in the NHL.
If this was a realistic trade possibility, I’d rank it a MINUS, but it’s just funny, so by all means, entertain me more.
PLUS: Everything Everywhere All At Once – This is the best movie of 2022, and the best movie since, I don’t know, Mullholland Drive? Try to know as little as possible about it going in.
MINUS: Doctor Strange 2, all new Spiderman Movies. Makes you long for the Hulk. Marvel had a great run, but the superhero movie is dead. They are out of ideas.
MINUS: When you hate something so much you can’t even bother to try to be objective, and instead take to framing your argument in a way you know is wrong to rile up the people who you know already agree with you. Exhibit B:
It cost Leafs a first round pick to get someone to swallow Petr Mrazek’s contract. What a terrible signing that turned out to be.
— Steve Simmons (@simmonssteve) July 8, 2022
PLUS: The Oilers being interested in Jack Campbell . Take him.
PLUS: The Toronto Maple Leafs off-season to date. Nothing but net! First they sign Giordano for peanuts, then they sign their best defenseman from last year, Timothy Liljegren, to a very team friendly deal.
Then they turn 3 picks into 5, and leave without Petr Mrazek, giving up nothing but 13 draft slots and 12 hours to draft the player they wanted anyways.
An absolutely, massive slam dunk.
MINUS: I hate the word “legit” and edit it out of every single article on this site! Just doing my part!
PLUS: Shout out to the baseball team I coach. These kids are the best. GO DIRT CHICKENS!
MINUS: The incredibly destructive and silly “win everything or it’s crap” approach that sports seems to have adopted in the age of the internet and social media.
Sure the Leafs didn’t win the Stanley Cup, or even a playoff round, but they finished 4th overall, set a team record in wins and points, and Auston Matthews won the Hart Trophy.
That kicks ass, even with the loss to Tampa. I find it incredibly frustrating that even among ourselves we can’t enjoy even a slight bit of success.
PLUS: The Kyle Dubas Era is 100 x more fun and successful than the Lou Lamoriello Era, second Cliff Fletcher Era, the John Ferguson JR Era, or anything to do with the team’s worst ever GM’s Dave Nonnis and Brian Burke.
PLUS: The Toronto Maple Leafs are the sixth best team in the NHL by points percentage since the day they hired Sheldon Keefe, three seasons and 208 games ago. That’s not too shabby. Incredibly, they have four less points than Tampa in this team, even though Tampa has 2 Cups and almost got a third.
It’s my opinion that this should be celebrated.
PLUS: Listening right now to the classic Lemonheads LP It’s a Shame About Ray
MINUS: Passing on Shane Wright. Montreal will regret this for years. This isn’t quite the Leafs taking Patrick Laine in 2016, but it’s nearly as dumb as that would have been.
MINUS: Wayne Gretzky. It’s always a bummer when your heroes let you down.
PLUS: The Leafs qualified Engvall, did not qualify Kase. Smart.
ALL-Time Double-Plus: Sade
PLUS: The fact that Johnny Gaudreau, Filip Forsberg, Matt Tkachuk and others could all switch teams in the next few days. Things are getting fun!
MINUS *BONUS* : I basically didn’t look at my phone for two glorious days, but the minus goes out to the fact I missed the Forsberg signing, and he is staying in Nashville. My bad!
MINUS: The NHL Entry Draft as an entertaining show. I have to feel that anyone with a pulse could have put together a better show. Then again, the NHL has a major problem when it comes to their broadcasts – they are stale and outdated.
MINUS: St. Louis trading Husso to Detroit, because I wanted the Toronto Maple Leafs to trade for Jordan Binnington.
PLUS: I’ll finish this off with my latest proposal for the Leafs goalies: They trade a 7th round pick to Anaheim for John Gibson and 50% of his contract retained, and a first round pick in next years draft.
There is no way the Ducks should be receiving positive assets for the NHL’s possible worst contract. So forget about Nylander going the other way, and start thinking about the Ducks sending assets to whoever takes their declined former star goalie.