The Toronto Maple Leafs need to develop and retain talent
Daily confrontation (youtube): David Pagnotta on The Sheet with Jeff Marek, on the Toronto Maple Leafs and their need to develop and retain the next Darren Raddysh’s. Should they keep Bobby McMann?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “The one thing though, and we’ve seen this countless times, from different regimes, with the Toronto, the Toronto Maple Leafs. One of the problems is, you know, we’re going to rework this thing on free agent, on free agent day, in free agency.
And then there are all the rumors about: Oh, if he gets there, Leafs are interested in Darren Raddysh, for example. Which a lot of people look at and say, ‘Yeah, why not? He has arrived. He has finally had a good season. You should get the JJ Mosher contract, etc.”
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And correct me if I’m wrong here. Healthy teams, teams that win, that are built for the long term, don’t look at Darren Raddysh and say, ‘Yeah, we should get him on July 1 when he has $5 million.’ they say, ‘We have to find the next Darren Raddysh.’”
Bread: “Yes.”
Marek: “We have to go, those guys exist in the American Hockey League. How do we find them? Instead of having them developed by another team, and then we pay for them, if you’re the Maple Leafs.”
That’s one spot, unless we just saw this at Fraser Minten. I hate to keep going back to the Brandon Carlo deal, but honestly every time you see Fraser Minten you say Dave, what do you think? For example, he keeps getting better and better and better and better. And turn on, turn off, every Maple Leafs fan is like, the dagger goes in a little deeper. The dagger just goes in. For example, we had that guy. Had that guy. It’s a constant story about the Maple Leafs.”
Pagnotta: “Yeah. And you know, and that’s why, for example, with Bobby McMann. You know, they had other situations where they were helping the guy develop, and they were helping the guy grow, and they didn’t want to spend the mid-level money to keep those pieces. Zach Hyman, and, you know, as a prime example. And there’s others.”
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So that to me is a guy who if the price tag is five times five, or within that range, based on what he’s done. Based on his position in the roster, excuse me, and how versatile he can be. I like it, it’s a heavy system. I’m losing my words. It’s a difficult situation for them because I think they have to keep him.
Personally, I think you should stick with it if that’s the price tag. Because the other thing is also, when you look at free agency, who else is available, right? Just like all these other teams, to your point, that saying, ‘Oh, well, in regards to, oh, we gotta go after Darren Raddysh.’ Well, all these other teams are looking at Bobby McMann going, ‘Well, we’ve got to go after him because no one else is going to be available. Everyone else has signed.”
All other large pieces are signed. You now have Alex Tuch and Nick Schmaltz leading the offensive charge. Or the forward group, I should say. You know, there’s only 32 teams. The options are limited.
And then on the Leafs side, keep him, move some other pieces and develop some of your guys. To find those, those next pieces, because you’re going to hit the cap. You need to find those beloved contracts that work for you.
Marek: “You know, what’s also interesting about the other 31 teams? I checked, they’re all allowed to try too. I checked a few. I check every now and then, are the other teams still allowed to try? Like, oh, yeah, okay. Keep that in mind.”
NHL Rumors: How deep will the Toronto Maple Leafs go at the deadline? Out of season?
Bread: “Confirmed.”
Marek: “Yes, they can try.”
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