The Toronto Maple Leafs will be playing the Calgary Flames tonight in Toronto.
The Toronto Maple Leafs failing new General Manager will take on the team he already ruined.
Oh the fun we have!
The Leafs currently sit 19th overall, and the Flames are 30th.
Neither team is getting unlucky.
We should be talking about the best ever combined play of the Core Four *plus Rielly* but instead we are talking about how the GM failed to consult naturalstattrick.com before signing a bunch of replacement players to expensive contracts that didn’t even make any sense at the time.
On to the game.
Toronto Maple Leafs Play Flames Amid Trade Rumours
The Toronto Maple Leafs will dress Joseph Woll in net and inexplicably will also dress Ryan Reaves.
What they won’t do is dress John Klingberg.
Unfortunately instead of holding him accountable, they have said he’s injured.
He's "injured" like the time I was "sick" for inventory day. https://t.co/hSCXHwnD3z
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) November 10, 2023
Both the Leafs and Flames are terrible, so this game could go either way and will most likely be pretty entertaining
The Flames are likely looking to sell, and of course since Brad Treliving used to work for Calagary, the Leafs are linked to them via trade rumour almost constantly.
IMO the laziest NHL cliche, and that’s saying a lot, is the one where the old GM trades for players he overrates because he knows them from his old team.
The Flames do not have a very good selection because most of their defenseman are either old or overrated.
Chris Tanev would likely help, but he’s 33 and the Leafs are already hurt by how old their blue-line is. It’s possible part of Calgary’s problems are from overplaying a formerly great 33 year-old. He is a UFA and if they can make the salary work, he’s not going to hurt. Certainly he’s a lot better than most of the Leafs current defensemen.
Nikita Zadorov is overrated due to being 6’8. He does have some pretty nice numbers with Tanev, though the results are terrible. He is a pending UFA and likely would also help the Leafs, but the cost of trading for him is likely prohibitive.
The Leafs could easily find a player as effective as Zadorov who isn’t 6’8, because that player won’t cost as much.
Zadorov and Tanev are good, but I can’t stress this enough – paying assets and then money for name brand players is what got the Leafs into their current mess.
The Flames also have Rasmus Anderson and Noah Hanifin, both of whom the Leafs should run from. They are overrated.
The best defenseman on Calgary is Mackenzie Weeegar, but he’s also signed for for seven years, so that’s probably not wise.
The players the Leafs would want on Calgary are Tanev and Zadorov, but they combined to make $8 million and be over 60 years old.
Younger, cheaper players are available. You even have the option to develop your own. Seeing the Leafs GM try to take players off his other failing team is just sad. The Toronto Maple Leafs should just promote some Marlies and see what happens.