There’s not a lot going on in Toronto Maple Leafs land this week. Kudos to Brad Treliving for spreading out his trades by allowing to get maximum mileage of the Reaves departure and the return of Dakota Joshua, but all good things come to an end, and it is a safe bet quiet weeks will outnumber the active ones from now until training camp.
In that spirit, it’s time to get absurd about the Leafs and explore a few things that simply aren’t going to happen.
How is this the year there isn’t a Morgan Rielly as a forward push?
With Morgan Rielly’s no movement clause a big focus of the summer and seemingly peak frustration with the idea of him continuing to play a key role on the blueline being a foundation of the armchair GM world, it seems odd to me that no one is exploring the idea of Rielly at forward this offseason.
Rielly’s puck carrying and distribution certainly address a new and he might be the Leafs player that brings the most similar style of play to Mitch Marner, assuming at any point that the Leafs were looking to recreate him. Simply put Rielly at forward would immediately halt the pursuit or at least limit the pursuit of a difficult to fill position, while I guess, simultaneously creating another need on the blueline.
The reality is the move from defence to forward just doesn’t happen that often and while the Leafs are also actively searching for puck moving options on the blueline, reappropriating the one they have to a forward position doesn’t make a ton of sense. There is also the reality that the Leafs are possibly putting in the work to move Rielly if the constant rumours since the start of the offseason are to be believed.
More than any previous year, the idea seems interesting to me and it’s always easy to say “why not giving it ten games?” but we’ve also seen that this is an organization that won’t even give William Nylander ten games at centre, so an impromptu adjustment in Rielly’s role likely isn’t coming.
Is there a benefit in intentionally making the Leafs goaltending worse?
A strong goaltending tandem was a bright spot for the Leafs last season. It was pushed due to injuries and that was to be expected with two goaltenders who hadn’t cracked the 40 game mark in the regular season before, but the Leafs weathered the storm before ultimately seeing it blow up in the playoffs.
Now the Leafs are in a situation where they have two good goaltenders in a league full of teams desperate to upgrade at the position. Stolarz as an older pending UFA will attract interest but it’s (rightfully) clear the Leafs see him as their 1A in the tandem at this point. Moving on now would make the Leafs worse.
Woll was more or less the workhorse and put up a strong regular season before looking a bit more sluggish down the stretch and into the playoffs. Being the youthful option there is always a strong likelihood he’ll progress this year, but given his age he might also be the more attractive option as even non-playoff teams would be interested in him.
If the Leafs were to move on from one of their netminders it would represent an opportunity to upgrade elsewhere in their lineup and that’s not nothing. There are plenty of reclamation goaltenders around the league who might be available (Tristan Jarry, Merzlikins, Georgiev, etc.) that can absorb the work by the Leafs trading one of their netminders as well.
Given that having a hot hand in net is a big part of Stanley Cup success, I’m not sure I can see the case for the Leafs limiting the possibility of a capable netminder playing for them, but nevertheless it’s a topic to throw against the wall in late July.
Any interest in a Oliver Ekman-Larsson 50% of sale?
The good news is that the Leafs have their blueline completely under contract for two more seasons. The bad news is the Leafs have their blueline under contract for two more seasons. At the same time the spring chickens on the current blueline are Simon Benoit and Brandon Carlo at 26 and 28 respectively, and the top four defencemen when it came to icetime last season for the Leafs were all older than 30.
At the very least the Leafs have Henry Thrun at 24 and Philippe Myers at 28 ready to step in and from a wishful thinking perspective William Villeneuve at 23 might be an option this season as well along Marlies’ favourite Marshall Rifai (27).
Ekman-Larsson was brought in hopes that he could play a top four role after excelling as a 5th defenceman on the Panthers. Craig Berube certainly played him as such considering OEL finished with the third highest average time on ice of Leafs defencemen in the regular season, but his usage normalized a little in the postseason after Carlo was brought in. Nevertheless, Ekman-Larsson saw a 2.5 minute jump in average icetime in the regular season with the Leafs and a 3.5 minute jump in average icetime in the playoffs since his move from the Panthers. The results didn’t really warrant it.
With Ekman-Larsson not really delivering on what is needed and the Leafs having some worthwhile options to explore/develop in the bottom pairing, the question should be, why is Oliver still here? (You could have asked that last year when the Leafs still had Liljegren too, but to be fair, OEL had a strong start to the year.)
Moving Ekman-Larsson at a $3.5M AAV for the next three seasons doesn’t seem easy and 16 team no trade list complicates that further. Buying him out after a potential Nick Robertson arbitration also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when the Leafs would actually save more money by burying him in the AHL.
The idea of 50% salary retention might be the most favourable. It is entirely possible that there is a market for a $1.75M AAV defenceman who can play both sides and play on the higher side of minutes in a 5D role. The fact that he makes sense on the powerplay and will likely be utilized on the penalty kill to broadens his appeal. Dare I say, he could be treated as an asset?
The reality with Ekman-Larsson is that is very unlikely that Leafs have the appetite for any of this. Oliver is going to be viewed as a versatile veteran that hasn’t been usurped by any of Thrun, Myers, or Villeneuve, so why get rid of him prematurely? Now that Carlo is on the Leafs there is less of a need to play OEL over 20 minutes a night, the path to fewer special teams minutes is there too. Right sizing the workload rather than moving on after one season seems like the more likely course of action. Or maybe Oliver Ekman-Larsson could be tried at forward?