Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

[GoldenJet]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Man, Duchene had a terrible offensive year, hopefully he gets his act together in the playoffs.

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Excellent trade deadline Dynasty, love your moves. Especially the Kessel one, **** getting Doughty and already having Duchene, your going to be a force to reckon with in the future.

Good job, Kudos.

Thannks BH. I am excited to have Doughty around, I think the cor eof the team is very strong now, and very young.

Good luck in the playoffs, hope your guys pick it up.

Thanks BH, sadly it did not come to pass. I got owned hardcore by Boston

Man, Duchene had a terrible offensive year, hopefully he gets his act together in the playoffs.

Actually jet if you look at his stats he in 09/10 his rookie year he put up 24G 31A 55 PTS +1

last year he put up 34G 41A 75PTS +31, pretty good in my books, and he is still maturing.

Leafs playoff letdown

Well readers, after years of not making the playoffs, the leafs finally squeaked in, a first round date with Boston would prove too much for the young leafs, getting swept out in short order.

Game 1 5-4 L
It didn't seem to matter what I did in this game, despite the score Price made so many good saves, everytime I scored a goal Boston got one back very quickly.

Game 2 6-4 L
I had to pull Price here after letting in 4 goals in about 10 shots or so, managed to climb back into it in the third getting as close as 5-4 but they scored on me after I pulled my goalie.

Game 3 4-3 L
This was an excellent game, tight checking no space given battle for everything you got but sadly Boston just overpowered my guys, Lucic had a feild day with some of my smaller players he especially seemed to enjoy crushing Versteeg into a fine paste.

Game 4 5-3 L
Never had a chance here, my guys seemed gassed and just unable to match Boston in anyway.

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Leafs mega update!

NHL 2010-2011 award winners

NHL 2010-2011 Award Winners
Award	Player	Pos	Team
Art Ross Trophy	Thomas Vanek		Buffalo Sabers
Hart Memorial Trophy	Tomas Vokoun		Florida Panthers
James Norris Memorial Trophy	Dustin Byfuglien		Atlanta Thrashers
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy	Kris Versteeg		Toronto Maple Leafs
Calder Memorial Trophy	Jeremy Smith		Nashville Predators
Conn Smythe Trophy	Semyon Varlomov		Washington Capitols
Vezina Trophy	Tomas Vokoun		Florida Panthers
William M Jennings Trophy	Tomas Vokoun		Florida Panthers
Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy	Nicklas Backstrom		Washington Capitols
Frank J. Selke Trophy	Colin Wilson		Nashville Predators
Ted Lindsay Award	Alexander Ovechkin		Washington Capitols
Rocket Richard Trophy	Alexander Ovechkin		Washington Capitols

2010-2011 Stanley cup champions: Washington Capitols

Season ending interview with Brian Burke
"Sure it's tough, and yeah it sucks to be put out so earlie. I wouldnt call it a dissapointment in the way your asking the question, more I would say that the guys are dissapointed after such a good season where they fought so hard, to go home so earlie.

Make no mistake here, I am proud of every guy on this team, they worked their butts off to get to this point and they deserve everyones praise for doing so, I look forward to our next seaosn on the ice as should every fan proud enough to wear the blue and white, to everyone else, I say. Watch out, were here, were ready and were coming hard"

Leafs off season moves

Toronto trades
2011 1st round pick (TB) 2011 7th round pick (ANA) 2011 6th round pick (TOR)

TO EDM for
2011 1st round pick (EDM)

I wanted the first selection as I had scouted, and intended to get (C) Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Toronto re-signs:
(G) Ben Scrivens 25 years old 1 year @ 745K 71 overall B- potential
(C) Tyler Bozak 25 years old 1 year @ 1M 80 overall C potential
(LW) Clarke Macarthur 26 years old 1 year @ 1M 79 overall C potnetial
(LW) Fabian Brunnstrom 26 years old 1 year @ 840K 78 overall C potential
(RW) Mike Brown 26 years old 2 years @ 740K 77 overall C potential
(C) Christian Hanson 25 years old 1 year @ 700K 75 overall C potential
(LW) Luca Caputi 22 years old 3 years @ 645K 75 OVR B- potnetial
(C) Tim Brent 27 years old 1 year @ 780K 74 overall C potential
(C) Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 18 years old 3 years @ 765K 70 overall B potential
(LW) Tyler Fiddler 21 years old 3 years @ 630K 65 overall B- potential
(LW) Matt Tomah 19 years old 3 years @ 500K 58 overall B- potential
(RW) Cody Fowlie 18 years old 3 years @ 500K 57 overall B- potential
(RW) Jens Meilleur 18 years old 3 years @ 550K 57 overall B- potential
(D) Matt Lashoff 24 years old 3 years @ 1M per season 74 overall B- potential
(D) Barron Smith 20 years old 3 years @ 605K per season 64 overall B- potential
(D) Colin Miller 18 years old 3 years @550K per season 62 overall B- potential
(D) Darron Dietz 18 years old 3 years @ 550K per season 62 overall B- potential
(D) Luke Schenn 21 years old 6 years @ 5M per season 83 overall B- potential
(D) Drew Doughty 21 years old 5 years @ 5.5M per season 89 overall B potential

Toronto Signs free agents:
(D) David Shields 20 years old 3 years 500K per season 71 overall B potential
(C) Vaclav Prospal 36 years old 1 year @ 1.5M 83 overall D- potential
(D) Hal Gill 36 years old 1 year @ 1.4M 82 overall D potential

It was at this point that I realised that my frugal nature had left me with a full roster and 20M in cap space, of which I needed to gain another 5M+ or I would be under league minimum. I had a REALLY hard time finding trades to work this problem out, since I didn't want the CPU to auto adjust my contracts. I couldnt even overpay a free agent or two, since my roster was full!

Toronto trades:
(LW) Marcell Mueller 23 years old 1 year @ 1.125M remaining on his contract 74 overall B- potential
2012 6th round pick (TOR)
TO WSH FOR:
(RW) eric Fehr 26 years old 1 year @ 2.2M remaining on his contract 80 overall C potential

(LW) Robery Slaney 22 years old 1 year @ 575K remaining on his contract 71 overall C potential
TO VAN FOR:
(LW) Bill Sweatt 22 years old 2 years @ 1.2M remaining on his contract 70 overall C potential

(LW) Fabian Brunnstrom 26 years old 1 year @ 840K remaining on his contract 78 overall C potential
TO BUF FOR:
(D) Jordan Leopold 31 years old 2 years @ 3M left on his contract 78 overall C potential

I didn't want to get rid of these guys, but sadly my lack of foresight cost me a couple decent players. Fehr isnt a bad deal, he can add depth and will see some big club ice time probably but everyone else... pure cap reasons.

2011-2012 player rating tracker:
(C) Matt Duchene 86 OVR (was 83 last year)
(C) Braydon Schenn 74 OVR (was 73 last year)
(C) Nazem Kadri 74 OVR (was 70 last year)
(C)Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 70 OVR
(LW) Kris Versteeg 81 OVR
(LW) Nikolai Kulemin 81 OVR (was 80 last year)
(LW) Clarke Macarthur 79 OVR (was 78 last year)
(RW) David Backes 83 OVR (was 84 last year)
(RW) Colby Armstrong 82 OVR
(D) Drew Doughty 89 OVR (was 87 last year)
(D) Luke Schenn 83 OVR (was 81 last year)
(D) Steve Pratt 81 OVR (was 74 last year)
(D) Matt Lashoff 74 OVR (was 73 last year)
(D) David Sheilds 71 OVR
(G) Carey Price 86 OVR (was 83 last year)
(G) Jussi Rynnas 78 OVR

Backes actually went down a point, nice...

Leafs opening day line up!

Toronto Maple Leafs Depth Chart - 2011
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
LW	Kris Versteeg	Clarke Macarthur	Nikolai Kulemin	Mike Brown
C	Matt Duchene	Vaclav Prospal	Tyler Bozak	Christian Hanson
RW	David Backes	Eric Fehr	Colby Armstrong	Colton Orr
D #1	Drew Doughty	Steve Pratt	Brett Lebda
D #2	Luke Schenn	Hal Gill	Jordan Leopold
G	Carey Price	Chris Osgood

[bthomp05]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Crappy luck here, but the key thing here is you made the playoffs and next year your young team is going to be explosive.

Mind sharing what ratings some of your young players jump to after EA re-calculates them during the OS.

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Crappy luck here, but the key thing here is you made the playoffs and next year your young team is going to be explosive.

Mind sharing what ratings some of your young players jump to after EA re-calculates them during the OS.

Thanks for the vote of confidence BH hope you continue to read.
Yeah i was still in the middle of updating the post there ya go

[bthomp05]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Thanks and sorry about being to quick. haha
Some great progression there, especially for Pratt. Excellent trade in getting the number one pick and drafting Ryan (Are you going to start him in the AHL or give him another year in the minors?)

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Thanks and sorry about being to quick. haha
Some great progression there, especially for Pratt. Excellent trade in getting the number one pick and drafting Ryan (Are you going to start him in the AHL or give him another year in the minors?)

Yeah i was surprised, duchene and price made some great strides. and thanks, I wanted to get him, now I have 4 quality centers available within the next 3 years.

All my prospect centers are remaining in the AHL untill they are ready, Schenn Kadri and Hopkins are all in the minors gettign experience. I expect schenn/kadri to come up next year though, I have been debating on using Kadri as a winger and keep Schenn at center.

And I forgot to mention!

Toronto's captains
C (D) Drew Doughty
A (C) Matt Duchene
A (D) Steve Pratt

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Leafs 10 game update

Oh it's been bad. so very bad.

Toronto Maple Leafs Stats - 2011
Skaters	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	GW	PIM	SOG	SPCT
Matt Duchene	10	6	1	7	+2	1	6	49	12.2%
David Backes	10	2	3	5	+3	0	17	23	8.7%
Drew Doughty	10	2	3	5	+3	1	5	10	20%
Steve Pratt	10	1	3	4	-7	0	2	6	16.7%
Kris Versteeg	10	1	3	4	+3	0	4	11	9.1%
Tyler Bozak	10	2	2	4	-1	0	10	39	5.1%
Luke Schenn	10	0	2	2	-2	0	6	9	0%
Eric Fehr	10	1	1	2	-3	0	4	16	6.3%
Clarke Macarthur	10	1	1	2	-4	0	4	8	12.5%
Nikolai Kulemin	10	1	1	2	-1	0	0	20	5%
Colton Orr	10	0	2	2	-3	0	9	12	0%
Brett Lebda	10	0	2	2	0	0	6	2	0%
Vaclav Prospal	10	0	2	2	-5	0	15	30	0%
Hal Gill	10	0	2	2	-3	0	0	3	0%
Colby Armstrong	10	1	1	1	-1	0	16	11	9.1%
Christian Hanson	10	0	1	1	-3	0	15	20	0%
Goalies	GP	W	L	T	GAA	TOI	SV	SV%	SHO
Carey Price	8	2	6	0	2.78	475	205	90.3%	1
Chris Osgood	2	0	2	0	4.54	119	50	84.7%	0

So as you can see, Duchene is the only one that seems to be capable of scoring. Doughty and Pratt have held up the back end pretty much by themselves. Price has played decently, given me a chance to win every game he plays but the team just can't score.

Word has has filtered out of leaf camp today that GM Brian Burke wants it known he is looking for a top 4 four scoring winger listing his depth of third and fourth line role players as available and draft picks if required.

NHL League Leaders - Updated: Jan 1,
Goals		G	Assists		A
	1. Fabian Brunnstrom	10		1. Ryan Clowe	13
	2. Marian Gaborik	9		2. Drew Stafford	13
	3. Bobby Ryan	9		3. Brandon Dubinsky	12
	4. Jochen Hecht	8		4. Wojtek Wolski	11
	5. Mike Cammalleri	8		5. Tim Connolly	11
Points		PTS	PLus/Minus		+/-
	1. Marian Gaborik	17		1. Marian Gaborik	+13
	2. Drew Stafford	17		2. Brandon Dubinsky	+13
	3. Brandon Dubinsky	16		3. Wojtek Wolski	+13
	4. Ryan Clowe	16		4. Tim Connolly	+8
	5. Jochen Hecht	16		5. Chuk Kobasew	+8
Wins		W	Goals Against Average		GAA
	1. Henrik Lundqvist	7		1. Mikka Kiprusoff	1.55
	2. Ilya Bryzgalov	7		2. Henrik Lundqvist	2.00
	3. Ryan Miller	7		3. Kari Lehtonen	2.07
	4. Nikolai Khabibulin	6		4. Pascal Leclaire	2.19
	5. Jonas Gustavsson	6		5. Niklas Backstrom	2.23
Save Percentage		SV%	Shutouts		SO
	1. Mikka Kiprusoff	94.7%		1. Nikolai Khabibulin	2
	2. Pascal Leclaire	93.6%		2. Mike Smith	2
	3. Henrik Lundqvist	93.4%		3. Antti Niemi	1
	4. Kari Lehtonen	93.3%		4. Jose Theodore	1
	5. Niklas Backstrom	92.9%		5. Carey Price	1

[bthomp05]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

8 losses, ouch. What are you going to do?

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

8 losses, ouch. What are you going to do?

At this time I believe my only option is roster moves and line shuffling, Duchene out paces everyone and has no one to finish his passes, it is sickening how many times I have set up Backes and Versteeg to have them blow it over the net, many times on empty nets. I have no winger prospects beyond Caputi in the minors and even his future is a question mark at this point, I am strong in net with goaltending prospects maturing in the minors, My top 4 D is very strong with D prospects maturing in the minors, I am weak down the middle beyond duchene, prospal is a total bust, at this point I am so glad I only signed him for one season, Bozak is about what I expected him to be, and I am forced to use Hanson at this point.

I could bring up Kadri, but his skill set is way beyond a 4th liner, so Ill leave him in the minors to mature for another year, I hope to have bozak and schenn up on the big club next year, so my center depth is weak this year, but should be strong next year.

I am lacking on the wing big time. as with the actual leafs, I have tons of 3/4 line guys but no 1/2.

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Burke shuffles deck, makes blockbuster move!

Good evening leaf fans and following readers! We got reports coming in from all directions it seems, it would appear that Brian Burke was defiantly not joking when he announce just days ago he would be seeking a top 4 forward and was willing to shake up his bottom 6 and draft picks to make it happen.

Reports are still coming in but it would appear that Toronto has made a major deal, possibly the biggest one there will be this year, we are getting word Brian Burke is holding a press conference at this very moment. We are going live to that now.

Burke: Thank you all for gathering at short notice, as most of you already know we have made a major deal, and a difficult one, with the Edmonton Oilers.

First there are a few things I would like to clarify. This is in no way a snap judgment move, this deal has been off and on for the past year between our two clubs, we were never able to find common ground until our most recent talks. Our club has struggled out of the gate, yes that has been a well documented fact, but I made this move to bring in some competition and drive into our roster.

Last year when I traded Phil Kessel we lost our shooter and that loss while needed, was indeed felt keenly. I felt that we had some people trying to fit a mold that wasn't in their capabilities to fill, to play in situations that they were unable to handle so I believe this deal rectifies that situation, and while the cost was high the gain was also equally lofty.

Toronto trades:
RW Colby Armstrong 28 years old 2 years @ 3.37M remaining on his contract 82 overall C potential
D Luke Schenn 21 years old 6 years @ 5.37M remaining on his contract 83 overall B- potential
2010 1st round pick (TOR) 2013 7th round pick (TOR)
To Edmonton for:
LW Magnus Paajarvi 20 years old 2 years @ 900K remaining on his contract 78 overall B potential
LW Taylor Hall 19 years old 3 years @ 900K remaining on his contract 86 overall A- potential

Burke: Let me first say thank you, to both of these wonderful guys, they put their hearts and soul into this club, and while this move needed to happen, I am sorry to see these two go. Obviously I wanted to keep Luke around for the foreseeable future but you have to give up talent to get talent in todays system and Edmonton made it clear that nothing would happen unless Luke went to them in the package.

As for what we are getting, a pure shooter with speed and high potential, I hope Taylor grows into the first rate player we all expect of him. I spoke before about this deal existing between our two clubs since last year, and that is true, I have constantly been on the phone trying to acquire Paajarvi, as I believe he will be a corner stone of this franchise along side the other talented young players we have, but Magnus' ability to play in all situations is so important to the outlook I have for our club that I have spent that last year working a deal to get him.

As it stands now, Don't expect much more movement out of our club, there are a couple key guys I am looking at to bring in, but I would not expect much int he way of Roster changes coming in the near future, Thank you for your time.

[GoldenJet]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Big trade man, hopefully it works out in your favor. Trading not only Schenn, your young stud defensemen, but your first round pick.

Good luck.

[bthomp05]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Thats a huge trade, but I like it. And even though I am sad to see Schenn leave I believe bring in those two guys will work majic in the future for you especially with your other young talent. Good move.

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Big trade man, hopefully it works out in your favor. Trading not only Schenn, your young stud defensemen, but your first round pick.

Good luck.

Thanks Jet. I didn't want to let Schenn go, purposly brought his brother in so they could play together, but in the end with Doughty and Pratt on the big club, Lashoff, Aulie, Sheilds and Miller in the system I felt confident in the move.

My winger depth was very sad, top 4 depth im tlakin about here

[Dynasty]

Re: Basement to penthouse, the return of the leafs

Thats a huge trade, but I like it. And even though I am sad to see Schenn leave I believe bring in those two guys will work majic in the future for you especially with your other young talent. Good move.

Thanks man. I believe now that I can move forward with the peices I have, filling in the rest as the opertunity arises. lets see how they play together.

For now Paajarvi will remain on the farm club, I put him on a line with Kadri, letting them get "familiar" with each other, as I am hoping next year they will be linemates on the big club