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Maple Leafs Dynasty

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Maple Leafs Dynasty

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 3:43 pm
by suprvilce
Hi, i have played EHM 2007 for quite a few years now, but i always lose interest in a dynasty when i win few cups (especially in first few seasons) and my prospect pool is full. I once actually had a story for my EHM 2005 dynasty on sigames.com forum, and if i just think about it its a great memory because players seem more live when i write about it, so decided to try to start one for 2007 version.

I have tried to start few dynastys with Lidas/Manimal rosters, but i can't seem to get my team to play well no matter how good of a lineup i have (maybe because i'm not very good with setting team tactics), so i still play with original DB, hopefully this doesn't discourage anyone from following it.

Now normally when i start a new dynasty i have a bad habbit of trying to make the best possible trades at start like for Bobby Ryan, Marc Staal, Antero Niittymaki, Scott Hannan & Milan Michalek and few others, to trade away depth players i don't need for as many draft picks i can and to try to get as many 1st round picks in next several drafts by dealing these depth players, but i'll try to make it as realistic as possible, even though its gonna be hard as i'm only a human :) still i'll try to keep it at minmum. This really limits me though as i will try not to make deals like lesser top 6 forward + *** trash for better top 6 forward.

I play only NHL enhanced, AHL, ECHL and CHL (WHL, OHL, QMJHL) are standard.
Just before i start i'd like to mention that my English isn't very good, i'll make a lot of typing errors, spelling errors, mix past and present tense.

After taking control of the team in August 2006, i recieved a message from the board that they expect the team to qualify for the playoffs.

First job was to evaluate the staff. Looking at drafting history, it was no secret major changes were needed in the scouting departmant. Fired six scouts, including head scout, signed 12 new to join the remaining group and promoted Richard Rose as head scout. After finishing with the scouting departmant, i signed Craig Muni as my assistant GM, who is also a very good judge of talent.

Next i took a look at the coaching staff, decided to keep only two out of five assistant coaches, also kept head coach Paul Maurice. Signed one new assistant coach to join the the club. Also signed one more psychotherapist.

After finally being done with off ice staff, i put all my attention towards the players on our team. First thing i looked at though was prospect pool, which was very shallow, not even enough quality to ice a competent AHL team. To make up for some very poor drafting in the past and to add few solid players to our team in the minors and add some depth i proceeded to sign the following players to contracts out free agency:

F Ville Leino - 2 year 480k/y (2-way), transfer June 2007
F Ryan Garlock - 3 year 525k/y (2-way)
F Rich Peverly - 2 year 450k/y (2-way)
F Mathieu Roy - 3 year 500k/y (2-way)
F Eric Hunter - 3 year 450k/y (2-way)
F Tyler Doig - 3 year 450k/y (2-way)
D Drew Fata - 2 year 450k/y (2-way)
D Evgeny Valramov - 2 year 800k/y (2-way), transfer June 2007
D Andrew Hotham - 3 year 450k/y (2-way)
D Andy Greene - 2 year 740k/y
D Tom Gilbert - 2 year 450k/y (2-way)
D Mitch Maunu - 3 year 450k/y (2-way)
G Dan LaCosta - 3 year 450k/y (2-way)
G Maxime Ouelett - 2 year 450k/y (2-way)
G Miika Wiikman - 3 year 850k/y (2-way), tranfer June 2007


On September 1st i decided to close training camp for only our roster players, players in minors and our prospects, no free agent prospects, so we could evaluate all players and see who will fit our team. I also made my first trade on that day.

To NY Rangers:
-rights to D Aki Berg *
-rights to F Petr Horak *
-rights to D Markus Seikola ***

To Toronto:
- F Lee Falardeau 450k, 1 year (2-way) *

Berg and Horak were not in our future plans, but are good enough to be depth players on any NHL team if they are signed. Rangers seemed to kile Seikola though i don't see why as he doesn't seem to have any future in North America. Lee Falardeau is a depth center who could become a solid option for 4th line center. Should be ready after a season or two in minors.

After an extremley busy first few days signing may UFA players, the league hit us with a warning that we are 8 players above contract limit, so i had to evaluate the roster and decide who will be cut from the organisation.

The following players were put on waivers as a first step towards releasing them from their contracts:

F Martin Sagat
F Kris Newbury
F Chris St. Jacques
F Ryan Grahm
F Luke Fulghum
D Dominic D'Amour
D Tyson Marsh
G Todd Ford

After dealing with this issue, i noticed Petr Pospisil rejected invite to training camp, so i traded his rights.

To Buffalo:
-rights to F Petr Pospisil ***

To Toronto:
2007 3rd round pick

I recieved even better offers after offering his rights around the league, both Red Wings and Lightning were offering 2nd round picks, but since Buffalo has 3 players on their team from Czech Republic, maybe they can convince him to come there.

Mid September all players cleared waivers and were realeased from their contracts.

During training we had few standout defenceman in Brendan Bell, Drew Fata and Andy Greene but due to extreme depth of defenceman even with their improved play they still weren't able to secure a spot, while Jeff O'Neill seemed unmotivated and lacked drive. Hopefully he'll be ready as season starts as i have him penciled in as a top 6 forward.

Preseason games:

Vs St. Louis 1:0 (Sundin)
@ Vancouver 4:2 (Wellwood, Steen, O'neill 2)
Vs Trashers 5:3 (Tucker 2, Steen, Antropov, Wellwood)
Vs Bruins 7:3 (Garlock, Volkov 2, Tucker, Stajan, Antropov, Wellwood)

4-0 record in preseason, but that doesn't say much, could very well be a long seaosn.


The Hockey News NHL season preview had New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators as two most likely teams to win the Stanley Cup, Toronto was ranked 18th. Quite reasonable prediction i would say.

At the end of training camp we i signed 2 of our prospects:

F Nikolai Kulemin - 3 year 450k/y (2-way), transfer June 2007
D Dimitri Vorobiev - 3 year 450k/y (2-way), transfer June 2007

Because i was at the very contract limit, i decided to make this trade:

To Florida:
-F Ben Ondrus 450k, 2year (2-way) ***

To Toronto
-rights to F David Booth ***

Booth had just signed with Slovakian team so he wouldn't be able to come this year, but he is a decent prospect who is also 3 years younger than Ondrus, who struggled at camp. Now i can breathe little easier knowing i'm not at contract limit anymore. Also signed him right after the trade:

F David Booth - 3 year 450k/y (2-way), transfer June 2007

Also sent Justin Pogge and Tyler Doig back for their overage jear in juniors.

Made one more trade:

To Devils:
-D Carlo Colaiacovo 902k, 1 year ***

To Toronto
-D Richard Matvichuk 1,368M, 2 year *

Devils seemd to be in some serious cap trobule, already trading away John Madden earlier in September, now placing Richard Matvichuk on block. Seeing as how i could use a veteran defenceman for my bottom pairing and maybe complementary D on 2nd PP unit, i made this trade. While Colaiacovo is 10 years younger, he didn't seem to be developing well enough and i wanted more of a defensive defenceman on my bottom pair. Now with this trade not only am i less than 1M under cap, but my defensive unit is most likely the most expensive in the entire NHL, so hopefully this shows on the ice.

Claimed Cody McCormick off waivers from Colorado, and immediately placed him on waivers again to send him to Toronto Marlies of the AHL, where he should turn into a solid minor league player for my farm team and a decent call-up option, as i'm rather thin on right wing. Also released Brad Brown after claiming McCormick, my defensive depth is very good so he wasn't need.

List of top 10 NHL players at each position came out, with not a single Maple Leaf there. Also no Leafs were among top 10 prospects league wide. All of this shows in how big trobule this team is.

Here is how our team will look on most nights this season:

Wellwood - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
O'Neill - Peca - Tucker
Battaglia - Antropov - Steen
Kilger - Stajan - Devereaux

Kaberle - McCabe
Matvichuk - Kubina
Gill - White

Raycroft
Aubin

Antropov plays on the PP on 2nd pair, as does White on 2nd D pair, while Gill plays on 1st PK unit instead of Kaberle. Tellqvist is scratched but may see a game or two. This team doesn't look dangerous at all, it seems i have a lot of work to do. Lets also look at our current top 12 prospects.

1. Jiri Tlusty F (OHL)
2. Dimitri Vorobiev D (Rus)
3. David Booth F (Svk)
4. Maxime Ouelett G (AHL)
5. Alexander Suglobov F (AHL)
6. Ian White D (Maple Leafs)
7. Steffan Kronwall D (AHL)
8. Jeremy Williams F (AHL)
9. Andy Greene D (AHL)
10. Justin Pogge G (WHL)
11. Ryan Garlock F (AHL)
12. Mitch Maunu D (AHL)

Doesn't look good at all, all we might see from this group is a potential top 6 winger in Suglobov and a depth defenceman in White. An obvious lack of quality in prospect pool also reflects on Leafs roster.

Just a note, the worst part is now over, its always the hardest for me to start, lots of stuff happens, roster changes, should be a lost smoother story from now on.



9 games into the season, despite having a solid 6-3 record, we decided to put Antropov on 2nd line and Peca on 3rd, in hope of sparking his offensive game, as he only had 2 assists along with a -5 rating in 8 games.

Early in November Leafs were on everyone's suprise actually leading the league with 11-4 record, though Stars were only 2 points back with 3 games in hand. I recieved news Dave Scatchard was being shopped by Coyotes, who denied it in newspaper report however we were able to negotiate a deal.

To Phoenix:
-F Alexander Steen 770k, 2 year ****
-D Andy Wozniewski 475k, 1 year ***

To Toronto:
-F Dave Scatchard 2.1M, 3 year ****

Steen is 8 years younger and has lower cap hit, and has played decently for us on 3rd line, collecting 5 points in 15 games, however hasn't been able to hold his own defensivly, which is what we want from our 3rd and 4th line, and Scatchard should come in and make us tougher to play against and be able to play against other teams top players. Losing Wozniewski is no problem, we still have enough to ice 3 defensive pairings on our AHL team.

Early in December our recently signed UFA prospect Tyler Doig, who was assigned to OHL after training camp, sufferd an injury and will be out for about 8 months. Not a good news for such a young player. Also had some injuries in December and called up Ryan Garlock and Mathieu Roy, both are only 20 but due to lack of quality depth forwards at those positions were best availible options for top 6 spots. Both played well and produced more than expected in their short stint, however their inexperiance showed as they were minus players: Garlock 4gp 1g 2a 3pts -6, Roy 9gp 1g 4a 5pts -8. In his next call up though Roy was +3 in 3 games, along with getting 2 assists, so progress can be seen.

In the first half of the season several Leafs and Leafs prospects recieved honors from their respective leagues.

J.F. Racine won ECHL Saver of the week award on October 22nd.
Alexander Suglobov won AHL Player of the week award on November 12th.
Mats Sundin won NHL Best offensive player of the week award on November 26th.
Justin Pogge won WHL Player of the week award on December 3rd.
Mats Sundin won NHL Best offensive player of the month of December award.

After first 41 games of the season the Leafs are surprisingly on top of the league with 28-12-1 record and 57 points, while Dallas Stars are 1 point back with 1 game in hand. The team is top 10 in all GF and GA, PP and PK. So far we have exceeded expectations, however i am not sold one bit by this record. One look at our roster and i see most players are playing above their abilities. Lets keep things positive though and hope for good 2nd half and to make the playoffs like board thinks we should.

I made another trade in mid January:

To Vancouver:
-G Mikael Tellqvist 589k, 1 year ***

To Toronto:
2007 4th round pick (NYR)

Basicly this trade is only to give Vancouver a backup goalie, i had two and Tellqvist only played one game and was scratched the rest, while Vancouver had a 20 year old rookie as a backup goalie. This trade allows them to send their backup goalie in AHL for some seasoning and can have a veteran backup. Also i gets me one less contract to worry about, especially after the following signing.

D Rory Rawlyk - 2 year 450k/y (2-way), transfer June 2007

On 31st January we lost Raycroft for 3 weeks due to injury. It was quite unfortunate really, he was 3 minutes away from shutout in a game vs Rangers, then got injured, and backup Aubin stepped in and stopped one of two shots in the final 3 minutes of the game.

During the absence of Andrew Raycroft, Aubin has stepped in and done surprisingly well, beyond anyone's expectations, losing first game but winning next 4, giving his team a chance to win every night.

Mid February i made another trade:

To Florida:
-D Ian White 513k, 1 year ***

To Toronto:
-D Alexei Semenov 798k, 1 year *
2007 5th round pick

The reason for this trade was that Ian White doesn't have potential to be more than a bottom pairing defenceman on a good team, and a decent PP QB, however with emergance of Richard Matvichuk in recent games when we tried him as an option on the PP he didn't look out of place, which made White even more expendable. But unfortunetly for him we want more defensivly oriented defenders on 3rd pair and he just can't provide that kind of defensive skills. Not seeing PP time his offensive skills would also go unutilized. I like this trade despite losing more skilled defenceman, as i get more stability and experience on my back end. The pick was just to even the trade.

When playing Ouelette as a backup to Aubin, he was horrible, with 4 rating all both games he played, so his future with this organisation might not be as long as i hoped when i signed him.

After a poor start with his new club earlier in the season Alexander Steen seems to have found his groove and now has 39 points in 46 games with Coyotes and seems to be developing very well for them. Which makes me happy as Scatchard has played well on my 3rd line.

Started March by snapping season high 6 game losing streak with a 4-1 win over NJ Devils. The second half of the season has not been kind to the Leafs. Luckily we qualified for the playoffs on March 23rd.

After a solid first half of the season, the Leafs finished with 49-28-5 record, good enough for 103 points. A victory against Montreal in the final game of the season gives us home ice advantage in the 1st round of the playoffs.

Several of our players and prospects also recieved awards in the second half of the season.

Phil Oreskovic won OHL Player of the week award on January 8th.
Andrew Raycroft won NHL Best defensive player of the week award on January 22nd.
Mats Sundin won NHL Best offensive player of the month of January award.
Mats Sundin won NHL Best offensive player of the week award on February 12th.
Bryan McCabe won NHL Best defensive player of the week award on February 19th.
Mats Sundin won NHL Best offensive player of the week award on March 12th.
Mats Sundin won NHL Best offensive player of the month of March award.
Maxime Ouelett won AHL Best player of the week award on April 9th.

Standings:

Code: Select all

Eastern Conference

Pos     Team                     GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   PlPanthers                82     52     25     25     25     0.665   270  215  109  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlSabres                  82     50     23     23     23     0.665   277  229  109  
3rd   PlFlyers                  82     50     28     28     28     0.634   285  242  104  
4th   PlMaple Leafs             82     49     28     28     28     0.628   281  251  103  
5th   PlRangers                 82     47     30     30     30     0.604   266  223  99   
6th   PlCarolina                82     45     31     31     31     0.585   263  219  96   
7th   PlCanadiens               82     44     30     30     30     0.585   246  243  96   
8th   PlSenators                82     42     32     32     32     0.561   253  224  92   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Islanders               82     37     34     34     34     0.518   237  247  85   
10th    Devils                  82     39     37     37     37     0.512   239  271  84   
11th    Capitals                82     36     37     37     37     0.494   244  275  81   
12th    Thrashers               82     36     41     41     41     0.470   242  278  77   
13th    Bruins                  82     34     40     40     40     0.463   239  277  76   
14th    Penguins                82     32     44     44     44     0.427   234  294  70   
15th    Lightning               82     29     42     42     42     0.421   224  275  69   


Western Conference

Pos     Team                     GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   C Stars                   82     51     20     20     20     0.689   289  238  113  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlFlames                  82     46     26     26     26     0.622   281  246  102  
3rd   PlRed Wings               82     45     30     30     30     0.591   265  251  97   
4th   PlSharks                  82     48     27     27     27     0.628   280  243  103  
5th   PlDucks                   82     47     29     29     29     0.610   272  234  100  
6th   PlOilers                  82     42     29     29     29     0.579   275  271  95   
7th   PlBlues                   82     40     31     31     31     0.555   260  275  91   
8th   PlBlackhawks              82     40     33     33     33     0.543   235  235  89   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Wild                    82     39     35     35     35     0.524   285  280  86   
10th    Kings                   82     38     37     37     37     0.506   238  266  83   
11th    Colorado                82     35     35     35     35     0.500   260  272  82   
12th    Coyotes                 82     36     39     39     39     0.482   272  311  79   
13th    Blue Jackets            82     34     40     40     40     0.463   256  272  76   
14th    Nashville               82     34     43     43     43     0.445   224  279  73   
15th    Canucks                 82     33     43     43     43     0.439   222  278  72
Playoff matches are set.

This is the linep we'll be rolling with.

Wellwood - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
O'Neill - Antropov - Tucker
Battaglia - Peca - Scatchard
Kilger - Stajan - McCormick

Kaberle - McCabe
Matvichuk - Kubina
Gill - Semenov

Raycroft
Aubin

Devereaux is injured so McCormick will play on the 4th line for now.


Eastern Conference Quarter Final:
Toronto vs NY Rangers
Season series: 3-1 Toronto

We did well against the Rangers this year, hopefully we can continue with this in the playoffs too, however a goalie like Lundqvist can steal a series by himself, so lets hope for the best:

Game #1: 1-2 (Tucker)
Game #2: 2-3 OT (Wellwood, Ponikarovsky)
Game #3: 3-0 (Battaglia, Antropov, Wellwood)
Game #4: 2-4 (Sundin, Kilger)
Game #5: 2-4 (Greene, Sundin)

So a first round exit for the Leafs as we were outplayed by the Rangers. I am disappointed that we didn't at least win one home game.
Kaberle and Matvichuk were both injured in 1st game. Andy Greene replaced Kaberle, who'll be out 2 weeks, while Matvichuk was still be able to play.
Devereaux was ready for game 5, as was Matvichuk.

While our season comes to an end, the Toronto Marlies of the AHL have finished with 47-28-5 record and 99 points and have qualified for the AHL playoffs and are facing the Grand Rapids Griffins. Nice to see the signings i made during training camp to blooster our depth pay off.

While waiting for playoffs to end, we started to negotiate new contracts.

F Bates Battaglia - 545k/y, 2 year extension
F Jeff O'Neill - 1.980M/y, 3 year extension
D Phil Oreskovic - 3 year, 450k/y (2-way)

Toronto Marlies defeated Grand Rapids Griffins in 6 games in round one of the AHL playoffs.

Maxime Ouelett won AHL Best player of the week award on May 7th.

Toronto Marlies defeated Syracuse Crunch 4-1 in the conference semi final. Signing all those players at the start of the season seems to be paying off already.
The Marlies defeated Milwaukee Admirals 4:3 in a close western conference final series and are on to the Calder Cup final against Springfield Falcons! Great run!

San Jose Sharks have won their first ever Stanley Cup after defeating Buffalo Sabres in the finals 4-1. Congrats to them!

Mathieu Roy won AHL Rookie of the month of May award.

And the Toronto Marlies have defeated Springfield Falcons 4-2 and won the Calder Cup! Several players acquired by me were key reasons for this sucsess! Hopefully we can translate this into next season too.


Notable yearly awards:

NHL

Art Ross Trophy: Mats Sundin
Hart Memorial Trophy: Mats Sundin
Lester B. Pearson Award: Mats Sundin
NHL First All-Star team: Mats Sundin

Stars:

Code: Select all

================================================================================================
 2006-07 Regular Season Stats
================================================================================================

No   Name                     GP  G   A   P   +--  PIM  SOG  ShAv R 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
80   Antropov, Nik            75  22  37  59  -13  169  236  9.3  8.00 
30   Aubin, Jean-Sebastien    21  0   1   1   0    0    0    -    7.24 
33   Battaglia, Bates         79  5   8   13  -9   47   91   5.5  6.89 
21   Devereaux, Boyd          78  6   7   13  -9   20   48   12.5 6.54 
25   Gill, Hal                82  2   6   8   1    50   31   6.5  6.85 
15   Kaberle, Tomas           82  11  32  43  -18  12   174  6.3  7.72 
18   Kilger, Chad             82  6   8   14  -8   32   65   9.2  6.87 
73   Kubina, Pavel            82  6   24  30  -7   63   156  3.8  7.96 
2    Matvichuk, Richard       80  3   18  21  5    60   67   4.5  7.72 
24   McCabe, Bryan            78  14  30  44  -10  98   204  6.9  8.12 
92   O'Neill, Jeff            73  14  47  61  6    54   211  6.6  7.40 
27   Peca, Michael            82  6   20  26  0    102  121  5.0  6.70 
23   Ponikarovsky, Alexei     82  50  42  92  4    49   414  12.1 8.11 
1    Raycroft, Andrew         65  0   0   0   0    0    0    -    8.20 
38   Scatchard, Dave          60  20  5   25  -1   64   146  13.7 8.10 
3    Semenov, Alexei          24  0   4   4   -2   62   17   0.0  7.25 
14   Stajan, Matt             74  4   7   11  -12  40   44   9.1  6.27 
13   Sundin, Mats             82  41  80  121 8    47   325  12.6 9.68 
16   Tucker, Darcy            77  31  28  59  -6   76   229  13.5 7.03 
42   Wellwood, Kyle           79  22  48  70  0    14   232  9.5  7.29
Andrew Raycroft: 65GP - 41W - 19L - 4OTL - 2.63GAA - 0.907sv% - 3SO


Due to underwhelming play in the regular season and playoffs i have decided not to resign my two assistat captains Michael Peca and Darcy Tucker. Also after transfer window opened on June 7th and several players joined the team, we again had to cut some players to fit under the 50 contract rule, as a result one of the players who was waived was Darcy Tucker. Alexander Suglobov had a very good year in the minors and should be more than ready to step in as a top 6 forward. I might however bring back Peca if no better options are availible.

NHL Entry draft is here and Leafs will pick 23rd.

Maple Leafs 2007 NHL draft:

1(23) - RD Alex Grant
2(53) - RW Brett MacLean
3(83) - RD/LD Ryan Wilson
3(87) - RD/LD Albert Polinin
4(111) - RD/LD Nick Pageau
4(113) - RW/C Matt Smyth
5(143) - C Aleksej Repkin
5(148) - RW/LW Barry Almeida
6(173) - RD P.K. Subban
7(203) - LW/C Austin Saber

Was surprised to see Grant last as long as he did, though i can also see why as his defensive abilities are very poor and he has a lot of work to do, however i belive he is capable of becomming a capable NHL defenceman, so i'm very happy with this pick. A project with big upside.

MacLean was ranked to go 115th, however since this is a weak draft i drafted him with my 2nd round pick, as i didn't feel there was any better prospect. Is scouted to be a 2nd line winger, should become a solid AHL player for us, don't expect him to be NHL regular though.

Don't think i need to explain Wilson pick, could have drafted him with 2nd round pick however since he wasn't ranked i hoped he'd slide to 3rd round, and was lucky. Could be 2nd or even best prospect i drafted.

Took a flyer on Polinin and Pageau, both will likely be AHL depth options, however Pageau does have high upside but question is if he'll reach it.

Smyth could turn to be a solid pick, but most likely a solid AHL player.

Repkin was also picked mostly for AHL depth since its a poor draft, while lasat 3 picks were boom or bust, don't expect much from them.


Signings:

Alex Grant
Ryan Wilson

Both were signed to ELC.

Decided to let Brendan Bell test free agents though as i am again st contract limit and have plenty of depth defenceman

As offseason has started, i made two trades early in July.

To Colorado:
-D Hal Gill 2,2M, 2 year ***

To Toronto:
2008 3rd round pick

To Calgary:
-G Maxime Ouellet ***

To Toronto
2010 3rd round pick

First trade was made as i couldn't afford anymore to pay 2,2M for a 3rd pairing defenceman, and i have Varlamov who should do the same job at much lower cost. Despite playing well in AHL playoffs and winning Calder Cup, Ouellet was expendable as both Wiikman and Pogge will start their pro careers in AHL this fall, and i still have LaCosta under contract and James Reimer one year away from joining the Marlies.

Also placed Tom Gilbert on waivers and released him after he cleared as he only played 3 total games in AHL this year, and wasn't there were too many defenceman ahaed of him on dpeth chart for him to get a chance.


To Vancouver:
-F Chad Kilger 1,2M, 2 year ***

To Toronto:
2010 4th round pick

Decided to clear more salary. Paying 1,2M for a 4th line forward just doesn't sit well with me, and i am looking for cheeper options in UFA market.

To Dalls:
-rights to F Jeremy Williams ***
-2008 6th round pick

To Toronto
-F Niklas Hagman ***

Last year Battaglia played on 3rd line and Kilger on 4th on the left side, not Battaglia will move to 4th and Hagman will be able to play on 3rd line, improving our bottom 6 even more. Williams had a poor year in the AHL and i wasn't going to waste a contract on him. Also signed Hagman to 2 year extension at 700k/year.

Looks like the only way we'll be able to improve our top 6 is through draft. There were some big free agents this year, however we are restricted by salary thanks to our highly paid defensive core.

Re-signed several players such as:

Alexander Suglobov - 800k/y, 4 year
Alexei Ponikarovsky - 1.4M/y, 4 year
Nik Antropov - 1.4M/y, 4 year
Mats Sundin - 5M/y, 2 year

Waived John Pohl, it opens up a roster spot with Ville Leino comming. He had a very good year, leading the Marlies to Calder cup, but wasn't going to get his chance with the Leafs.
Was claimed by Boston Bruins.

UFA Signings:

F Erik Rasmussen - 2 year deal
F Marcus Nilson - 3 year deal

Up next: training camp and 2007/08 season.

Re: Maple Leafs Dynasty

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 10:43 pm
by suprvilce
Training camp for 2007/08 season has begun. All players and prospects will participate except the ones that are in collage.

Preseason games:

@ Blackhawks 2:5 (Ponikarovsky 2)
@ Red Wings 5:4 (Doig, Grant, Nilson 2, Garlock)
@ Senators 3:0 (Antropov, Wellwood, Ponikarovsky)
Vs Carolina 7:4 (McCormick, Scatchard, Sundin 3, Hagman, MacLean)
@ Rangers 4:0 (MacLean, Leino 2, Garlock)
@ Sharks 4:5 (Antropov, Ponikarovsky, Suglobov, Wellwood)

4-1-1 record in preseason.

After a very poor season in OHL, Jiri Tlusty has finally shown signs of progress in his games, however he is still many years away. Aleksej Repkin is another prospect who impressed at camp and will be offered a contract at the end.

NHL preview has Maple Leafs finishing 17th, which is about the same as last year, and without a strong first half, that is probably where we would have finished. Hopefully we can make the playoffs again, as board expects us to.

Alex Grant has played very well in preseason games, but has been sent to his QMJHL team for more seasoning.

Top players in NHL by position:
G - Andrew Raycroft (8th)

Raycroft had a good season, nice to see him up here. No other Leaf players or prospects made it into other top 10 lists.

After trimming our roster, this is how our lineup will look this season. Quite close to what we had last year. Will carry Steffan Kronwal as 7th defenceman and Erik Rasmussen as 13th forward.

Wellwood - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
O'Neill - Antropov - Suglobov
Hagman - Nilson - Scatchard
Battaglia - Stajan - Devereaux
Rassmusen

Kaberle - McCabe
Matvichuk - Kubina
Varlamov - Semenov
Kronwall

Raycroft
Aubin

Time to look at top 12 prospects within the organisation:

1. Alex Grant D (QMJHL)
2. Dimitri Vorobiev D (AHL)
3. Ville Leino F (AHL)
4. Jiri Tlusty F (ECHL)
5. Miika Wiikman G (AHL)
6. Nick Pageau D (OHL)
7. Alexander Suglobov F (Maple Leafs)
8. Barry Almeida F (NCAA)
9. Andy Greene D (AHL)
10. Steffan Kronwall D (Maple Leafs)
11. Mitch Maunu D (AHL)
12. Josh Jensen F (NCAA)

Not much diffrent, but at least we have a bit more upside. Alex Grant has a good chance of turning into a solid NHL player, Leino has top 6 upside and is almost ready, Suglobov will play in our top6 this year, Greene had great camp and moved up quite a bit on the depth chart. We still have to see what Wiikman can do, and Tlusty is stil far away. Surprised to see Josh Jensen ranked, he was drafted in 2005, but i don't belive he'll be anything more than depth AHL player. Also Nick Pageau is ranked quite high, has solid potential but a long way to go.

After starting the season red hot with 5 straight wins, we went 0-2-2 in the next four. Large part for that was inconsistent goaltending. Hopefully Raycroft can pick up his game. Aubin hasn't played any better than Raycroft though. Looks like it won't be easy making the playoffs this time. At the same time, Toronto Marlies are leading the AHL, so whe have something to be excited about.

Lost Kyle Wellwood for 3 months due to injury early in November, called up David Booth to replace him.

One quarter into the season the team has only won 3 out of 10 home games, not a good sign. This could be a long season, too bad this years draft is one of the weakest in recent years.

Here is an interesting piece of news: Garth Snow, the GM of the New York Islanders has been fired midway through November. You'll never guess who they signed to be their new GM! Mike Milbury! :)

David Booth has played very well in place of injured Kyle Wellwood, going point per game in first 25 games, scoring 10 goals and 15 assists along with a +4 rating, also winning NHL rookie of the month of December award in the process.

Ryan Wilson is have quite a rough first year in the minors, scoring only 8 points in 38 games. He does have +16 rating, but more was expected from him. Lets hope he can pick it up in the second half of the season.

Midway through the season we have 23-13-5 record, good for 51 points, 6 points less than the year before at halfway mark. Goaltending seems an issue on some nights, as Raycroft hasn't been very consistant. We should get Wellwood back soon from injury though. Fitght for playoff spot begins! Toronto Marlies are still topping the AHL, lead by Ville Leino, who is making a strong case for himself to make the team next year.

A minor trade near the end of January.

To Blue Jackets:
2008 3rd round pick (COL)

To Toronto:
-G Ty Conklin

The reason for this trade is that both or our goaltenders have been rather shaky this season, and in case one of them got injured and was out for a longer period of time, playing rookies Pogge or Wiikman might prove to be a bad idea since they are rather inexperienced. Conklin has played entire season in AHL for Blue Jackets farm team, but was recalled to Maple Leafs right after the trade. A 3rd round pick in a weak draft isn't very big price anyway. Wanted to make it a 1-for-1 switch with J.S. Aubin, but they weren't interested. He is in the last year of his contract, if he outplays Aubin for the rest of the year he might be kept as the new backup.

In the second half of the season Toronto is playing really well, goaltending has improved after the last trade even though Conklin has only played one game, maybe its just the fear of losing their jobs for Aubin and Raycroft. With 21 games left in the regular season, Toronto is 2nd in conference, however Buffalo is 1 point back of tying us for division lead but also have 2 games less played than us. Should be interesting.

Mats Sundin got injured right before the trade deadline and will be out for 3 weeks. We called up Ville Leino. Even before playing his first ever NHL game, several teams came calling an asking for him, however we weren't interested, as we see him as a top 6 forward maybe as soon as next year.

On March 22nd we qualified for the playoffs after a 5:2 win in Montreal. One day earlier than last year :)

After a strong 2nd half of the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs finished with 50-26-6 record, good for 106 points, which is the highest point total in our history! Thanks to the 4 straight wins to finish the season, one of which was game #82 in Buffalo where Sabres were 2 points ahead of us for division lead with both teams only 1 game remaining, we won in regulation and won the division! Even though we both have 106 points, tie-breaker was in our advantage (not sure which one though, had identical record 50-26-6). Toronto Marlies finished the season as 2nd best team in the AHL.

Standings at the end of the season:

Code: Select all

Eastern Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   C Rangers                 82     54     20     20     20     0.707   273  216  116  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlThrashers               82     52     24     24     24     0.671   323  243  110  
3rd   PlMaple Leafs             82     50     26     26     26     0.646   293  251  106  
4th   PlSabres                  82     50     26     26     26     0.646   286  245  106  
5th   PlCapitals                82     46     27     27     27     0.616   285  252  101  
6th   PlFlyers                  82     48     31     31     31     0.604   258  223  99   
7th   PlSenators                82     42     36     36     36     0.537   276  288  88   
8th   PlDevils                  82     39     35     35     35     0.524   252  256  86   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Panthers                82     38     35     35     35     0.518   276  293  85   
10th    Carolina                82     38     39     39     39     0.494   252  258  81   
11th    Penguins                82     37     38     38     38     0.494   243  285  81   
12th    Canadiens               82     35     42     42     42     0.457   244  261  75   
13th    Islanders               82     31     42     42     42     0.433   217  237  71   
14th    Lightning               82     31     45     45     45     0.415   226  277  68   
15th    Bruins                  82     31     49     49     49     0.390   250  319  64   


Western Conference

Pos    Team                     GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   PlFlames                  82     56     24     24     24     0.695   297  227  114  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlSharks                  82     48     26     26     26     0.634   293  235  104  
3rd   PlBlackhawks              82     46     31     31     31     0.591   290  266  97   
4th   PlCanucks                 82     47     33     33     33     0.585   257  249  96   
5th   PlKings                   82     40     29     29     29     0.567   259  251  93   
6th   PlDucks                   82     43     34     34     34     0.555   250  245  91   
7th   PlRed Wings               82     43     35     35     35     0.549   271  247  90   
8th   PlWild                    82     42     36     36     36     0.537   275  261  88   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Nashville               82     41     37     37     37     0.524   224  243  86   
10th    Stars                   82     39     36     36     36     0.518   251  280  85   
11th    Coyotes                 82     38     38     38     38     0.500   245  252  82   
12th    Blues                   82     36     40     40     40     0.476   241  272  78   
13th    Colorado                82     31     46     46     46     0.409   243  308  67   
14th    Blue Jackets            82     29     46     46     46     0.396   240  310  65   
15th    Oilers                  82     29     47     47     47     0.390   244  284  64
Player statistics for Maple Leafs:

Code: Select all

================================================================================================
 2007-08 Regular Season Stats
================================================================================================

No   Name                     GP  G   A   P   +--  PIM  SOG  ShAv R 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
40   Antropov, Nik            82  21  49  70  4    146  224  9.4  7.83 
30   Aubin, Jean-Sebastien    20  0   1   1   0    0    0    -    7.30 
33   Battaglia, Bates         80  8   4   12  0    50   69   11.6 6.83 
35   Conklin, Ty              2   0   0   0   0    0    0    -    8.00 
21   Devereaux, Boyd          82  2   3   5   -11  36   73   2.7  6.49 
43   Hagman, Niklas           70  13  14  27  7    53   117  11.1 6.99 
15   Kaberle, Tomas           82  7   34  41  -2   28   155  4.5  7.85 
44   Kronwall, Staffan        9   0   3   3   1    2    19   0.0  7.11 
73   Kubina, Pavel            82  7   33  40  36   81   122  5.7  8.12 
89   Leino, Ville             14  5   6   11  3    14   39   12.8 7.64 
2    Matvichuk, Richard       79  2   11  13  19   70   50   4.0  7.63 
24   McCabe, Bryan            82  11  34  45  -10  104  227  4.8  8.05 
9    Nilson, Marcus           82  15  24  39  24   57   100  15.0 6.82 
92   O'Neill, Jeff            82  22  43  65  -1   75   234  9.4  7.27 
23   Ponikarovsky, Alexei     82  38  63  101 13   73   439  8.7  8.45 
28   Rasmussen, Erik          14  2   0   2   0    12   10   20.0 6.79 
1    Raycroft, Andrew         67  0   0   0   1    0    0    -    7.85 
38   Scatchard, Dave          82  21  30  51  24   85   150  14.0 8.73 
27   Semenov, Alexei          80  4   7   11  12   135  51   7.8  7.24 
14   Stajan, Matt             82  0   5   5   -15  34   39   0.0  6.21 
22   Suglobov, Alexander      82  34  33  67  0    71   349  9.7  7.45 
39   Sundin, Mats             67  48  56  104 26   59   322  14.9 9.66 
25   Varlamov, Evgeny         78  4   15  19  9    66   87   4.6  7.44 
42   Wellwood, Kyle           51  17  30  47  12   6    121  14.0 7.35
Andrew Raycroft: 67GP - 42W - 18L - 4OTL - 2.83GAA - 0.899sv% - 4SO


After season ended, we resigned the following player:

D Richard Matvichuk - 1.4M/y, 2 year extension

This is out lineup for the playoffs:

Wellwood - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
O'Neill - Antropov - Suglobov
Hagman - Nilson - Scatchard
Battaglia - Stajan - Devereaux
Rassmusen

Kaberle - McCabe
Matvichuk - Kubina
Varlamov - Semenov
Kronwall

Raycroft
Conklin


Eastern Conference Quarter Final:
Toronto vs Flyers
Season series: 3-1 Flyers

They do have better record in regular season against us but no games were blowout, however the reason for low(er) scoring games was Niittymaki, who usually does very well under pressure, so we'll have to find a way to make it hard for him. Matvichuk was injured before the series and will miss first few games, so Kronwall will take his place.

Game #1: 0-2
Game #2: 2-3 (Sundin, Hagman)
Game #3: 3-1 (Wellwood, Kronwall, Leino)
Game #4: 1-2 (Battaglia)
Game #5: 5-3 (Ponikarovsky, Booth 3, Kaberle)
Game #6: 6-4 (Scatchard 2, Ponikarovsky 2, Suglobov, Kubina)
Game #7: 2-5 (Wellwood, Battaglia)


Niittymaki was injured in first period of frist game and was out for about a week. Flyers placed him on IR.
Was leading game #2 2:0 but gave up 3 goals in last 6 minutes of game. Antropov was injured in game #2 and we called up Ville Leino to replace him.
Before game #5 Matvichuk returned to lineup, but we lost O'Neill for about a week, so David Booth takes his place.
Big game by Booth forces game 6.
Huge win in Philadelphia, however we lost Andrew Raycroft to injury midway through the game, so Conklin takes his place in net. Leino also got injured in that game while O'Neill came back from his injury, so takes the #2 center position while Booth stays on 2nd line.
Lost game 7, scored first two goals however Flyers scored 5 unanswered on Conklin who had a bad game. So it doesn't look like he'll stay with the team after all.

While our season has ended, Toronto Marlies are still fighting in the AHL playoffs. Good luck to them!

Marlies defeated Grand Rapids Griffins in the first round of AHL playoffs 4-1.

Signed the following players to ELC contracts:

G James Reimer
D Koribian Holzer

Released G Dan LaCosta, as i was at contract limit and he was at the bottom of depth chart and not seeing much ice time anyway. Playing only around 20 games total between AHL and ECHL in the last 2 seasons and not preforming well in either league.

Toronto Marlies defeated Mantobia Moose in the 2nd round of AHL playoffs and are off to the Conference finals against Milwaukee Admirals. Another great run by the Marlies!

Tornto Marlies swept the Milwaukee Admirals in the conference finals and will go to Calder Cup finals for 2nd straight year!

The New York Rangers swept the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup final to win their 5th Stanley Cup. Congrats to them!

Toronto Marlies swept the Albady River Rats and won their 2nd straight Calder Cup Trophy!! Awsome :)

Andy Greene was one of main reasons for the Cup, however when we tried to call him up and placed him on re-entry waivers, Lightning claimed him. Oh well, he wason't going go get a real chance with this team anyway, but he has progressed nicely this season. He is also unhappy with his GM and has personal issues. I guess its better he leaves soon then before he drags down the entire locker room.

Yearly awards:
(Won't do the weekly and monthly awards, takes too much time and is kinda pointless)

NHL:
Calder Memorial Trophy: Alexander Suglobov
Frank J. Selke Trophy Dave Scatchard (3rd)
Hart Memorial Trophy: Mats Sundin
King Clancy Memorial Trophy: Mats Sundin (3rd)
Lester B. Pearson Award: Mats Sundin
Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy: Mats Sundin (3rd)
NHL Plus-Minus Award: Pavel Kubina (3rd)
NHL First All-Star Team: Mats Sundin

AHL:
Baz Bastien Memorial Trophy: Miika Wiikman
Harry 'Hap' Holmes Memorial Trophy: Miika Wiikman

ECHL:
Goaltender of the Year Award: Justin Pogge
John A. Daley Memorial Trophy: Justin Pogge


Signed following players to ELC:

F Matt Smyth
F Brett MacLean

Maybe training with Leafs personnel in the offseason will help them take their game to the next level next year.

Released D Andrew Hotham and F Eric Hunter after they cleared waivers as i was over the limit once again, and they just weren't developing.

2008 NHL Entry Draft is about to take place. Maple Leafs will pick 27th.

Maple Leafs 2008 NHL Draft:

1(27) - LW Travis Stacey
2(57) - LD Mark Barbeiro
3(87) - C Chris Doyle
5(147) - C/RW Kelen Corkum

After our 3rd round pick we saw how very shallow this draft is so we made the following tade:

To Pittsburgh:
2008 4th round pick
2008 7th round pick

To Toronto:
2011 3rd round pick


The player we wanted and scouted for the last 2 years, Mike Pelech was unfortunetly drafted just 2 spots before us by Blackhawks. So when it was our turn to pick it was going to be either Travis Stacey or Dale Hunt. Both players were ranked 4 spots apart, and to be honest i hoped for Hunt to drop to 2nd round, but was picked 2 spots after us. Took some time to see who to pick, scouts said both have 1st line talent, even though both have been practicly terrible junior players until this point. Picked Stacey basicly only because i have picked Hunt in previous dynasties and never heard of Stacey before, maybe he'll pan out. At worst i lost out on a solid 4th liner and a good AHLer.

Barbeiro wasn't even ranked, thought about picking Doyle with 2nd round pick, but picked Barbeiro instead as i liked him more. Was happy to pick Doyle in 3rd round as i didn't think he'd last that long. Picked Corkun only because in one of my previous dynasties he developed into a solid depth player. If only one of these players pans out to even play few games in the NHL, its a sucsess!

Signings:

F Travis Stacey - signed 3 year ELC

Signed Stacey so he would be able to train with us in the offseason and hopefully take his game to next level in juniors.

Made a big trade few days into free agency:

To Blackhawks:
-rights to F Matt Stajan
-rights to D Steffan Kronwall

To Toronto:
2009 1st round pick

Now this trade was difficult for me to make only because i don't want to make this kind of trades to get more 1st round picks, but i didn't want to lose them for nothing. Kronwall was 7th defenceman this year and played well when he was inserted into linup, but next year i plan to have Drew Fata as 7th defenceman, he progressed nicely in his 2 years in AHL, is younger, can play both sides unlike Kronwall and is also considered a veteran in AHL, so there are many reasons for Kronwall to Fata move. Stajan is scouted to as a 2nd line player, core player, however in the type of team i'm trying to build he doesn't fit well into top 6 as he doesn't provide enough offense and he has played on 4th line for 2nd straight year but to me he is too soft for that role. Maybe he can play better in bigger role with increased ice time on another team, but he wasn't going to get it here. This trade also frees 2 contracs, so we have some breathing room for now.

Re-signed following restricted free agents:

F Ville Leino - signed new 3 year contract 655k/y
F Kyle Wellwood - signed new 4 year contract 1M/y
D Evgeny Varlamov - signed new 3 year contract 640k/y
D Drew Fata - signed new 3 year contract 575k/y


Next: Training camp and season 2008/09. This year should be interesting as Ville Leino will try to take 2nd line spot away from Nik Antropov.

Re: Maple Leafs Dynasty

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 11:26 pm
by suprvilce
Training camp for 2008/09 season begins. Will be interesting who gets the 2nd line center spot, and a position in bottom 6 is also for the taking.

Signed one of my prospects:

F Josh Jensen - signed a 2 year ELC

Also signed a former 2nd rounc pick from 2006 by the Anaheim Ducks, who wasn't offered a contract, so we decided to give him a shot.

D John de Gray - signed 3 year ELC

Preseason games.

@ Lightning: 1-0 (Doyle), Wiikman with the shutout
@ Senators: 2-4 (Smyth, Leino)
@ Islanders: 1-5 (Sundin)
Vs Buffalo: 6-3 (Leino, Falardeau, Booth 2, Kulemin, Roy)
Vs Blue Jackets: 4-1 (Ponikarovsky, Hagman, Rasmussen)
@ Sharks: 3-0 (Battaglia, Wellwood, Hagman)

4-2 record in preseason.

Playing mostly prospects in first three games and score sheet shows that, as we've been outplayed by both Senators and Islanders quite easily.

Ryan Wilson, Alex Grant, Albert Polinin and Brett MacLean, all 2007 draft picks, have all been impressive at camp. It may turn out to be a good draft year after all. Miika Wiikman has also been very good, and after another strong season in AHL i expect him to challenge for backup position next fall.

Signed one of our prospects after training camp finished:

D Albert Polinin - signed 3 year ELC, transfer June 2007

Polinin had a great camp and earned his contract.

The following players were returned to their junior teams:

Alex Grant - QMJHL
Travis Stacey - QMJHL
Matt Smyth - OHL

Wanted to send MacLean for one more year in juniors but his OHL team seems to have released him, so it seems he'll start his pro career sooner. Am a little worried he isn't quite ready, so he'll get some games in ECHL as a start and we'll go from there.

After a strong preseason, Ville Leino has established himself as the new #2 center for the Toronto Maple Leafs, which ment Nik Antropov was expendable. While Antropov is more experienced, he is prone to taking more penalties and making us play shorthanded more ofhten, so this might work out well for us.

Seeing how Minnesota Wild needed a first line centerm, it seemed as the prefect match to make this trade:

To Minnesota:
-F Nik Antropov ****

To Toronto:
2010 2nd round pick

I tried hard to acquire one of their wingers, but they just weren't interested, even though i've been asking them for two years now they still aren't interested in trading them. So we both agreed on a 2nd round pick. My assistant GM wasn't exactly thrilled with the trade, but didn't complain either as he knew we weren't gonna get a much better return for Antropov elsewhere.

NHL preview has Maple Leafs ranked as 5th best team in the league, kind of surprising as we haven't added much to our team since last year.

Top 10 NHL players by position:
G - Andrew Raycroft (8th)
D - Tomas Kaberle (7th)

Kaberle did have a solid season, 2nd season with 40+ points also he went from -18 from first season to -2 2nd season, which is a solid improvement. No others were ranked, also none of our prospects made it into top 10, which isn't surprising as we haven't had high picks, however i belive we'll see improvement in this area soon.

This is how our lineup looks heading into the season:

Wellwood - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
O'Neill - Leino - Suglobov
Hagman - Scatchard - Nilson
Battaglia - Falardeau - Rasmussen

Kaberle - McCabe
Matvichuk - Kubina
Varlamov - Semenov
Fata

Raycroft
Aubin

Kind of discouraging that the team looks nearly identical to the one of last season, at least for top 6 forwards (1 change), top 4 defenceman and goalies. However i do not wish to make trades in which i 'rob' other teams to get better. Also don't think it would be realistic to sign big name free agents, at least for now.

Rasmussen plays on his off-wing however since 4th line doesn't get much ice time anyway i doubt that will be a problem.

I am trying hard for some time now to find an upgrade over O'Neill as 2nd line LW, trying to get a more skilled top 4 defenceman in place of an aging Matvichuk and also trying to replace Kubina with someone who has similar skills but makes less than 5M/y, however i haven't been very lucky. Raycroft on the other had has done well enough so far so improving goaltending isn't one of main concerns. Hopefully we can finally make a move or two during this season to improve our team. Sundin isn't getting any younger and won't play for much longer so getting a future #1 center is slowly rising on our to-do list.

Lets take a look at Maple Leafs top 12 prospects, ranked by our Assistant GM:

1. Alex Grant D (QMJHL)
2. Travis Stacey F (QMJHL)
3. Jiri Tlusty F (AHL)
4. Ville Leino F (Maple Leafs)
5. Miika Wiikman G (AHL)
6. David Booth F (AHL)
7. Dimitri Vorobiev D (AHL)
8. Chris Doyle F (QMJHL)
9. Justin Pogge G (AHL)
10. Barry Almeida F (NCAA)
11. Nick Pageau D (OHL)
12. Mitch Maunu D (AHL)

- Alex Grant had a very good year in juniors and has been improving steadily, but is few years away.
- Stacey was a gamble pick, we'll see how he turns out, but has a long way to go. Has played few games in juniors already but has been underwhelming so far.
- Tlusty has been improving very well, after first year when he played in OHL almost all of his technical attributes were red, now most are yellow already and only one red (faceoffs). He is still few year away, scouts belive he has top 6 potential, but if is to make it, it will likely be as a bottom 6 forward. Had a good year in ECHL, got called up to Marlies midway through AHL playoffs and produced well.
- Leino has top 6 upside and will center our 2nd line this year.
- Wiikman had a great year with Marlies, beign top goalie in AHL and winning Calder Cup as a rookie and also several individual rewards at the end of the season. He'll spend one more year in AHL and i expect him to fight for backup spot next year.
- Booth had a gear year, he improved his game alot, also played 31 games in NHL and was over ppg. Could make a strong push for bottom 6 spots next year.

Out of rest, none are expected to have an NHL impact, Maunu could become a solid bottom pairing defenceman in a few years, however it remains to be seen if it will be with this team.

Suglobov graduated while Kronwall was traded away.

At the end of October, Kyle Wellwood was injured for 3 months, so we called up David Booth to take his place.

After a slow start to his season, top prospect Alex Grant has been playing exceptionally well, scoring 26 points in his last 9 games, winning weekly awards in the process.

Travis Stacey is having another poor year in juniours, but has picked up his play in recent games goin over PPG in the last 5 games. Hopefully he can keep this up.

After a short slump in November, Andrew Raycroft has picked up his game in December and is playing very well, only allowed 5 golas in his last 4 games.

The Matt Stajan trade seems to be working out well for Blackhawks as they sit 2nd in league, and are only 2 points back of top spot with 4 games in hand.

Called up Wiikman to give him a small taste of NHL. Had ha shaky first game though. He played much better in next game though.

Late in December all of my goaltenders were struggling, decided to discipline Raycroft for poor preformance after bombing 3 straight games. He played better afterwards however was kind of unhappy because of the warning.

Started to negotiate with few players, hoping to sign them to solid contracts.

F Lee Falardeau - signed 2 year extension
F Dave Scatchard - signed 3 year extension
F Bates Battaglia - signed 2 year extension
D Ryan Wilson - signed 2 year extension

Scatchard recieved quite a raise, from 2.1M to just over 3M for each of the next three years. Might be a lot for a 3rd liner but he is one of best 3rd liners and our top 6 forwards aren't expensive and are mostly signed to cheap contarcts, so it shouldn't be a problem for now.

At 41 game mark, Maple Leafs currently sit 3rd in their conference, with a 24-14-3 record, good for 51 points, which is the same amount of points as last year. We are however only 3 point away from being 9th in conference, as east is very close this year! It will be tough to make the playoffs this year.

Toronto Marlies of the AHL are in the 1st place and have 11 point lead over 2nd place team, though they do have 2 games in hand on Marlies.

In game #42, Alexander Suglobov was injured and will be out for 3 months. Called up Brett MacLean, who was having a solid year in ECHL, and in his first game he scored 2 goals in a 3:2 win in NJ.

Midway through January i made my biggest trade yet:

To Nashville:
-F Jeff O'Neill ****
-rights to F Kelen Corkum ***

To Toronto:
-F Jean-Pierre Dumont ****

Nashville was last in west and plenty of teams came calling for Dumont. He has about 300k higher cap hit on same nuber of years left, but should improve our LW as he was having a good year with Predators. Corkum has been pretty disappointing in NCAA though, doesn't have much upside, Preds still liked him though so we made this deal.

Soon after that trade Wellwood came back from his injury, we tried to send Booth down to Marlies but he'd have to clear waivers so we put him on 4th line instead of Falardeau. Switched him on wing and Rasmussen at center. He has played wery well in Wellwood's place on 1st line, scoring 40 points in 35 games.

Cody McCormick was injured and will be out for 7 months. Huge blow for Toronto Marlies, as he is one of their top forwards. With Booth being unable to join them, Marlies chances for another Calder Cup are very very slim now.

F Chris Doyle, taken in the 3rd round of 2008 NHL entry draft, is turning out to be a great pick. He is having a very good year in juinors. As is Mark Barbeiro, though its unlikely he'll be able to translate his offese to pro level, but you never know. Also found a part of a reason why Travis Stacey isn't producing well offensivly, as he doesn't play on PP. Does play on #1 PK unit though, and has started to produce a bit more offense in recent games too. Didn't even realize until now that Doyle and Stacey play on the same team :) Alex Grant is having a monster year in Q, scoring more than 2ppg from defense.

After a bit slower start, J.P. Dumont has started to heat up and has played very well on the second line, scoring 6 goals in a 12-1 rout of Buffalo Sabres, the new NHL record for highest win ever, beating the old record we set only a month back, destroying the NY Islanders 11-0. However between these two big wins our goaltending has been rather shaky on most nights, its not like we are some powerhouse, being 5-2-3 in last 10 games.

Suglobov returned from his injury on the last day of the season, so we sent Nikolai Kulemin down. Kulemin did a great job in Suglobov's absence, scoring 33 points in 34 games. He also won NHL rookie of the month award once.

Regular season ended with a 6:3 loss at the hands of Montreal Canadiens. We finished with a 47-25-10 record, good for 104 points and 3rd place in conference, winning our division for 2nd straight year. We were also league's best offensive team.

Toronto Marlies have won the AHL regular season trophy and will try to win the Calder Cup for the 3rd straight year!

Standings:

Code: Select all

Eastern Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   C Rangers                 82     52     22     22     22     0.683   279  220  112  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlThrashers               82     51     27     27     27     0.646   313  261  106  
3rd   PlMaple Leafs             82     47     25     25     25     0.634   338  262  104  
4th   PlDevils                  82     49     30     30     30     0.616   270  237  101  
5th   PlPenguins                82     45     32     32     32     0.579   267  252  95   
6th   PlFlyers                  82     44     33     33     33     0.567   247  243  93   
7th   PlCapitals                82     43     33     33     33     0.561   299  287  92   
8th   PlBruins                  82     41     35     35     35     0.537   265  290  88   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Carolina                82     40     38     38     38     0.512   267  275  84   
10th    Sabres                  82     40     38     38     38     0.512   265  262  84   
11th    Panthers                82     38     38     38     38     0.500   268  273  82   
12th    Canadiens               82     38     38     38     38     0.500   243  265  82   
13th    Senators                82     35     40     40     40     0.470   266  317  77   
14th    Lightning               82     33     42     42     42     0.445   276  299  73   
15th    Islanders               82     28     41     41     41     0.421   225  286  69   


Western Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   PlBlackhawks              82     51     26     26     26     0.652   284  248  107  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlKings                   82     51     28     28     28     0.640   264  218  105  
3rd   PlCanucks                 82     48     28     28     28     0.622   270  236  102  
4th   PlSharks                  82     50     27     27     27     0.640   305  225  105  
5th   PlDucks                   82     43     31     31     31     0.573   269  240  94   
6th   PlFlames                  82     40     36     36     36     0.524   252  246  86   
7th   PlStars                   82     41     38     38     38     0.518   258  259  85   
8th   PlOilers                  82     39     37     37     37     0.512   263  281  84   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Colorado                82     37     38     38     38     0.494   263  277  81   
10th    Coyotes                 82     36     37     37     37     0.494   254  281  81   
11th    Blues                   82     38     42     42     42     0.476   220  267  78   
12th    Red Wings               82     35     40     40     40     0.470   240  272  77   
13th    Wild                    82     34     43     43     43     0.445   242  279  73   
14th    Nashville               82     31     43     43     43     0.427   227  268  70   
15th    Blue Jackets            82     32     45     45     45     0.421   269  342  69
Stats:

Code: Select all

================================================================================================
 2008-09 Regular Season Stats
================================================================================================

No   Name                     GP  G   A   P   +--  PIM  SOG  ShAv R 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
30   Aubin, Jean-Sebastien    19  0   0   0   0    0    0    -    6.79 
1    Raycroft, Andrew         65  0   2   2   0    0    0    -    7.89 
15   Kaberle, Tomas           77  7   27  34  10   24   139  5.0  7.65 
2    Matvichuk, Richard       76  5   19  24  19   46   61   8.2  7.70 
46   Varlamov, Evgeny         77  8   23  31  29   45   105  7.6  7.65 
47   Fata, Drew               16  0   5   5   -4   20   11   0.0  7.31 
73   Kubina, Pavel            82  7   36  43  7    75   127  5.5  7.99 
24   McCabe, Bryan            82  16  45  61  14   123  253  6.3  8.29 
7    Semenov, Alexei          82  1   13  14  27   107  58   1.7  7.56 
33   Battaglia, Bates         78  5   5   10  -6   40   76   6.6  6.65 
12   Booth, David             70  18  31  49  14   63   179  10.1 7.47 
43   Hagman, Niklas           80  23  25  48  24   49   113  20.4 7.34 
9    Nilson, Marcus           77  19  22  41  14   55   106  17.9 7.00 
29   Roy, Mathieu             2   2   1   3   3    2    4    50.0 8.50 
97   Wellwood, Kyle           45  12  24  36  11   4    119  10.1 7.29 
42   Falardeau, Lee           50  2   4   6   -11  38   45   4.4  6.64 
89   Leino, Ville             82  29  53  82  0    110  239  12.1 7.63 
28   Rasmussen, Erik          82  5   6   11  -9   78   70   7.1  6.74 
23   Repkin, Aleksej          5   0   1   1   -1   2    5    0.0  6.60 
38   Scatchard, Dave          82  22  32  54  25   133  158  13.9 8.88 
39   Sundin, Mats             77  42  65  107 39   56   312  13.5 9.49 
71   Dumont, Jean-Pierre      39  23  19  42  1    24   141  16.3 7.87 
13   Kulemin, Nikolai         34  9   24  33  12   24   103  8.7  7.50 
18   MacLean, Brett           10  4   2   6   5    24   22   18.2 7.20 
27   Ponikarovsky, Alexei     82  46  53  99  33   30   403  11.4 8.41 
22   Suglobov, Alexander      43  21  18  39  0    20   151  13.9 7.63
Andrew Raycroft - 65GP - 38W - 17L - 8OL - 2.92GAA - 0.895sv% - 2SO


Ville Leino set a franchise record for most points by a rookie with 82.
Bryan McCabe set a franchise record for most points by a defenceman with 61.

Our lineup for the playoffs:

Wellwood - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
Dumont - Leino - Suglobov
Hagman - Scatchard - Nilson
Battaglia - Rasmussen - Booth
Falardeau

Kaberle - McCabe
Matvichuk - Kubina
Varlamov - Semenov
Fata

Raycroft
Aubin


Eastern Conference Quarter Final:
Toronto vs Flyers
Season series: 4-0 Toronto

We did well against them this year, outscoring them 17-8, so hopefully we can continue our dominance in the playoffs and win our first playoff series since i took over.

Game #1: 3-1 (Sundin 2, Hagman)
Game #2: 4-2 (Leino, Hagman, Battaglia, Scatchard)
Game #3: 4-2 (Sundin 2, Nilson, Suglobov)
Game #4: 1-4 (Suglobov)
Game #5: 1-2 OT (Scatchard)
Game #6: 7-3 (Sundin, Kaberle, Wellwood, Suglobov, Battaglia, Dumont, Ponikarovsky)

In game 4 Leino got injured and will be out for 3 weeks, so i called up Aleksej Repkin.
We won in 6 games, got scared Flyers were gonna force game 7. Flyers decided to play their backup Robert Esche for some reason, who was horrible with 5 rating.

Toronto Marlies swept Mantobia Moose in the first round of AHL playoffs. Miika Wiikman was fantastic, allowing only 1 goal in 4 games.


Eastern Conference Semi Final:
Toronto vs Devils
Season series: Split 2-2

We outscored them 14-10 though in the season series. Should be a low scoring if Raycroft can continue to play well.

Game #1: 2-3 OT (Booth, Hagman)
Game #2: 3-0 (Ponikarovsky, Scatchard, Kubina)
Game #3: 2-4 (Ponikarovsky, Dumont)
Game #4: 1-4 (Ponikarovsky)
Game #5: 5-3 (Suglobov, Semenov, Wellwood 2, Scatchard)
Game #6: 1-2 (Wellwood)

Brodeur was fantastic in game 1, stopping 52 of 54 shots.
In game 2 Brodeur got injured and will be out for about 10 days, Devils placed him on IR which could decide the series!
Kaberle got banned for 1 game so Drew Fata will take is place in game #3.
Brian Boucher was great in net for Devils in game 3.
Boucher was amazing for Devils again in game 4.
Despite not fully recovered from his injury, we inserted Ville Leino into lineup hoping to avoid elimination in game 5.
After huge game 5 win, Boucher shut the door again and we were done.

Signed following prospects whose rights we were gonna loose if not sign:

D P.K. Subban - 3 year ELC
D Nick Pageau - 3 year ELC

Toronto Marlies lost 4-2 against Rochester Americans in the 2nd round of AHL playoffs. After Rochester was already leading 3-0, the Marlies won 2 straight but were unable to force game 7. Still a sucsessful season for both teams.

Top prospect Travis Stacey has evaluated his game in the playoffs, going nearly ppg (15pts in 18 games, including 5 pints in 4 games in the QMJHL final), while being under 0.5ppg in regular season (32pts in 66 games). His (and Doyle's team won in the QMJHL final! He still has a long way to go.

Josh Jensen had a surprising good year in the AHL, scoring 64 points in 80 games

San Jose Sharks have won the Stanley Cup after they defeated Atlanta Trashers 4 games to 2.


Yearly awards:

NHL:
Art Ross Trophy: Mats Sundin (2nd)
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: Dave Scatchard (3rd)
Calder Memorial Trophy: Ville Leino
Frank J. Selke Trophy Dave Scatchard (2nd), Niklas Hagman (3rd)
James Norris Memorial Trophy: Bryan McCabe (2nd)
Hart Memorial Trophy: Mats Sundin (2nd)
King Clancy Memorial Trophy: Mats Sundin (2nd)
Lester B. Pearson Award: Mats Sundin
NHL Plus-Minus Award: Mats Sundin
NHL First All-Star Team: Bryan McCabe, Mats Sundin
NHL Rookie All-Star Team: Ville Leino

AHL:
Baz Bastien Memorial Trophy: Miika Wiikman
Harry 'Hap' Holmes Memorial Trophy: Miika Wiikman

QMJHL:
Def. Player of the Year: Alex Grant


The biggest news before the NHL award ceremony and the draft was that the former 3rd overall pcik from 2007 draft decided not to sign with Penguins and instead test the free agency. Seeing how i could really use a top center prospect i offered him a max. entry level contract with bonuses. 14 otther teams tried to sign him but he chose the Maple Leafs! This is very good news as our #1 center Mats Sundin is 38 years old and is so far refusing to sign a new contract. Couture does have the potential to be a #1 center and replace Sundin when he retires. With this signing our prospect pool got much stronger. The reason why he chose not to sign with Penguins is maybe because they have Crosby, Malkin and Staal all NHL quality centers and he wouldn't be able to get his chance.

F Logan Couture - signed 3 year ELC

NHL Entry Draft is about to begin, this year it will take place in Toronto. We have picks #25 and #28 in the first round, but maybe we'll be able make a trade for higher picks in front of our fans :)

Maple Leafs 2009 NHL Draft:

1(12) - LW/C Andrei Kuchin
1(25) - RD Philip Martinsson
2(55) - C/RD Jonas Lof
4(115) - LW/RW Milos Tojcik
5(145) - C Tomi Karhunen

To be able to get a player as skilled as Kuchin with 12th overall pick, we might not see a chance like this to land as skilled player at that pick for many years.
Was thinking between two skilled Swedish defenceman for 25th pick, both scout as 3-4. The other one was ranked just a few spots higher but has low determination so i decided to go with Martinsson. He scouts as a poor man's Nicklas Lidstrom. Hopefully he pans out.
The 2nd round pick was the hardest to make, lots of options but not a single one that stood out. Any of the players we wanted but didn't draft could turn out to be better and Lof could easily bomb, so i'm not getting my hopes high for this pick.
By the time we got to pick with our 4th round pick, it became clear how there is basicly no real talent left. Picked Tojcik as he was basicly the only player we felt had at least some AHL potential.
Karhunen is an interesting pick, has almost no strength, can't stickhandle or deke to save his life and has low determination. However at the time of the pick this Finnish center was the best option. Hopefully few years in Canada in juniours can help him develop his game.


At 12th overall pick, which was held by the Panthers, we decided it was time to give our fans something to cheer about and made a big trade:

To Panthers:
2009 1st round pick (CHI) (28th overall)
2009 3rd round pick
2010 4th round pick (VAN)

To Toronto:
2009 1st round pick (12th overall)

After our 5th round pick we finally decided it was enough with this shallow draft. So we switched our 6th and 7th round picks with Kings:
(note it was actually quite deep draft in 1st round but after that was terrible)

To Kings:
2009 6th round pcik
2009 7th round pick

To Toronto:
2010 6th round pick
2011 7th round pick

Hopefully Kings can find some decent talent as i can't find players that would even be able to play in AHL in few years. Maybe next few drafts will be a bit deeper.

Free agency has started. Here are the players we have re-signed:
(depth players normally get little if any raise)

F Mats Sundin - 2 year 5.1M/y
F David Booth - 2 year extension
F Cody McCormick - 2 year extension
F Ryan Garlock - 2 year extension
F Matthieu Roy - 2 year extension
F Nikolai Kulemin - 2 year extension
F Jiri Tlusty - 2 year extension
D Mitch Maunu - 2 year extension
D Phil Oreskovic - 2 year extension
D Alex Grant - 3 year 550k/y (2-way)
D Dimitri Vorobiev - 2 year extension
G Andrew Raycroft - 4 year 2.46M/y
G Miika Wiikman - 3 year 775k/y (2-way)
G Justin Pogge - 2 year extension

On July 3rd we made a big trade:

To Carolina:
-D Pavel Kubina ****

To Toronto
-rights to D Tim Gleason ****

5M/year was too much money to give to a 2nd pairing defenceman, even though Kubina can easily play on most taems first pair. He had his 2nd straight 40+ point season with the Leafs, but in order to improve as a whole team we needed to cut salary somewhere. I have paid attention to Gleason ever since last June when he asked for a trade from Carolina and has not changed his mind the whole season. Tried to trade for him last summer but Hurricanes wouldn't trade him even though he wanted a trade. This trade could work out good for both teams.

Signed one big name free agent this year, also re-signed Gleason about a week after the trade:

D - Bryan Berard - 4 year 2.780M/y
D - Tim Gleason - 3 year 4.030M/y

The reason for Berard signing was that i plan to trade Kaberle as even though he was ranked as 7th best defenceman before the season started he just doesn't fit well with this team, also playing on top pairing unit and top PP unit on a team that scores most goals in the league and has one of the best PP units and only scoring 34 points isn't very good, when his partner scores almost twice as many. Berarad also has lower cap hit, so he should fit in well and give us more flexibility looking to improve elsewhere.

After Berard signing it was time to trade Kaberle.

To Capitals:
-D Tomas Kaberle *****
-D Drew Fata ***
2010 3rd round pick (CGY)

To Toronto:
-D Jeff Schultz ***
-F Robert Nilsson ***
-F Tim Kraus *
2010 1st round pick

Before the trade deadline in February i have already had a deal in place with Captials, Kaberle for Jeff Schultz and a 2009 first round pick, however i decided to nix the trade as i wanted to make a push in the playoffs and Schultz wouldn't be able to help me yet as he was still in AHL with limited NHL experiance. This trade is basicly the same, except that now Capitals had some salary issues so we had to take Robert Nilsson and Tim Kraus as a salary dump, however since they are depth players (and AHL player) we did give up Drew Fata, our 7th defenceman this year and a 3rd round pick. We could afford to trade Fata as i expect Vorobiev to slide into 7th defenceman spot next year as he has developed nicely in the AHL over the last 2 seasons. Jeff Schultz will likely stay another year in AHL and then replace an aging Richard Matvichuk, who will likely play in his last season as a Maple Leaf.

Among other news, we have signed Martin Pouliot and named him our new head scout.

A busy offseason comes to an end. Should be an interesting 2009/10 season with several new faces.

Up next: Training camp and 2009/10 season.

Re: Maple Leafs Dynasty

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:56 am
by suprvilce
Training camp is about to begin. Invited all of our prospects except those that are in collage. This year we also invited few undrafted and unsigned prospects, maybe they impress and earn a contract, we'll see.

Just before it began however Cody McCormick has returned from his injury which sidelined him for 7 months.

So far in training camp Logan Couture, Ryan Wilson and Albert Polinin were the most impressive. While Wilson had another poor year in the AHL, maybe he can finally put it all together. Polinin has developed nicely in Russia over the last 2 season and has a monster slapshot already (17), even though he scouts as a defensive defenceman. A few years in the AHL should prepare him well for NHL. Was assigned to ECHL at first as he couldn't crack top 6 D on Marlies

Preseason games:

Vs Kings: 2-5 (Grant, Dumont)
Vs Canucks: 3-1 (Sundin, Booth, Wellwood)
Vs Nashville: 5-0 (Nillsson, Hagman, Battaglia, McCabe, Sundin)
@ Capitals: 6-2 (Sundin, Ponikarovsky, Nilsson, Suglobov, Gleason, Nilson) Wiikman had a spectacular game
@ Bruins: 6-4 (McCabe, Dumont 2, Wellwood, Gleason, Suglobov) Wiikman allowed 4 goals on 9 shots, then replaced by Raycroft
@ Sabres: 3-1 (Wellwood, Booth 2)

Played mostly rookies in first game and result shows that)

After not re-signing J.S Aubin, we expect Miika Wiikman to be our backup goaltender this year after another impressive AHL year, however we are still looking for a 3rd string goalies, for just in case scenario, as Wiikman has been rather inconsistent. Not much is left in free agency, so we'll try to make a trade before season starts if a team is shopping one. Also since none of our AHL goaltenders, Pogge and Reimer, seem to have much NHL potential, we'll be looking to improve in that area as well, maybe in the upcomming draft.


Jeff Schultz has also played well in camp, should be a regular for us next season.

Training camp finished a bit earlier this year, midway through September. These players were sent back to their junior teams:

F Travis Stacey (QMJHL)
F Matt Smyth (OHL)

Am disappointed by Smyth, at the time of the draft it seemed like a good pick but he just hasn't progressed at all, having 2 mediocre seasons in OHL. Hopefully he'll at least turn into a servicable AHL depth player for a few seaons.

After training camp finished we sent down all remaining players didn't make the team to AHL, alog with top prospects Alex Grant and Logan Couture. Robert Nilsson, acquired in the Tomas Kaberle trade, unfortunetly didn't get a spot so was plaiced on waivers and sent to AHL. The Marlies should have a strong team this year as well, however goaltending might be a concern for them.

Will be interested to see if Wellwood can play a full season finally, after being injured in each of the last 2 seasons and missing 68 of last 164 games.

After seeing Phoenix Coyotes put David LeNeveu, i made this trade:

To Coyotes:
-F Robert Nilsson ****

To Toronto:
-G David LeNeveu *
2012 4th round pick

I think this trade works out well for both teams. I get a soild backup/3rd string goalie insurance, who although makes over 1M, salary isn't a problem this season. Nilsson was gonna play in AHL, but is considered a veteran as well as several other players so losing him is no huge blow, also gives Coyotes a solid depth player.

NHL season preview has Toronto Maple Leafs ranked again in 5th place. MVP: Bryan McCabe, Key arrival: Tim Gleason

Top 10 NHL players by position:

G - Andrew Raycroft (9th)
Top prospects: F - Logan Couture (1st)

Nice to finally see us having a blue chip prospect, though i kind of expected Alex Grant to also be up there. He has developed nicely, but does have checking and hitting attributes only 3 and 5 respectivly, which isn't a good thing for a defenceman.

This is our lineup for the season:

Wellwood - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
Dumont - Leino - Suglobov
Hagman - Scatchard - Nilson
Battaglia - Falardeau - Booth

Berard - McCabe
Matvichuk - Gleason
Varlamov - Semenov
Vorobiev

Raycroft
Wiikman
LeNeveu


Our forward lineup hasn't seen many significant changes in the 3 years i've been the GM of the team, but i do expect that to change in a year or two.
Booth does play on 2nd PK unit so he gets a bit more ice time, unfortunetly our 3rd line is very strong so he is stuck on 4th line for now.


Maple Leafs top 12 prospects:

1. Logan Couture F (AHL)
2. Andrei Kuchin F (Rus)
3. Jiri Tlusty F (AHL)
4. Alex Grant D (AHL)
5. Travis Stacey F (QMJHL)
6. Philip Martinsson D (Swe)
7. Nick Pageau D (AHL)
8. Miika Wiikman G (Maple Leafs)
9. Chris Doyle F (QMJHL)
10. Jonas Lof F/D (WHL)
11. Dimitri Vorobiev D (Maple Leafs)
12. Jeff Schultz D (AHL)

Graduated: Ville Leino

-Logan Couture projects to be a top lince center, should be ready after one season in the AHL
-Kuchin is a skilled winger, will likely stay in Russia a year or two before comming over. Scouts as a top line winger.
-Tlusty has progressed well, but i don't expect him to be more than a bottom 6 forward. Should be an NHL player with a bit more patience
-Grant is interesting, great offensive numbers in juniors, but his defensive play is questionable and we'll se how he does in the AHL. If he can overcome his flaws he could even be top pairing defenceman, if not,...
-Slow development for Stacey, huge question mark, will be patine though, scouts seem to like him less and less. Dale Hunt on the other hand is having another great season. Oh well.
-Lots of skilled Swedish defenders in the draft, hopefully we got the right one. Scouts as a 3-4 defenceman, and has started very well in first Swedish league.

Out of rest, Doyle is having another strong year in juniors, Lof has started well in WHL, and Schultz i belive should be higher as i feel he has top 4 potential We'll see if Pageau can finally start to develop his game in the pros.

First game of the season, a 3-1 home loss against Stanley Cup champions San Jose Sharks, we set a record for franchise all-time lowest attendance with 16148 people attending the game. Maybe lack of skilled/flashy players in the top 6 and therefor boring hockey has something to do with this.

Made a depth signing after the loss:

G Justin Peters - signed 2 year contract

Should be a depth option for Marlies, if their goaltending doesn't hold up.

5 games into the season and Toronto powerplay is at only 3.6%. Very bad, hopefully it turns around quickly, we do have a 4-1 record though.

7 games in, our offense has be very bad, being near the bottom in G/G in the league, also the only team with only 1 PP goal so far. It seems Kaberle and Kubina were more important to our powerplay than i gave them credit for. Though it has improved in recent games, being at over 11% at the end of October.

In October we also lost several of our players, Hagman, Scatchard and Raycroft all were out for 3 weeks, all 3 were injured in last 2 games. Wiikman has played well so for so he'll get his chance to prove himself as a potential future #1.

Scatchard has been replaced by Garlock, who played wery well and scored 10 points in 14 games before being sent down. He is a veteran now in AHL though, along wtih Mathieu Roy, so their future beyond this year is uncertain.

Miika Wiikman has played very well in place of injured Andrew Raycroft, going 5-2 and giving his team a chance to win every night.

Our 4th line of Battaglia - Falardeau - Booth has been very good this year. After a poor season last year, Falardeau has funally put his game together and could be challenging for Selke Trophy in no time. Booth has also been surprisingly productive with only 4th line and 2nd pk unit time.

Jean-Pierre Dumont got injured and will be out for 4 months. Jiri Tlusty is having a really good year in the AHL so he will take his place. We'll see if he can produce, in his short stint this year when he was replacing injured Wellwood he played very well.

2009 draft picks Martinsson and Lof have been very impressive for Sweden in WJC. They look like very good picks!

Richard Matvichuk is having a career year at the age of 36 and is currently most likely the best defenceman in the NHL, or at least he is palying like one.

Jiri Tlusty has played well and won NHL rookie of the month of December award.

After 41 games, we are 2nd in conference, only behind the Atlanta Trashers, who also lead the league, followed by Flames and then Leafs. We have 28-13-0 record, good for 56 points. Our PP has improved and is now at almost 18%. We again top the league in goals per game, and are 12th in goals against.

The Toronto Marlies lead the AHL again this year. Logan Couture has been a key preformer for them and the goaltending has been good. Alex Grant however seems to have hit a wall and isn't playing to the level we hoped. Our scouts are raving about the depth in the upcomming draft so we might chose to restart this project.

Travis Stacey, despite being close to PPG, also hasn't been able to take his game to the next level, but we'll give him a year in the AHL, you never know, i never expected Jiri Tlusty to develop as well as he has in the ECHL and AHL, after being completely useless in his OHL career. Matt Smyth also hasn't progressed much in his last 2 years in OHL.

On the other side, Jonas Lof is having a great season in WHL and has already noticebly improved his game. Tomi Karhunen has also played surprisingly well but isn't expected to be more than AHL depth player.

After a really strong first half of the season we extended Richard Matvichuk

D Richard Matvichuk - signed 2 year extension (same samary, 1.4M/y)

We'll see how he does in the 2nd half and in the playoffs, as well as next year. If his game drops back to normal level we can replace him with Schultz.

Made a minor trade midway through January:

To Buffalo:
-G David LeNeveu

To Toronto:
2010 3rd round pick

LeNeveu was brough in as insurance policy in case Wiikman would struggle, but he has been very good and LeNeveu hasn't played much, only 2 games total. 3rd round pick in a deep draft (at least first few rounds) is very good. The Kaberle trade keeps on giving :)

Shortly after that trade there seemed to be a lot of interest in one of our defensive prospects, D Mark Barbeiro, who was having another solid year in the Q, however seeing our AHL was filled with defenceman, we decided to restart the pick and made this trade:

To Edmonton:
-rights to D Mark Barbeiro ***

To Toronto:
2010 2nd rounc pick

Barbeiro himself was a late 2nd round pick, which is what the Oilers pick will also most likely be. Barbeiro scouts mostly as a 1-2 defenceman, however i don't belive he he will reach that as in his last 2 seasons he has improved very little. I may be wrong however as there were 2 defenceman i could have drafted in 2007 but passed on them with several picks as i thought they would never make it but are now 2nd and 6th best prospects for their team and playing really well for their AHL teams.

Near the end of January Vancouver Canucks were interested in Dimitri Vorobiev, but two late picks in this years draft weren't very persuasive. We do have players in AHL for that spot, but i'll keep Vorobiev for now. Also too many draft picks in one draft means contract limit trobules when its time to sign them.

In the AHL Brett MaClean was injured and will be out for about 7 months. He has fractured skull.

Bryan Berard hasn't played as well as i had hoped, however he still has 3 years left on his contract. We'll try and see if Ryan Wilson can play in his spot even though he hasn't really impressed with the Marlies.

Unlike his play in the AHL, Ryan Wilson has impressed in place of scratched Bryan Berard, helping the team to 3 straight wins and assisting on 4 goals in the process. We'll give him few more games and then decide what to do, there are some teams interested in Berard, maybe we can flip him to one of them.

Decided to keep Berard though but made a big trade, again with Coyotes:

To Phoenix:
-F Travis Stacey *****
2010 6th round pick (LA)

To Toronto:
2010 1st round pick

It was a hard deal to make, Stacey hasn't shown really any progress, and was slowly sliding down our top prospect list. Interesting though pretty much all other teams in the NHL still value Stacey highly, so i was able to complete this trade. I really hope he can make it with the Coyotes though, our 2007 draft looks like a failure, while 2008 draft is starting to look like one more and more. Hopefully we can make our first round pick count this time.

D Korobian Holzer was injured and will be out for about 4 months.

F Jean-Pierre Dumont - 1 year extension 2.5M/y

With about 15 games left to go, Maple Leafs are #1 team in the league, while Marlies are on top of AHL. Very good year for both franchises, hopefully we can contintue like this. 8-1-1 record in our last 10 games.

Right after that lost two games 2-7 and 1-6 to Devils and Senators, where both of our goalies totally bombed. Called up Pogge to play next game.

Pogge had a great game as we defeated Red Wings 4:2 at home. Sent down after the game though, Raycroft should be ready for next game.

Raycroft was much better the next game, as we pushed aside Western conference leading Kings 5:4 in SO. Made 43 saves for the win.

Kyle Wellwood returns to lineup after yet another injury. Will try to find an upgrade in the offseason.

On March 28th Jean-Pierre Dumont finally returned from his injury that saw him out of our lineup for 4 months. Jiri Tlusty did a spectacular job in his absence, scoring 40 points in 47 games from 2nd line.

F Brett MacLean - signed 2 year extension
F Niklas Hagman - signed 2 year extension
F Marcus Nilson - signed 2 year extension
F Aleksej Repkin - signed 2 year extension
G James Reimer - signed 2 year extension

They recieved only small raise.

Raycroft has been rather inconsistent, hopefully he picks up his game for the playoffs.

Regular season comes to an end after a 2:6 loss at the hands of the NY Rangers in our own rink. Maple Leafs finished with a 56-24-2 record and 114 points, setting a new franchise record for most team points and winning the President's Trophy. The Toronto Marlies of the AHL also finished as the leagues' #1 team.

Standings:

Code: Select all

Eastern Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   C Maple Leafs             82     56     24     24     24     0.695   323  262  114  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlRangers                 82     50     26     26     26     0.646   259  225  106  
3rd   PlThrashers               82     45     25     25     25     0.622   283  255  102  
4th   PlSabres                  82     49     26     26     26     0.640   281  232  105  
5th   PlCarolina                82     47     31     31     31     0.598   258  222  98   
6th   PlFlyers                  82     46     31     31     31     0.591   295  256  97   
7th   PlBruins                  82     44     33     33     33     0.567   281  258  93   
8th   PlCanadiens               82     41     35     35     35     0.537   265  275  88   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Devils                  82     40     34     34     34     0.537   283  266  88   
10th    Capitals                82     38     33     33     33     0.530   277  289  87   
11th    Penguins                82     40     36     36     36     0.524   248  263  86   
12th    Panthers                82     36     37     37     37     0.494   270  280  81   
13th    Lightning               82     33     34     34     34     0.494   229  250  81   
14th    Senators                82     37     40     40     40     0.482   249  302  79   
15th    Islanders               82     28     46     46     46     0.390   236  315  64   


Western Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   PlKings                   82     49     23     23     23     0.659   287  248  108  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlFlames                  82     49     27     27     27     0.634   285  251  104  
3rd   PlNashville               82     41     36     36     36     0.530   268  251  87   
4th   PlColorado                82     43     28     28     28     0.591   262  248  97   
5th   PlOilers                  82     43     28     28     28     0.591   308  282  97   
6th   PlStars                   82     45     32     32     32     0.579   251  243  95   
7th   PlSharks                  82     43     31     31     31     0.573   269  254  94   
8th   PlDucks                   82     44     33     33     33     0.567   279  239  93   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Blue Jackets            82     41     37     37     37     0.524   270  263  86   
10th    Coyotes                 82     39     35     35     35     0.524   285  277  86   
11th    Blues                   82     39     36     36     36     0.518   252  258  85   
12th    Wild                    82     36     39     39     39     0.482   256  283  79   
13th    Blackhawks              82     32     41     41     41     0.445   251  311  73   
14th    Red Wings               82     31     47     47     47     0.402   235  323  66   
15th    Canucks                 82     25     48     48     48     0.360   231  345  59
Stats:

Code: Select all

================================================================================================
 2009-10 Regular Season Stats
================================================================================================

No   Name                     GP  G   A   P   +--  PIM  SOG  ShAv R 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
74   Battaglia, Bates         82  11  9   20  3    60   78   14.1 6.74 
3    Berard, Bryan            77  7   33  40  -18  40   186  3.8  7.99 
12   Booth, David             82  27  24  51  -3   64   246  11.0 7.55 
71   Dumont, Jean-Pierre      35  11  23  34  -3   22   95   11.6 7.66 
42   Falardeau, Lee           79  2   19  21  4    73   55   3.6  6.91 
31   Garlock, Ryan            17  4   7   11  10   14   26   15.4 7.59 
4    Gleason, Tim             80  6   32  38  23   43   164  3.7  8.00 
43   Hagman, Niklas           71  18  41  59  14   48   165  10.9 7.63 
57   Jensen, Josh             11  1   0   1   -4   8    22   4.5  6.64 
14   Kulemin, Nikolai         20  4   9   13  9    12   51   7.8  7.40 
89   Leino, Ville             82  33  45  78  -6   76   254  13.0 7.54 
2    Matvichuk, Richard       77  7   25  32  21   85   67   10.4 8.27 
24   McCabe, Bryan            82  15  28  43  10   76   210  7.1  8.00 
17   Nilson, Marcus           82  15  25  40  21   32   78   19.2 6.87 
27   Ponikarovsky, Alexei     82  44  49  93  15   68   356  12.4 8.34 
1    Raycroft, Andrew         54  0   2   2   0    0    0    -    7.96 
38   Scatchard, Dave          71  16  20  36  20   119  106  15.1 7.87 
7    Semenov, Alexei          82  2   9   11  20   120  48   4.2  7.43 
22   Suglobov, Alexander      79  16  31  47  12   84   189  8.5  7.19 
13   Sundin, Mats             78  32  62  94  15   60   244  13.1 8.81 
9    Tlusty, Jiri             47  14  26  40  5    18   142  9.9  7.81 
46   Varlamov, Evgeny         82  4   14  18  28   46   58   6.9  7.28 
33   Vorobiev, Dmitri         7   0   1   1   3    10   7    0.0  7.43 
97   Wellwood, Kyle           64  27  30  57  12   12   172  15.7 7.45 
20   Wiikman, Miika           31  0   0   0   0    0    0    -    7.55 
3    Wilson, Ryan             5   0   4   4   -1   0    14   0.0  8.20
Andrew Raycroft - 54GP - 38W - 15L - 1OL - 3.02GAA - 0.897sv% - 2SO
Miika Wiikman - 31GP - 17W - 7L - 1OL - 3.28GAA - 0.885sv% - 1SO


This could be the last chance for Mats Sundin to win the Stanley Cup, he is already 39 years old and his window is closing fast. Hopefully he still has enough left in his tank.
Our lineup for the playoffs:

Wellwood - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
Dumont - Leino - Suglobov
Hagman - Scatchard - Nilson
Battaglia - Falardeau - Booth

Berard - McCabe
Matvichuk - Gleason
Varlamov - Semenov
Vorobiev

Raycroft
Wiikman


Eastern Conference Quarter Final:
Toronto vs Canadiens
Season series: 3-1-1 Toronto

Just barely made the palyoffs after finishing the season 7-3. Had same ammount of points as #9 seed and 1 less than Capitals. They have a solid team but i don't expect we should have much trobule getting out of round one. Huet does have a habbit of playing well when needed though.

Game #1: 4-2 (Booth, Nilson, Suglobov, Ponikarovsky)
Game #2: 4-2 (Ponikarovsky 2, Dumont, Nilson)
Game #3: 3-4 OT (Ponikarovsky, Booth, Suglobov)
Game #4: 4-2 (Scatchard, Sundin, Nilson, Kulemin)
Game #5: 4-1 (Semenov, Berard, Dumont, Leino)

Ponikarovsky was banned for 1 game after an incident in game 3, so we called up Kulemin.
We win in 5 games. Toronto just outplayed the Canadiens as they didn't really stand much of a chance. Huet played well for them but he couldn't steal 4 games for them but they got outshot and outworked in every game.

Toronto Marlies deafeated Mantobia Moose 4-2 in their opening round of the playoffs. Nikolai Kulemin and Jeff Schultz were key players for them in the series.


Eastern Conference Semi Final:
Toronto vs Flyers
Season series: 3-1 Flyers

Flyers do have a strong team and they did win the season series, so it should be hard. They have some deadly forwards and a great goalie so hopefully Raycroft is up to the task.

Game #1: 4-5 (Hagman, Gleason, Suglobov, Dumont)
Game #2: 2-3 OT (Semenov, Gleason)
Game #3: 1-2 OT (Scatchard)
Game #4: 5-0 (Scatchard, Ponikarovsky, Wellwood, Leino, Nilson)
Game #5: 3-2 (Gleason, Sundin, Hagman)
Game #6: 2-1 (Hagman, Sundin)
Game #7: 5-3 (Booth, Wellwood 2, Sundin, Suglobov)

Raycroft was very shaky in the first game and cost us the game.
Berard was injured before game 4 and Vorobiev took his place in lineup.
Raycroft with the shutout in game 4, Niittymaki was injured and placed on IR by Flyers, expected to be out about 10 days.
Game 5, Flyears lead 2:0 with less than 5 minutes left, then Maple Leafs score 3 quick goals to force game 6! Sundin first star with 1g 2a.
Mats Sundin was 1st star of the game for the 2nd straight game as Maple Leafs look to do the impossible and come back to win the series after being down 0-3. Game 7 in Toronto!
Before game 7 Berard come back from injury and Semenov was injured. Vorobiev will now take Semeov's spot. Falardeau is injured and will be replaced by top prospect Couture as he'll play in his first ever NHL playoff game.
And the Maple Leafs win the series! Wow what a comeback! Couture played just under 10 minutes, recorded an assist and was +1, not bad.

The Rochester Americans swept the Marlies in the 2nd round of AHL playoffs. They are just too strong it seems, with both Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres as parent clubs they have a lot of talent down there.


F Austin Saber - signed 3 year ELC
F Chris Doyle - signed 3 year ELC
D Philip Martinsson - signed 3 year ELC


Eastern Conference Final:
Toronto vs Rangers
Season series: Split 2-2

Rangers have a good team, Lunqvist is top goalie, They have very good defensive core as well as plenty of skill end experiance in their forward group, but their center depth is weak as their top two centers are Aleksei Kovalev and Jarko Immonen. They still have Jagr playing who was ppg in regular season so it will be very good series imo.

Game #1: 4-1 (Gleason, Hagman, Scatchard, Kulemin)
Game #2: 4-3 (Wellwood, Leino, Kulemin, Dumont)
Game #3: 4-3 (Ponikarovsky 2, Sundin, Berard)
Game #4: 0-6
Game #5: 5-2 (Leino, Nilson 2, Wellwood, Ponikarovsky)



Falardeau came back from injury and will play in place of Logan Couture. Ponikarovsky will be out for about 10 days so Kulemin will play in his place.
Big game 1, Raycroft outplayed Lundqvist which was nice to see.
Ponikarovsky returned for game 3 but since Kulemin played so well in the playoffs, 3 goals in 3 games, instead of scratching him, we scratched Battaglia and put Kulemin on 4th line LW.
Game 4 was the first game Rangers outshot us. Lundqvist was great while Raycroft had a very poor game.
Before game 5 Semenov returned from injury so Vorobiev was scratched.
Big game 5 win and the Maple Leafs are on to the Stanley Cup finals!!


Stanley Cup Final:
Toronto vs Colorado
Season series: 2-0 Toronto

Outscored them 10-6 in those two games. We are the favorites to win the Stanley Cup. Their goalies are Budaj and Lalime, so their team is obviously good if they managed to get to finals with this tandem. Should be a fun series.

Game #1: 5-2 (Leino, McCabe, Battaglia, Sundin, Berard)
Game #2: 1-2 OT (Dumont)
Game #3: 2-3 (Wellwood, Gleason)
Game #4: 3-1 (Wellwood, Ponikarovsky, Gleason)
Game #5: 6-0 (Leino, Ponikarovsky 2, Battaglia 2, Sundin)
Game #6: 5-3 (Berard, Matvichuk, Booth 2, Leino)


Before game 1 inserted Battaglia back into linup as Kulemin didn't do much from 4th line.
Good first game, Sundin 1st star, outshot them by 30 shots.
Lost yet another game in OT. Budaj the hero for Colorado, though Raycroft played very well for Leafs as well.
Budaj stole game 3, outshot Colorado 43 to 13 but still lost. Tim Gleason was first star though as he is having a good palyoff run.
Avoided having to go home facing elimination with a big win in game 4. Raycroft had a great game.
Huge win at home, Ponikarovsky with second MVP of the game, Raycroft another amazing game as we dominated Colorado, outshot them 61 to 20. This was also the highest scoring playoff win in franchise history!

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS HAVE WON THE STANLEY CUP!

Amazing season, President's Trophy and Stanley Cup!

Raycroft was amazing again in net in game 6 stopping 27 out of 28 shots before getting hurt, so Wiikman stepped in and gave up 2 goals on 7 shots in last 10 minutes however it was too late as Leafs celebrated their 14th Stanley Cup in their rich history and first with me at the helm! Mats Sundin wins his first ever Stanley Cup and can now retire in peace if he wants to :)

But season isn't over yet, still have to plenty to do like attend awards ceremnoy and draft is just around the corner.

Yearly awards:

NHL:
Con Smyte Trophy: Sundin, Poniarovsky (2nd), Gleason (3rd)
Frank J. Selke Trophy Dave Scatchard (2nd), Marcus Nilson (3rd)
Jack Adams Award: Paul Maurice
King Clancy Memorial Trophy: Mats Sundin (3rd)
Lester B. Pearson Award: Mats Sundin
NHL Plus-Minus Award: Mats Sundin
NHL Second All-Star Team: Richard Matvichuk
NHL Rookie All-Star Team: Miika Wiikman, Jiri Tlusty

AHL:
Red Garrett Memorial Trophy: Logan Couture

WHL:
Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy: Jonas Lof

QMJHL:
Michel Bergeron Trophy: Chris Doyle


A bit surprised to see Matvichuk make theAll-Star Team and not someone like Sundin, but he did have a monster year.
Interesting to see 3 out of top 5 and 4 out of top 8 picks from 2008 didn't sign a contract and are UFA. Won't offer them a contract however as it would be too unrealistic to do it every year.


2010 NHL entry draft is about to begin. The Leafs hold 10th, 13th and 30th overall pciks in the first round, so we will get some good young players for our team. I will admit my drafting has been rather poor but i certanly hope this draft is another step in the right direction. We have a total of 12 picks heading into the draft, including 6 in top 60.

Maple Leafs 2010 NHL Draft:

1(10) - G Stanislav Vavroch
1(13) - RW Thomas Turan
1(30) - G Jochen Becker
2(35) - C Maurice Jolicouer
2(51) - LW/RW Jaroslav Faith
2(60) - C Calle Arildsson
3(61) - RW Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen
3(90) - RD/LD Ivan Macroux
4(120) - C/LW/RW Henri Laajanen
5(150) - C/RW Miles Stephens
6(180) - G Marek Pap
7(210) - C/LW Oliver Kosil


When teams constantly pick players you want just few picks before you it can make even a deep draft seem shallow, which seems to be the case this year. This kinds of drafts are interesting, in first two rounds you see there actually isn't much talent, but by the time you get to your 7th round pick you wish you had 10 more picks to make.

Made a deal with the Senators:

To Ottawa:
2010 3rd round pick (LA)
2011 7th round pick (LA)

To Toronto:
2010 3rd round pick (VAN)

Basicly give a 3rd round pick to move up from 89 to 61. Wasn't sure which of the 2 players i picked at 60 and 61 would last to 89 so i made sure i got both.


- Stanislav Vavroch is a tremendeously talented goaltender from Czech Republic. Was ranked 16th but i was thrilled to get him at 10 as i feel he'll be one of the best players out of this draft, a future #1. Will sign him to a contract immediately so he can train with the Maple Leafs in the offseason.
- Turan is a dangerous Slovakinan winger with a deadly slapshot already (17). Ranked 18th i was happy to get him at 13, will be signed and play next few years in QMJHL, as i feel he'll develop better there than Slovakian 2nd tier league. A future top line winger, no doubt in my mind.
- At 30 we shocked everyone and took German goaltender Jochen Becker, who was ranked at 125 but we feel he has so much potential it wouldn't be a wise idea to select less skilled players and hope he lasts few more picks/rounds. Has #1 potential and will also be signed and sent in OHL in the fall for seasoning.
- At 35 i feel was the first drop off in talent. We selected Canadian speedster Maurice Jolicouer. While he is only 5'9, he had a strong season in QMJHL being over ppg. Scouts say he is a 2-way centerman with #2 potential.
- Jaroslav Faith was a gamble pick. Ranked 89th, this Slovakan winger was injured early in his WHL season for 8 months and only played 8 games. His injury no doubt caused him to drop that low, and while scouts feel he has 4th line potential i belive he has higher celling than that.
- After Faith pick there was the second drop off in talent. Calle Arildsson projects to be a 3rd line center. The Swedish center will play next few seasons in WHL and hopefully he can develop there.
- Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen was ranked only 127th. The Finnish speedster scouts as a 4th line player, hopefully he can prove our scouts wrong.
- Ivan Macroux is a very short defender, standing at only 5'7, however he is very good in his own zone. He had a good year in QMJHL, hopefully he can build on that. He scouts as a 5-6 defender.
- Henri Laajanen is a versatile Finnish winger who wasn't ranked by the ISS. He scouts as a 4th line forward
- Miles Stephens is a defensive power forward who is attending collage. He also wasn't ranked by the ISS even though he had a solid first year. Scouts say he could be a 3rd line defensive forward.
- Even though we have already drafted 2 goalies, we still took Marek Pap from Slovakia, another unranked player. He had a great season in Slovakia's 2nd tier league and scouts as a backup goalie. If he reaches this potential, this won't be a bad 6th round pick.
- With our last pick we took another unranked Slovakian, Oliver Kosil, who scouts as a 4th line player. Maybe with some seasoning he can at least turn into servicable AHLer, if not more.


F Thomas Turan - signed 3 year ELC .....transfer April 30th 2011 (will withdraw to invite in training camp and sign again after that)
G Stanislav Vavroch - signed 3 year ELC
G Jochen Becker - signed 3 year ELC

F Matt Smyth - 2 year extension
F Josh Jensen - 2 year extension
D Alexei Semenov - 2 year extension
D Jeff Schultz - 4 year 800k/y

Alexei Semenov signed almost double as before (from 475k/y to 855k/y) but worth it. One of few defenders that can play right side on 3rd pair and he had a monster playoff run.

Free agency has started. Decided not to sign former draft pick from 2007 Barry Almeida as he hasn't progressed enough to be woth spending a contract on as we are at limit yet again.

Made a minor deal early in July:

To Vancouver:
-rights to D Koribian Holzer ***

To Toronto:
2011 5th round pick

Holzer hasn't played much due to our defensive depth and wasn't gonna get a chance with this team. He has good attributes, also played for German Olympic team this year. Might aswell get something for him, also gives me 1 more contract less to worry about.

With Schultz signing and Matvichuk getting an extension midway through season we needed to make room for Schultz, so we decided to move Evgeny Varlamov. Varlamov played very well for us the last 3 years on 3rd pair and 2nd pk unit, was always a plust player, but played poorly in the playoffs. His spot will be taken by Schultz who will get some experiance and when Matvichuk is gone will take the 2nd pairing position.

To Nashville:
-D Evgeny Varlamov ****

To Toronto:
2012 2nd round pick

Signed Jacques Lemaire as an assistant coach. He is good at coaching defenceman and is tacticly sound. Should help improve our defensive play and maybe we'll allow less goals next year.
Signed Hakan Andersson as a new assistant GM. He is a better talent evaluator than Craig Muni who was relieved of his duties.

Mats Sundin seems to have decided to play another season with Maple Leafs. With Leino already a #2 center and Couture looking for top 6 minutes, we'll see how this plays out in preseason. If he plays well we'll move Kyle Wellwood and play Sundin on left side. We'll have to wait for training camp to see what happens though. The Ducks have already started asking about Wellwood late in July.

On everyone's big surprsie there was an interesting piece of news early in August, as the Buffalo sabres were shopping left winger Thomas Vanek. We offered them Kyle Wellwood and they accepted!

To Buffalo:
-F Kyle Wellwood ****

To Toronto:
-F Thomas Vanek ***

Wellwood has 2 more years at 1M/y, Vanek has 1 year left at about 1.3M/y. If he plays well in camp we'll try to re-sign him. A huge boost for the team.
Wellwood didn't have a very good playoff run, so any improvement in that area is huge.

After 3 years of almost identical roster, we are finally starting to see things turn around. However the team core of Sundin (39), Matvichuk (37), McCabe (35), Scatchard (34), Berard (33) won't stay around for much longer so there is a lot of work still to be done. Will the new wave of players be ready in time or will the team collapse? I guess we'll see :)

After 7 month absence due to injury Brett MacLean has returned to full practice

Up next: Training camp and 2010/11 season!

Re: Maple Leafs Dynasty

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:58 pm
by suprvilce
New season us underway and training camp is right around the corner. Invited all of our prospects except college bount players, lots of new faces in this years camp. We'll get to see first had how some of our picks from June will play right in front of us. Will be interesting to see where Sundin, Leino and Couture will slot in.

Preseason games:

Vs Oilers: 3-5 (Turan, Couture, Wilson)
Vs Blackhawks: 2-6 (Turan, Faith)
Vs Stars: 6-2 (Lof, Sinkonen, Faith, Couture, Kuchin, Turan)
Vs Red Wings: 1-3 (Vanek)

First preseason game was basicly all rookie team, not a single regular player was in this game, mostly only players drafted in last 4 drafts.
Blackhawks dominated us in 2nd game, outshooting us 12 to 59. Vavroch had a very good game despite allowing 6 goals.
All first 3 games were with the same lineup, except in first game Becker started (6 rating) and in third game Marek Pap had a very good game.
Ivan Marcoux has played very well in preseason games, playing 1st pair minutes in first 3 games. He grew an inch since the draft and stands now at 5'8. He is very strong though and has blazing speed.
Couture has been dominant, scoring 7 points in first 3 preseason games. Andrei Kuchin has also played well and has earned a contract. Thomas Turan has also been impressive, scoring goal in each of his preseason games.
In the last preseason game against the Wings we played mostly regulars, but were shocked by spectacular Nobakov who was amazing for wings in net. So our preseason ends with a 2-2 record.


F Andrei Kuchin - signed 3 year ELC, transfer June 2011
F Thomas Turan - signed 3 year ELC, transfer April 2011


After training camp completed the following players were returned to their junior teams:

D Philip Martinsson (WHL)
G Stanislav Vavroch (WHL)
G Jochen Becker (OHL)

Also sent to Marlies all players that couldn't crack the roster. Ryan Wilson wasn't convincing enough and will play out another season in the AHL. Jiri Tlusty wil return to Marlies for likely his last year in the AHL, i expect him to replace Battaglia on 4th line next year though, is ready for NHL.

2007 draft pick Matt Smyth seems to have regressed quite a bit. Hopefully he can at least be a depth player for Marlies until his contract runs out in 2013.

Josh Jensen has been a plesant surprise, he is 24 years old but has improved steadily. Should see some time in the NHL this season if we are hit by injuries again.


NHL season preview has been released.

Maple Leafs are ranked as 7th best team. MVP: Tim Gleason



Top 10 NHL players by position:

Goalies:
- Andrew Raycroft (7th)

Top Prospects:
- F Logan Couture (1st)
- D Alex Grant (6th)

Nice to ses two prospects in top 10 however after poor season Grant shouldn't be on this list.


This is our lineup for this season:

Vanek - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
Dumont - Leino - Suglobov
Hagman - Couture - Scatchard
Battaglia - Nilson - Booth
Falardeau

Berard - McCabe
Matvichuk - Gleason
Schultz - Semenov
Vorobiev

Raycroft
Wiikman

Couture plays on 2nd pp unit instead of Leino. Falaredau is a good player however this season he likely won't see much ice time, but i will still keep him around. If Sundin can't handle as much ice time as he did in previous seasons, i'll play him on 3rd line and Couture on 1st, however he will still center 1st PP unit as he is our best offensive player still.

Our right side is still weak, Ponikarovsky has been playing well over the last 4 seasons but he isn't the perfect fit. Hopefully Turan will be ready soon, if not i'll try to upgrade right side.

We'll see also how our defense holds, Varlamov was a great 3rd pairing defenceman, i hope Schultz can do well but he has big shoes to fill. Also Berard scouts as a 5-6 defenceman, if he struggles again we'll try to find an upgrade, maybe package him with Grant if he continues to struggle.

I do belive this is the best team we have iced to date. I am worried about defense, if Gleason can continue his strong play from playoffs, if Schultz can hold his own and if Berard has a bounce back season we'll do well. Lots of iff's though.


Maple Leafs top 12 prospects:

1. Logan Couture F (Maple Leafs)
2. Stanislav Vavroch G (WHL)
3. Andrei Kuchin F (Rus)
4. Thomas Turan F (Svk)
5. Jochen Becker G (OHL)
6. Alex Grant D (AHL)
7. Miika Wiikman G (Maple Leafs)
8. Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen F (Fin)
9. Dimitri Vorobiev D (Maple Leafs)
10. Calle Arildsson F (WHL)
11. Hnri Laajanen F (Fin)
12. Chris Doyle F (AHL)


- Couture should become a good 2-way 1st line center very soon, very good player.
- Vavroch is potential superstar goaltender, played very good in his only preseason game, could be ready in only few seasons. Sky is the limit for him.
- Kuchin is a lightning fast winger with great stickhandling abilities. Has great potential however we'll see how he preforms in North America when he comes over in June.
- Turan is another fast skilled winger. Will play out the season in Slovakia and then, should his junior team not release his rights, play next season in QMJHL. He won't need much seasoning as he is already very good.
- Comming out of nowhere, the German netminder will play the next few years in OHL and we will give him all the time he needs to develop his skills, he has the potential to be a very good starting goalie in the future.
- Alex Grant has struggled in AHL. Will likely get few games as a callup if injuries occur, but if he doesn't find that next gear he could find himself on a plane out of Toronto.

Wiikman will be our backup goalie for 2nd straight year. Sinkkonen now scouts as a 1st line player. If contract limit isn't a problem we'll sign him and send him in QMJHL.
Vorobiev is a solid defenceman, will be #7 for 2nd straight year. Teams are interested in him so we'll see how things unfold this season.
Arildsson is playing in WHL and scouts as a 2nd line center.


Started the season well with 2 wins over Boston. They have a very good team, deadly top 6, i'd trade my top 6 for theirs in a nanosecond. Two big wins for us.

Since many of our contracted players assigned to Toronto Marlies were considered veterans by AHL standards, we needed to get few players to help our AHL team now, as many of players on Toronto weren't playing due to veteran rule so the team wasn't very strong.

F Josh Hart - signed 2 year ELC

After this signing i was near the contract limit again so i decided to ship out a contract..

To St. Louis Blues:
- F Aleksej Repkin ***

To Toronto:
2011 4th round pick

Repkin was a veteran in AHL and wasn't playing much. He scouts as a 3rd line 2-way player, maybe Blues will give him a chance the Leafs never could. I wish him all the best

Finished October with a very good 9-2 record. Logan Couture won NHL rookie player of the month award.

Richard Matvichuk has carried his strong play from last season into this one and is playing very well on 2nd pair with Tim Gleason.

23 games into the season, goaltending has been the main issue with Maple Leafs. We are 1st in GF/G, 8th in GA/G, have 3rd best PP in the league at over 21% and the best PK in the entire league at over 89%. But still both of our goalies have terrible save %, Raycroft at .886 and Wiikman at .892. Hopefully they start to play better, or i will start making calls.

Niklas Hagman was injured for few days so we called up Nikolai Kulemin. When Hagman returned from injury, we wanted to send Kulemin back down, but he would have to clear waivers due to his age and there was no way he would clear as several teams were interested in him. So instead of losing him for nothing, we made this trade:

To Anaheim:
- F Nikolai Kulemin ****
- D Mitch Maunu ***

To Toronto:
2011 2nd round pick

Another trade and yet another pick going to Toronto. Kulemin was a 2nd rounder in 06 and scouts as a good 3rd line winger. Could play on most teams bottom 6. Maunu has developed well but him both and Kulemin are veterans in AHL and are getting very limited ice time because to that. Maunu could play on 3rd pairing right now as we fell he is ready however we don't have a roster spot open for him. Good luck to both of them in Anaheim, hopefully they get the chance they never could here.

Logan Couture has won NHL rookie of the month of November award. He is having a great year and is running away in the rookie scoring race, having already 20 more points than 2nd best rookie scorer.

Despite weaker line-up the Toronto Marlies are still one of AHL's top teams, currently ranked 3rd best. Albert Polinin is having a breakout year after a rather average season last year. Ryan Wilson is also after 4 years finally having a solid year in the AHL.

About 30 games in due to poor play of Andrew Raycroft, Miika Wiikman has become the current #1 goaltender for the Maple Leafs. He has played very well all season. Maybe Raycroft is have just an off year.

F Thomas Vanek - signed 2 year extension 1.660M /y (up from 1.370M /y)

He has played well and earned his contract.

Made a trade to blooster my AHL team:

To Boston:
- G James Reimer ***

To Toronto:
- F Milan Lucic **

My assistant GM wasn't very happy with the trade but i am. Reimer lost his backup position to Peters in AHL, and we could really use another forward who isn't considered a veteran. Lucic is having a solid year in AHL and should be a good addition to the Marlies.

F Zac Boychuk - signed 2 year deal

He was UFA and we wanted to add more depth to our AHL team. I don't expect him to be anything more than a depth AHLer.

Alex Grant played 1 game in NHL in place of injured Alexei Semenov. It was clear to me after that game that he does not have future with this team, so we'll try to move him before the deadline.

Logan Couture won the NHL rookie of the month of December award. Should be a lock for Calder.

After 41 games Maple Leafs sit 2nd in conference with 28-10-3 record and 59 points. Goaltending hasn't been very good, Wiikman has take te starters job from Raycroft who still can't seem to get his game together, while Wiikman cam play great for several straight games and then completley bomb one. We'll continue with Wiikman for now as we try to snap out of our 2 game losing streak. Should goaltending improve we could challenge for Presidents Trophy again.

Several teams called about Matvichuk but we aren't interested in moving him just yet, as Jeff Schultz hasn't had the impact we hoped. We'll give Ryan Wilson a few games in the second half and see how he does with top 4 minutes.

Goaltending has still been bad, have a deal with Capitals to swap goalies but will wait until trade deadline to see if i'll pull the trigger. Made a different trade though:

To Calgary:
- rights to F Tomi Karhunen ***

To Toronto:
- rights to F Aaron Marvin **

Karhunen is having a solid year in Q, but i don't think he has any NHL potential and am a bit worried about his AHL potential, but we'll see soon i guess. Marvin is in his last year in college but he also doesn't have much NHL potential as his hockey sense is very low, however i do belive he w'll be able to help our AHL team more and sooner than Karhunen would.

F Aaron Marvin - signed 2 year ELC, transfer on June 22nd

Bryan Berard is having a much better season than last year. Also David Booth is having a fantastic season from 4th line.

Richard Matvichuk got injured with about 35 games left and wanted to give Ryan Wilson a chance to prove himself but he would have to clear waivers in order to be sent down so Vorobiev played instead.

Thomas Vanek got injured in a 4:0 win over the Ottawa Senators and will be out for 3 weeks. He wasn't scoring much lately with only 1 goal in his last 9 games, but he did have 8 assists in that time span. Called up Tlusty.

Claimed F Darren McCarthy off waivers from Blue Jackets. He is in the last year of his contract. He won't play but i hope his leadership in the room will help this team in the final stretch if the season and in the playoffs.

With about 30 games left to go Raycroft has finally returned to his form. He played very well in his last 3 games, allowed only 2 goals total.

Logan Couture yet again won NHL rookie of the month award, this time for January.

Toronto Marlies are on a 11 game winning streak!

Signed Jon Hull as a new assistant coach. Felt we needed a coach who is very skilled at training and developing offensive skill.

Will also be looking for a new conditioning coach in the summer, if any hit free agency.

Made a minor trade early in February:

To NY Islanders:
- F Ryan Garlock ***

To Toronto:
- F Petteri Nokelainen *

They are both veterans by AHL standards. Garlock was good for me over the last couple of years, played well in AHL however he is struggling this year so Nokelainen improves our minor club. Also wasn't gonna re-sign him since i have no further need for him so i might as well get something for him.

Maple Leafs are on a 4 game losing streak. In last game Ponikarovsky was injured and will be out for 3 weeks, so McCarthy will play in his position.

Decided to fire assistant coach Paul Dennis. Maybe this will wake up the team.

Thomas Vanek has returned from injury so we sent Tlusty down. Tlusty palyed well, scoring 6 points in 7 games.

Shocking news was that our top goaltending prospect Stanislav Vavroch has been backup to a 16 year old starter on his WHL team ever since December. The statistics clearly show Vavroch is the better goaltender, don't know why they are throwing their season away. If they don't trade their other goalie or Vavroch in the offseaon i might decide not to send him back and start him in AHL one year earlier.

Other than all these minor trades i decided to stand pat at teh deadline. Had a deal in place which would exchange goalies with another team but decided to cancel it and go with what we have.

We have a 3-6-1 record in our last 10 games late in February, not good.

All of our injured players returned to lineup as we snapped our 4 game losing streak with 4-2 win in Nashivlle. Miika Wiikman with the win, after Raycroft allowed 4 goals in each of his last 3 games.

Richard Matvichuk was injured and will be out for few days so we called up Nick Pageau to give him a taste of NHL. He hasn't really progressed at all since his draft year and is having a mediocre season in AHL however he is ranked surprisingly high on our depth chart. We'll see how he preforms with top 4 minutes in NHL. Matvichuk surprisingly returned from injury just in time for the game but we will still give Pageau one game trial to see how he does.

Hammered Bruins 10-2 in Boston. Pageau had a decent game but nothing special, will be sent back down.

Matvichuk is having another great year, not as good as last year though but might score more points than he did last season.

Jiri Tlusty has been absent withour premission. Disciplined him but we'll see how this plays out, he's been away for several days now.

Dave Scatchard and Bryan Berard are two players who had less-than-impressive seasons last year but have really turned it around this year which is great to see. Scatchard should finally get his Selke Trophy after he finished 2nd twice and 3rd in voting. Berard is currently 4th in defenceman goal scoring.

After a very bad first half of the season (+ some), Andrew Raycroft has turned his season around which is nice to see. Hopefully continues like this in the playoffs.

F Bates Battaglia - signed a 2 year extension (small raise)

After being already penciled in for 4th line duty next year Jiri Tlusty has been absent from team for a month and a half already so we decided to extend Battaglia who played well on 4th line. Too bad, was really hoping to see Tlusty develop in the NHL. Maybe he will get his presonal life in order and return, so lets hope for the best. If not we have an insurance Battaglia.

Maple Leafs are 10-0-5 in their last 15 games. Really need to learn to win in OT and SO.

Logan Couture has won NHL rookie of the month of March award. He won all awards except for February, as Tyson Sexsmith won that one.

F Tim Kraus - signed 2 year extension
F Mathieu Roy - signed 2 year extension
D Nick Pageau - signed 2 year extension

Another season ends on a losing note, as we get shut out in Buffaly by a score of 0:4. Maple Leafs finish the regular season with a 51-22-9 record and 11 points, good for 2nd in East, while Florida Panthers win the Presidents Trophy.

In the AHL Toronto Marlies finished 2nd overall, with same number of points as top team Rochester Americans but the Americans win because of tie-breaker (number of wins).


Standings:

Code: Select all

Eastern Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   C Panthers                82     59     23     23     23     0.720   320  201  118  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlMaple Leafs             82     51     22     22     22     0.677   349  256  111  
3rd   PlRangers                 82     44     26     26     26     0.610   262  241  100  
4th   PlCapitals                82     54     23     23     23     0.689   320  245  113  
5th   PlCarolina                82     43     30     30     30     0.579   275  277  95   
6th   PlDevils                  82     45     33     33     33     0.573   261  248  94   
7th   PlCanadiens               82     44     33     33     33     0.567   292  303  93   
8th   PlBruins                  82     42     31     31     31     0.567   296  274  93   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Penguins                82     44     34     34     34     0.561   255  239  92   
10th    Flyers                  82     43     33     33     33     0.561   303  263  92   
11th    Thrashers               82     34     38     38     38     0.476   251  295  78   
12th    Islanders               82     34     44     44     44     0.439   229  287  72   
13th    Sabres                  82     29     41     41     41     0.427   249  297  70   
14th    Lightning               82     31     47     47     47     0.402   250  348  66   
15th    Senators                82     31     47     47     47     0.402   238  305  66   


Western Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   PlBlue Jackets            82     52     24     24     24     0.671   293  228  110  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlOilers                  82     49     22     22     22     0.665   317  271  109  
3rd   PlDucks                   82     50     28     28     28     0.634   268  250  104  
4th   PlCanucks                 82     51     28     28     28     0.640   273  212  105  
5th   PlSharks                  82     43     33     33     33     0.561   302  269  92   
6th   PlFlames                  82     40     33     33     33     0.543   317  293  89   
7th   PlColorado                82     40     36     36     36     0.524   260  268  86   
8th   PlWild                    82     40     36     36     36     0.524   237  253  86   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Nashville               82     39     35     35     35     0.524   234  259  86   
10th    Blues                   82     38     37     37     37     0.506   248  267  83   
11th    Blackhawks              82     39     39     39     39     0.500   250  275  82   
12th    Coyotes                 82     32     42     42     42     0.439   257  302  72   
13th    Stars                   82     32     44     44     44     0.427   228  292  70   
14th    Kings                   82     30     47     47     47     0.396   251  312  65   
15th    Red Wings               82     27     49     49     49     0.366   200  255  60
Stats:

Code: Select all

================================================================================================
 2010-11 Regular Season Stats
================================================================================================

No   Name                     GP  G   A   P   +--  PIM  SOG  ShAv R 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1    Raycroft, Andrew         57  0   1   1   0    0    0    -    7.96 
20   Wiikman, Miika           31  0   0   0   0    0    0    -    7.84 
3    Berard, Bryan            82  13  31  44  33   31   180  7.2  8.32 
2    Matvichuk, Richard       78  1   35  36  26   55   105  1.0  7.92 
36   Schultz, Jeff            82  2   15  17  17   36   38   5.3  7.04 
33   Vorobiev, Dmitri         5   0   3   3   1    21   9    0.0  7.40 
4    Gleason, Tim             80  13  27  40  26   28   245  5.3  8.04 
24   McCabe, Bryan            82  20  36  56  34   101  241  8.3  8.22 
7    Semenov, Alexei          81  7   12  19  15   173  55   12.7 7.73 
74   Battaglia, Bates         82  12  15  27  4    50   70   17.1 6.93 
12   Booth, David             80  12  24  36  22   44   113  10.6 7.76 
43   Hagman, Niklas           78  16  24  40  35   59   123  13.0 7.32 
17   Nilson, Marcus           82  11  19  30  9    68   61   18.0 6.68 
15   Roy, Mathieu             5   1   3   4   7    2    12   8.3  7.60 
9    Tlusty, Jiri             7   3   3   6   4    8    25   12.0 7.86 
45   Vanek, Thomas            69  31  45  76  22   34   303  10.2 7.91 
11   Couture, Logan           80  29  56  85  22   130  281  10.3 8.26 
42   Falardeau, Lee           9   1   3   4   0    2    18   5.6  7.56 
89   Leino, Ville             79  16  24  40  10   94   121  13.2 6.97 
38   Scatchard, Dave          79  25  31  56  28   53   201  12.4 8.95 
13   Sundin, Mats             82  31  69  100 36   56   240  12.9 8.78 
71   Dumont, Jean-Pierre      82  29  49  78  0    50   295  9.8  7.73 
60   MacLean, Brett           4   1   1   2   -2   2    10   10.0 6.75 
25   McCarty, Darren          8   3   0   3   -1   16   8    37.5 7.13 
27   Ponikarovsky, Alexei     74  40  49  89  22   46   391  10.2 8.45 
22   Suglobov, Alexander      78  27  30  57  4    46   297  9.1  7.35
Andrew Raycroft - 57GP - 35W - 12L - 6OL - 2.89GAA - 0.896sv% - 2SO
Miika Wiikman - 31GP - 16W - 10L - 3OL - 3.17GAA - 0.889sv% - 2SO

If we took out few games from Wiikman's stats where he bombed he'd have much nicer stats.


This is how our lineup looks as we head into the playoffs trying do win our 2nd Stanley Cup since me taking over.


Vanek - Sundin - Ponikarovsky
Dumont - Leino - Suglobov
Hagman - Couture - Scatchard
Battaglia - Nilson - Booth
Falardeau

Berard - McCabe
Matvichuk - Gleason
Schultz - Semenov
Vorobiev

Raycroft
Wiikman


Same as regular season. Leino doesn't get any PP time though as Coture centers then #2 PP unit. So his production this year has taken a big hit.


Eastern Conference Quarter Final:
Toronto vs Canadiens
Season series: 6-1-1 Toronto

East was very close this year, as 5th and 10th place team seperated only 3 points, which is very very little. Did well against the Habs in regular season, hopefully we continue our dominance over them in the playoffs.

Game #1: 4-2 (Couture, Vanek, Suglobov, Dumont)
Game #2: 4-5 OT (Vanek 2, Sundin, Booth)
Game #3: 3-2 (Berard, Vanek, Sundin)
Game #4: 4-0 (McCabe, Dumont 2, Couture)
Game #5: 6-4 (Nilson, Ponikarovsky, Dumont, Couture 2, Suglobov)



Huet was very good in game 2 with 51 saves while Raycroft was ... meh.
Dave Scatchard was banned for 1 game and we put Darren McCarthy in his spot for game 4.
Wrapped-up the series in 5 games with a victory in Toronto. After a shaky start to the series, Dumont scored 6 points in the last 2 games.


On April 19th Jiri Tlusty decided to report to practice and indicated a willingness to play for Maple Leafs again. It was reported his return unfortunatley caused some unrest among his team-mates. He was assigned to the Toronto Marlies to help them with their playoff push.

F Jean-Pierre Dumont - signed 1 year extension, 2.8M /y (300k raise)

In case Andrei Kuchin needs some seasoning in the AHL we have a good stop gap.

In the AHL the Toronto Marlies swept the Syracuse Crunsh in the opening round of the playoffs and will proceed to the conference semi finals.

Eastern Conference Semi Final:
Toronto vs Rangers
Season series: 3-1 Rangers

Rangers had our number this season, buth with Lundqvist on IR (was injured for 4 months in late February) we stand a very good chance here. Hopefully Raycroft can play well, he was solid in 1st round but can be better.

Game #1: 2-3 (Ponikarovsky, Scatchard)
Game #2: 2-3 (McCabe, Scatchard)
Game #3: 3-6 (Ponikarovsky 2, Dimont)
Game #4: 4-3 (McCabe, Ponikarovsky, Sundin, Suglobov)
Game #5: 4-2 (Vanek, McCarthy, Dumont, Couture)
Game #6: 6-5 OT (Dumont 2, Sundin, Hagman, Couture, Gleason)
Game #7: 5-1 (McCabe 2, Pinikarovsky 2, Sundin)



Former Leaf (though his stint with Leafs was very short) Ty Conklin has played in Lundqvist absence and preformed very well for Rangers, winning game 1.
Ty Conklin shuts the door again as Rangers lead the series 2-0 heading in New York. 44 saves in game 2.
Conklin with another good game while Raycroft was very bad in game 4. Wiikman will start game 4 as look to extend the series and avoid a second round sweep.

Before game 4 our 1st round pick from 2010 Thomas Turan joined the team and will make his debut as we are looking for a spark to help us turn the series around. Put him in lineup over Leino who was horrible in his last 2 games, however shuffled the lines a bit so he wouldn't play center as he is a winger. Scatchard will center 2nd line while Turan will play on 3rd line.
Also before game 4 Booth got injured and will be out for 2 weeks so McCarthy will play on 4th line. Lots of changes as we face elimination.
Big win in game 4, but Dumont got injured on his 1st shift of the game however should be ready enough to play in game 5.
Thomas Turan had an interesting first NHL game, only played 3 munutes but had 15 PIM. He got banned and will sit the next game so Leino will take his spot (lines back to normal now, though will promote Couture to full time 2nd line).

Huge win game 5 forces game 6. Will however put Turan in lineup again as even though Leino had a first decent game in some time he's been useless otherwise. Scatchard will center 3rd line and Turan will be on his right wing.

For the 3rd straight year Toronto Marlis are playing against Rochester Americans in the 2nd round of AHL playoffs. Toronto is leading the series 1-0, hopefully they can win!

Another huge win for Maple Leafs as we tie the series 3-3 after trailing 0-3. Wiikman quite honestly hasn't been much better than Raycroft if at all but at least the team won with him in net, so he'll play in his 4th straight elimination game. Last year Leafs came back to win the series after trailing 0-3 to Flyers, hopefully we can do it again this year!

And the Maple Leafs do it again! 2nd year in a row we came back from a 0-3 series deficit to win the series! We seem to have great leadership. Wiikman had a spectacular game, stopping 34 shots, while Conklin was bad for Rangers, just like 3 years ago when he played for us in game 7. The history repeats itself :). Wiikman will be our starter for next series too unless he struggles early on.


F Milos Tojcik - signed a 3 year ELC
F Jaroslav Faith - signed a 3 year ELC
F/D Jonas Lof - signed a 3 year ELC

After Lof signing i was 1 contract over limit so i decided to waive Falardeau and release him. He was mostly a scratch this year, played well on 4th line last year. With Battaglia re-signed and Falardeau gone Tlusty will still be able to play in NHL next year.

Decided to send Turan to Marlies to help with their playoff push, he hasn't really made an impact with Leafs, so Leino will play in next series. Toronto Marlies currently trail the Rochester Americans 2 games to 1, hopefully he can help them turn things around, he does have experience as his team did it just a week ago!


Eastern Conference Final:
Toronto vs Florida
Season series: 3-1 Florida

Florida won the Presidents Trophy and are a very good team, Bouwmeester scored 29 goals for them from defence and is the one to watch on D. They also have one of the strongest if not the strongest forward group in the league. Their toughness might be a problem. They are certanly the favorites to win not only the series but also the Cup, however several of their wins against us did come whe they were red hot and Leafs were playing their worst so it will be interesting. Let the better team win.

Game #1: 4-2 (Dumont, Gleason, Ponikarovsky, Sundin)
Game #2: 4-5 OT (Sundin, Couture, Ponikarovsky, Suglobov)
Game #3: 1-4 (Berard)
Game #4: 1-0 (Couture)
Game #5: 2-4 (Leino, Tlusty)
Game #6: 3-2 (Couture 2, Tlusty)
Game #7: 3-5 (Ponikarovsky, Hagman, Suglobov)


The only reason we won 1st game is because their starter Robert Eche had a really bad game but i expect him to be much better from now on. Their backup Anderson palyed very well though stopping all 21 shots.
Esche had a much better game stopping 44 shots while Wiikman wasn't anything special.
Vantek was injured in game 2 and will be out for 2 weeks. Tlusty will take his place. Too bad, Vanek was having a monster run, scoring 21 points in 14 games.
Esche was amazing again in game 3. What worries me though is that we allowed 4 PP goals in that game.
Andrew Raycroft will play in game 4. While Wiikman wasn't bad i hope Raycroft can steal one for us.
Bug win, Couture 1st star and Raycroft 2nd and gets a shutout. Just what i had wished for. Raycroft will play in game 5 too, maybe he's ready to be the starter again.
Raycroft had a decent game but i expected more from him so Wiikman will play again in the elimination game. Dumont suffered a minor injury but will still be able to play.
Before game 6 David Booth returns from injury which is good news as McCarthy wasn't very good on 4th line. He is 39 though. Dumont also recovered from his minor injury and is ready to play.

Toronto Marlies defeated the Rochester Americans in 7 games in the AHL western conference semi final!

Big win in game 6 at home, Wiikman played very good and earned the right to start in game 7. He is now 5-0 in elimination games so far this playoffs, an impressive stat!

And our season comes to an end after a 3:5 loss to the Florida Panthers. Wiikman was good in game 7 however Panthers really outworked and outshot us and deserved to win. Time for me to go to work again.

Toronto Marlies lost 4-1 to the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL western conference finals.

In the Stanley Cup finals the Florida Panthers pushed aside Oilers 4-1 to win their first Stanley Cup. Congrats to them!


Yearly awards:

NHL:
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: Mats Sundin (2nd)
Calder Memorial Trophy: Logan Couture, Jeff Schultz (2nd)
Frank J. Selke Trophy Dave Scatchard, Niklas Hagman (3rd)
Jack Adams Award: Paul Maurice (3rd)
James Norris Memorial Trophy: Bryan McCabe (3rd)
King Clancy Memorial Trophy: Mats Sundin (2nd)
NHL Second All-Star Team: Bryan Berard
NHL Rookie All-Star Team: Jeff Schultz, Logan Couture


OHL:
Goaltender of the year: Jochen Becker


WHL:
Bill Hunter Trophy: Philip Martinsson
Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy: Philip Martinsson
Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy: Philip Martinsson, Jaroslav Faith (2nd)
Star Player Award: Jonas Lof, Philip Martinsson (2nd), Jaroslav Faith (3rd)


QMJHL:
Marcel Robert Trophy: Ivan Marcoux



The 2011 NHL Entry Draft is about to begin. Maple Leafs hold the 29th overall pick in the first round and again 12 total picks. We'll see how many times we pick however as our scouts don't really like this draft.


Maple Leafs 2011 NHL draft:

1(29) - LD/RD Rustam Mikhno
2(32) - RD/LD Del Parker
2(42) - LD Tobias Carlsson
2(59) - RW Todd Houle
3(74) - LW Billy Cote
3(89) - RW/C Broc Irwin
4(101) - RD/LD Jake Canzanello
6(179) - RD/LD Grigori Bashkirov
7(209) - RD Alik Borisov



After seeing some surprise picks starting already with 5th overall pick we were scared the player we wanted weouldn't make it to 29th pick even though he was ranked 41st. As more and more selections were made and with several surprise selections our hearts were pounding but when we finally got to pick we saw that there was a player we liked even more and thought for sure he would be picked so we just ignored him. However seeing Mikhno still on board we selected him. As the second round started we cedided we just had to have that player so we made a trade with La Kings:

To Kings:
2011 2nd round pick (ANA)
2011 5th round pick

To Toronto:
2011 2nd round pick (LA)

We move up 24 spots in 2nd round with this trade. My assistant GM didn't like the trade but i tink it will be worth it eventually.


After the 101st pick we made another trade as we weren't gonna get anyone good with the pick.

To Boston:
2011 4th round pick
2011 5th round pick (MTL)

To Toronto:
2013 4th round pick
2013 6th round pick


- Mikhno is a highly skilled russian defenceman who i expected to be drafted much earlier as he was ranked 22nd by the ISS. He is very young and had he been born just few days later he'd be eligible for 2012 draft. We are thrilled to have him, projects to be a top pairing defenceman
- Parker is a defensive defenceman i wanted most comming into the draft as i expected Mikhno to be drafted top 10 or at the very least top 15. He scouts as a top pairing defensive defenceman. Shouldn't take long to develop and will be signed to an ELC right away so he can train with the team in the offseason.
- Carlsson is a project/gamble pick. Really didn't know who to pick so i went with this Swedish defenceman. He does have some holes in his game, he has poor positioning, bad agility and low determination but with 2 defenceman selected infront of him he'll get plenty of time to work on his flaws. Scouts as a top 4 defenceman. Will continue his career in WHL.
- Houle was ranked 129th however seeing there were quite few players selected early we thought were gonna last until later rounds we took a gamble on this small but strong American winger. Has to work on his positioning and coaches say his work rate is very low however we belive he has tremendeus potential. Scouts as a top line player. Will attend collage this fall.
- Cote is an interesting pick, decided to go with an enforcer who has low potential but we could really use some toughness in our organization and Cote should provide that if he develops as we expect him to. The 6'4 left winger scouts as a 4th line defensive power forward has good leadership qualities and great work rate. Just the type of player you need for the playoffs.

All other players are projects and gambles, none have any serious potential but you never know. Maybe they will at least develop into solid AHL players.

D Del Parker - signed a 3 year ELC

Mats Sundin has been voted Toronto Maple Leafs Palyer of the Year by fans for 5th straight season. He is 40 now so this was very likely his last season in the NHL.


July 1st has passed and free agency has started. Alexei Ponikarovsky refused to re-sign and is now asking for 4M /y as a free agent which we find absurd. We'll scour the market for an upgrade and only if we cant find it we'll contact his agent again.

Early in July we made a big trade with the Edmonton Oilers:

To Edmonton:
- rights to F Ville Leino ****
- rights to F Maurice Jolicouer ***

To Toronto:
- rights to F Rob Schremp ***


With Mats Sundin most likely to retire and Couture a lock for a #1 center spot, Leino would go back to 2nd line after being on 3rd line last season (actually 2nd line but no pp time but his production was of a 3rd line forward) he produced very little and we are worried how he would prform this season. Jolicouer hasn't had a good season so losing him is no big hit. Schremp had a very good season with Oilers wo made it to the Cup final. He has developed very well and will fit perfectly in our 2nd line. He has fantastic playmaking skills which will go a long way developing Kuchin when he is ready as well as Turan who are both scoring forwards.


F Erik Rasmussen - signed a 3 year contract
F Henrik Zetterberg - signed a 3 year contract 2.32M /y
F David Booth - signed a 3 year extension 930k /y
F Jiri Tlusty - signed a 3 year extension
F Alexandr Suglobov - signed a 3 year extension 750k /y
F Rob Schremp - signed a 4 year contract 1.5M /y
F Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen - signed a 3 year ELC
F Logan Couture - signed a 4 year extention 2.66M /y

D Dimitri Vorobiev - signed a 2 year extension
D Bryan McCabe - signed a 2 year extension 3.41M /y
D Ryan Wilson - signed a 3 year extension
D Albert Polinin - signed a 2 year extension

G Justin Pogge - signed a 2 year extension


Signed Alain Vigneault as the new conditioning assistant coach.

My original plan for 4th line next year was Battaglia - Tlusty - Booth. Re-signed Battaglia since i wasn't sure if Tlusty would be back and after he did penciled him as a center however his faceoff ability is terrible so we brought back Rasmussen who will now be a 4th line center and Tlusty will play on left side which means Battaglia won't play. Will place him on waivers after training camp and if he isn't claimed send him to AHL.

Signed Zetterberg since Ponikarovsky left via free agency. While he is a left wingers and Ponikarovsky played on right wing this is fixed easily as Dumont is a natural right winger who played left wing so this is easily solved by putting Dumont to his natural position. Also gives Kuchin plenty of time to develop his game.

Wasn't gonna sign Sinkkonen since his junior team was trying to sign him and he wanted to go to juniors but for some reason the deal didn't get done so i signed him ti an ELC and will send him down after camp.

Richard Matvichuk had another good year but his play really regressed in the playoffs and at 38 years of age he just isn't going to be as good as he was just 2 seasons ago, so we placed him on block and shortly afterwards made this trade:

To Blue Jackets:
-D Richard Matvichuk ****

To Toronto:
2012 2nd round pick

I could have gotten maybe even a first round pick from them but i felt this was fair for both teams. Ryan Wilson is no longer elgible to play in AHL without clearing waivers and will likely get a good chance to prove himself as a top 4 defenceman.

Quite honestly my drafting has been nothing to write home about, especially the first two drafts were very poor so the value of a 2nd rounder is much lower than it would be had i drafted very well.

Assistant coach Jacques Lemaire has retired.

Scouted a bit looking for a new defensive coach and found a very skilled coach from Lithuania. Could very well one day become one of the best coaches in the world!

Ponikarovsky got his big pay-day, signing a 2 year 10M contract with Red Wings. We'll see how he does without Mats Sundin to pass him the puck.

The offseason is almost over and training camp is right around the corner! We'll found out if Ryan Wilson can play like a top 4 defenceman, how our new top 6 works and which of our goalies will enter the season as a #1.

Re: Maple Leafs Dynasty

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 3:10 pm
by suprvilce
Just before training camp started we re-signed one of our key forwards.

F Dave Scatchard - signed a 2 year extension

Same salary at 3M /y but he is worth it.

As training camp was about to begin in few days we noticed that unlike in recent years we had very little depth in terms of defenceman in AHL

To Stars:
- rights to D Ivan Marcoux ***

To Toronto:
- rights to D Joey Lavin ***
2014 6th round pick

We really needed a depth defenceman in AHL and Marcoux wouldn't be able to help us this year while Lavin could. Lavin was drafted in 07 and has completed all 4 years in college and was gonna paly in AAL-4. Signed him right after the trade. This trade is all about speeding up the process.

D Joey Lavin - sgined a 2 year ELC

We still will try to get at least one more defenceman, maybe claim one off waivers


Preseason games:

Vs Devils: 5-4 (Sinkkonen 3, Turan, Doyle)
@ Carolina: 1-3 (Cote)
Vs Sharks: 13:0 (Grant, Cote, Turan 3, Sinkkonen, Lof, Faith, Martinsson 2, Marvin, Kuchin, Arildsson)
Vs Coyotes: 0:3
Vs Lightning: 2-6 (McCabe, Vanek)
Vs Wild: 6-3 (Couture, Zetterberg, Vanek, Scatchard, McCabe, Booth)


Played only prospects in first 4 games. Came back in first game aftear alredy trailing 0:4 in the first period.
Becker was very good in 2nd preseason game.
Huge win over the Sharks, Vavroch with the shutout while SJ goalies were the definition of terrible.
Backer was spectacular in game vs Coyotes, making 52 saves as the Yotes played mostly with regulars.
The game against the Lightning was the first game we played mostly regulars.


Jochen Becker has been very impressive at camp.



D Grigori Bashkirov - signed a 3 year ELC - transfer June 2012
G Marek Pap - signed a 3 year ELC - transfer June 2012
G Stanislav Vavroch - signed a 6 year extension 2M /y (2-way)
G Jochen Becker - signed a 9 year extension 1.5M /y (2-way)

A cap friendly contracts for Vavroch and Becker. Should take Vavroch right to his last RFA year and Becker few more years after. I trully expect Vavroch to be the new starter maybe even by this time next year, he was great in preseason. Also if i send him down he might get very limited playing time again as a backup to another g prospect, but he can't be assigned to minors yet. Raycroft was horrible in his first preseason game against Lightning so this might have already played out for us.

Dave Scatchard was banned for 2 games so he will miss the opening games of the season.

After training camp ended the following players were returned to their junior teams:


F Milos Tojcik (OHL)
F Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen (QMJHL)
F Thomas Turan (QMJHL)
F Jaroslav Faith (WHL)

D Del Parker (QMJHL)

G Jochen Becker (OHL)

Andrei Kuchin will start the season in the AHL.


NHL season preview has been released:

1. Calgary Flames
2. Colorado Avalanche
3. Florida Panthers
...
10. Toronto Maple Leafs - MVP: Bryan McCabe, Key arrival: Rob Schremp


To Penguins:
- F Bates Battaglia ***

To Toronto:
2012 4th round pick

Decided to move Battaglia since after being sent down to AHL he would take away valuable minutes from Andrei Kuchin. Also we have solid depth on left wing so he wasn't needed.


Top 10 NHL players by position:

Goalies:
- Andrew Raycroft (7th)


And this is it. Surprised Vavroch didn't make the list of top prospects but i'm not worried as i know he is a top prospect. We have turned around our roster quite a bit over the last few years but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Don't think Raycroft will last much longer in Toronto though, could be gone as soon as this season if Vavroch or Wiikman emerge. Will likely carry 3 goalies at start and will make a decision on who to keep as soon as possible.


This is our lineup for this season:

Zetterberg - Couture - Dumont
Vanek - Schremp - Suglobov
Hagman - Scatchard - Nilson
Tlusty - Rasmussen - Booth

Berard - McCabe
Gleason - Wilson
Schultz - Semenov

Raycroft
Wiikman


Just before the 1st game of the season decided to send Vavroch to WHL even if he sits on the bench for most of the season i really don't want to rush him, its just not worth the risk. I'd rather wait a season or two and have him come along slowly but better.

G Stanislav Vavrosh (WHL)

Wilson and Schultz might switch spots from time to time to see how they respond and play in different situations. Also with Wilson a huge question mark as a top 4 defenceman i will keep an eye out for possible trade targets should he struggle.


Maple Leafs top 12 prospects:

1. Rustam Mikhno D (Rus)
2. Stanislav Vavroch G (WHL)
3. Jochen Becker G (OHL)
4. Todd Houle F (NCAA)
5. Thomas Turan F (QMJHL)
6. Del Parker D (QMJHL)
7. Broc Irwin F (NCAA)
8. Tobias Carlsson D (WHL)
9. Jake Canzanello D (NCAA)
10. Andrei Kuchin F (AHL)
11. Alex Grant D (AHL)
12. Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen F (QMJHL)

Couture, Wiikman and Vorobiev graduated.


Our prospect pool has improved sigificantly over the last few years.

- Mikhno should become a top pairing defenceman
- Vavroch, who i feel should be our top prospect, will be a starting goalie very soon
- Becker had great camp and is also looking like he'll be in NHL very soon, starter potential
- Houle was a gamble pick with great potential, scouts as a 1st line winger, however started poorly in NCAA with only 1 point in 6 games
- Turan is a slick goal scoring forward who should be a top 6 forward for us, has 1st line potential
- Parker is a fantastic defenceman who has top pairing potential. I belive he will be top 4 on our team, however has started poorly in his Q season
- Irwin scouts as a 2nd line forward and has played well this season in NCAA, but is still few year away.
- Carlsson scouts as a top 4 defenceman and scouts really liked him at draft, i'm not so sure myself, has some holes in his games. We'll see how he develops
- Canzanello also has some big holes in his games, our assistant GM really liked him though, maybe he'll pan out. 5-6 defenceman
- Kuchin has dropped quite a bit. Played poorly in preseason only scoring 1 goal however has played very well in AHL. Scouts as a 1st line winger
- after 2 poor seasons in AHL Alex Grant seems to finally be taking that next step. Still scouts as a top pairing defenceman but will be 23 in few months and with plenty of defenceman prospects in our system he might find himself as the odd-man out if he can't keep this up
- Sinkkonen scouts as a 2nd line winger. He is having a good year in Q and after that will spend few seasons in AHL. Hopefully he pans out


The seaason has started but our defence seems to be getting exposed very often. Not surprising however as we have only one true top pairing defenceman (McCabe) and one true 2nd pairing defenceman (Gleason). If things don't settle down we'll try to make an upgrade before our season heads south.

Finished October with a 7-4 record. PK has been terrible but after putting Zeeterberg on 1st unit in place of Nilson (Hagman moves to 2nd now) we've seen improvement in the last 2 games.
Goaltending has also been below standarts. The reason for that is that we lack a true shutdown top 4 defenceman. Will try to acquire one by the trade deadline, as i feel it would really help our team. There are some great veteran potential targets like Robyn Regehr, Scott Hannan and Kyle McLaren but teams are asking alot in return for them, especially since they are all impending UFAs. If we don't improve we'll bite the bullet and make a trade.

G David LeNeveu - signed a 1 year contract (2-way)

Our goaltending depth in the pros was very weak, only Pogge in the AHL so we added some depth there just for the year until Vavroch and Becker join the team next season.

Placed LeNeveu on waivers in order to send him down but was claimed by the Anaheim Ducks. So we had to find a new one.

G Dale Leroux - signed a 1 year contract, 2-way

D Tim Gleason - signed a 2 year extension

Same salary, 4.030M /y. While this season he hasn't been as good as last year we really don't have any other options at the moment. Produces well offensively though.

Jiri Tlusty is having a really good year on the 4th line, scoring 10 points in 26 games so far this season.

After a loss to the Nashville Predators and another poor game by Ryan Wilson we came to a conclusion that he just wasn't working well for this team. He was playing on 2nd pari with Tim Gleason and since they are both offensive defenceman they don't complement each other very well. We need a skilled stay-at-home defenceman on 2nd pair and with the following trade we got one and i feel really improved our defensive core.

To Carolina:
- D Rayn Wilson ***
- rights to F Calle Arildsson ***

To Toronto:
- D Brendan Witt ****


Wilson started the season very good but has cooled off recently. Arildsson is having another solid year in the WHL but wasn't in future plans. Witt is 36 and in final year of his contract so we'll decide if we re-sign him or not when the season ends.

Ryan Wilson with Maple Leafs this season: 31GP...2G...12A...14P... +5...34PIM... 7.74avr

Decided to fire assistant coach Randy Ladouceur. With the signing of Vigneault as the new conditioning coach he just wasn't needed anymore.

Brendan Witt had a great 1st game with the Maple Leafs, scoring 1G 1A in a 6:4 win in Chicago. The reason for such a high scoring game was Raycroft who was horrible in the game.

Suglobov was injured and will be out for several days so Kuchin will take his place on 2nd line. Will switch wings with Vanek though.

Kuchin had a great 1st NHL game, scoring 1G 1G and being a 2nd star in a 5-1 win over Montreal. Looks like he will be a reagular for us next year, he is having a great season with the Marlies.

Witt has been great so far, scoring 6 points in his first 3 games with Maple Leafs, all 3 games were wins.

Vavroch is yet again this season a backup for his team in WHL even though he is probably the top goaltending prospect in the world and the best goaltener in the wold not playing in the NHL. Very poor asset managment by his team.

Witt again with a spectacular game as Leafs shut out Lightning 5:0 at home. Raycroft with the shutout.

After 41 games Toronto Maple Leafs sit 1st in the league with a 28-13 record and 56 points, 2 more than 2nd place Devils and 3 more than 3rd place Blue Jackets, however those two teams have several games in hand on Toronto so i's far from over. The 2nd line of Vanek - Schremp - Suglobov is having a fantastic year, they are close to outscoring 1st line however Dumont is having a cereer year on the 1st line.

Schremp is having a breakout year and Suglobov is playing having a career year as well.

Logan Couture is just over PPG on the first line but lets hope he can take his game up a notch. He is also taking a lot of penalties.

We are 21st in the league in PK so this is definitely an area we need to improve.

The Toronto Marlies are 2nd best team in the AHL.

F Marcus Nilson - signed a 2 year extension
D Alexei Semenov - signed a 2 year extension

They both got small raise.

In the 2nd half of the season Maple Leafs have played very well, our GAA has improved greatly after Witt trade however goaltending, while better than in the first half, just isn't where we would like it to be. We made some calls and made a blockbuster trade early in February:

To Atlanta:
- G Andrew Raycroft ****
- F Brett MacLean ***

To Toronto:
- Hannu Toivonen ****


Hannu Toivonen was actually a backup for Trashers, their starter is still Lehronen. He as 1 more year left on his contact after this season (just like Raycroft ) at around 3.7M /y while Raycroft has about 2.3M /y. Raycroft was kind of bad last year in the playoffs and early into this season also while he played good he wasn't anything special. He is also a goaltender who does better when he faces more shots while our scouts belive Toivonen is very good when he faces less shots which is what normally happens in our games. Hopefully this works out, it is kind of a gamble though. Trahers get a solid backup that has lower cap hit.

Andrew Raycroft stats with Maple Leafs this season:

42GP.... 31W.... 9L.... 0OL.... 2.83GAA.... 0.897sv%.... 1SO

Just an interesting side note, Czech defenceman Petr Pospisil, who we traded to Sabres back in 07, has played for Buffalo this season after spending previous 4 seasoins in Czech-1 league.

Toivonen hasn't had the impact i had hoped for at start but played better in the last game, getting a shutout. Hopefully he continues like this.

Raycroft and Toivonen faced each other for the first time since the trade in Atlanta. Maple Leafs won 3-1 with Hoivonen being a 2nd star of the game, while Scatchard was 1st star. He should win Selke Trophy again this year.

The game of odds: #1 team loses to #30 team in the league. Red Wings win 6:4 in Detroit as Toivonen had a poor game.

D Brendan Witt - signed a 1 year extension

Will be 38 when contract ends but i could really use him for next year.

We qualified for playoffs on March 10th as we are leading the league.

As the season is only 2 weeks away from ending, Maple Leafs have been very inconsitent lately, W-L-W-L-W-L, can't seem to find that middle ground, going from one extreme (great game) to another (bad one). Can't win like this in the playoffs. Allowing 5 goals in 3rd period in a 4:6 loss to Sabres isn't good news either. Lets hope for the best.

F Josh Jensen - signed a 2 year extension
F Chris Doyle - signed a 2 year extension
F Jean-Pierre Dumont - signed a 2 year extension
F Niklas Hagman - signed a 2 year extension

Same salary for Dumont as before, 2.8M /y has played well so he could stay on 1st line next year, we'll see how other wingers preform in playoffs.
Hagman gets small raise but still under 1M. Very good 3rd line player for us.

Henrik Zetterberg was injured for about 2 weeks and Andrei Kuchin stepped in and did very well. Now has 12 points in 9 games but will be sent down as Zetterberg is ready to play.

Finished the season on a 3 game losing streak and a 4-5-1 record in the last 10 games. Not good heading into the playoffs. Toivonen was very good for us bit allowed 12 goals in the last 3 games he played, which is not good news.

Maple Leafs won the President's Trophy for the 2nd time in 3 years. We finished with a 55-25-2 record and 112 points.

In the AHL Toronto Marlies finished 2nd overall again this year.


Standings:

Code: Select all

Eastern Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   C Maple Leafs             82     55     25     25     25     0.683   357  244  112  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlRangers                 82     50     23     23     23     0.665   266  219  109  
3rd   PlPanthers                82     49     30     30     30     0.616   300  245  101  
4th   PlDevils                  82     49     27     27     27     0.634   276  226  104  
5th   PlThrashers               82     47     31     31     31     0.598   278  254  98   
6th   PlFlyers                  82     45     32     32     32     0.579   283  275  95   
7th   PlSabres                  82     45     32     32     32     0.579   281  268  95   
8th   PlCapitals                82     43     31     31     31     0.573   271  256  94   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Penguins                82     40     33     33     33     0.543   252  257  89   
10th    Senators                82     38     37     37     37     0.506   251  292  83   
11th    Carolina                82     37     40     40     40     0.482   266  297  79   
12th    Bruins                  82     35     40     40     40     0.470   287  300  77   
13th    Canadiens               82     33     45     45     45     0.427   240  308  70   
14th    Lightning               82     31     44     44     44     0.421   254  305  69   
15th    Islanders               82     30     44     44     44     0.415   217  301  68   


Western Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   PlWild                    82     54     25     25     25     0.677   267  213  111  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlNashville               82     46     22     22     22     0.646   281  250  106  
3rd   PlSharks                  82     43     28     28     28     0.591   303  261  97   
4th   PlCanucks                 82     51     24     24     24     0.665   275  246  109  
5th   PlColorado                82     46     27     27     27     0.616   301  263  101  
6th   PlBlue Jackets            82     45     31     31     31     0.585   266  241  96   
7th   PlOilers                  82     39     34     34     34     0.530   287  277  87   
8th   PlStars                   82     38     33     33     33     0.530   260  295  87   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Blackhawks              82     38     38     38     38     0.500   283  297  82   
10th    Flames                  82     36     36     36     36     0.500   282  297  82   
11th    Coyotes                 82     36     42     42     42     0.463   276  312  76   
12th    Blues                   82     33     39     39     39     0.463   255  294  76   
13th    Ducks                   82     34     43     43     43     0.445   261  316  73   
14th    Red Wings               82     33     44     44     44     0.433   263  292  71   
15th    Kings                   82     31     42     42     42     0.433   258  296  71
Stats:

Code: Select all

================================================================================================
 2011-12 Regular Season Stats
================================================================================================

No   Name                     GP  G   A   P   +--  PIM  SOG  Sh    Av R 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
33   Toivonen, Hannu          24  0   0   0   0    0    0    -     8.00 
20   Wiikman, Miika           19  0   0   0   0    0    0    -     7.47 
3    Berard, Bryan            82  7   32  39  42   30   190  3.7   8.24 
7    Schultz, Jeff            82  3   12  15  35   26   47   6.4   7.23 
25   Vorobiev, Dmitri         5   1   1   2   1    2    13   7.7   7.60 
19   Witt, Brendan            50  4   17  21  11   84   71   5.6   8.12 
4    Gleason, Tim             82  10  22  32  4    48   204  4.9   7.83 
24   McCabe, Bryan            78  20  42  62  39   89   259  7.7   8.19 
21   Semenov, Alexei          82  1   15  16  33   102  59   1.7   7.84 
12   Booth, David             76  16  14  30  6    75   95   16.8  7.25 
43   Hagman, Niklas           82  21  29  50  34   32   133  15.8  7.54 
17   Nilson, Marcus           82  23  30  53  33   44   101  22.8  7.30 
9    Tlusty, Jiri             82  9   15  24  10   51   77   11.7  6.93 
45   Vanek, Thomas            82  38  46  84  22   42   314  12.1  7.90 
40   Zetterberg, Henrik       77  34  49  83  16   26   208  16.3  7.55 
89   Couture, Logan           82  35  66  101 13   153  279  12.5  8.41 
10   Rasmussen, Erik          82  9   15  24  8    72   69   13.0  6.79 
38   Scatchard, Dave          82  32  46  78  26   96   231  13.9  8.86 
11   Schremp, Rob             82  25  64  89  25   58   304  8.2   8.51 
71   Dumont, Jean-Pierre      78  29  47  76  28   59   263  11.0  7.90 
22   Suglobov, Alexander      78  33  39  72  20   73   359  9.2   7.65
Hannu Toivonen - 33GP - 19W - 10L - 3OL - 2.70GAA - 0.903sv% - 1SO
Miika Wiikman - 19GP - 9W - 8L - 3.27GAA - 0.880sv% - 1SO



Our lineup for the playoffs:


Zetterberg - Couture - Dumont
Vanek - Schremp - Suglobov
Hagman - Scatchard - Nilson
Tlusty - Rasmussen - Booth

Berard - McCabe
Witt - Gleason
Schultz - Semenov

Toivonen
Wiikman



Eastern Conference Quarter Final:
Toronto vs Capitals
Season series: 3-1 Toronto

Played well against Capitals this year, outscoring them 23-11. Should be a fun, high scoring series imo.

Game #1: 5-1 (Nilson, Zetterberg 2, Vanek, Schremp)
Game #2: 4-2 (Scatchard, Hagman, Nilson, McCabe)
Game #3: 3-2 OT (Scatchard, Nilson, Dumont)
Game #4: 4-5 OT (Scatchard, McCabe, Suglobov, Couture)
Game #5: 6-2 (Zetterberg 2, Witt, Couture 2, Suglobov)

Dumont in 2nd OT in game 3 to give us a 3-0 series lead.
Toivonen was very bad in game 4
Witt scores the series clincher as we advance to the conference semi final.


Toronto Marlies lost in the first round of AHL playoffs 4-1 to a very strong Hamilton Buldogs team. Despite having 31 points less in regular season the Bulldogs are a much better team, as Canadiens have several of their top prospects playing there.

Eastern Conference Semi Final:
Toronto vs Devils
Season series: 4-0 Devils

That's right, no mistake. They outscored me 13-4 while Brodeur had 2 shutouts. Should be a very hard series.

Game #1: 4-1 (McCabe, Rasmussen, Vanek, Berard)
Game #2: 5-3 (Schremp, Vanek, Suglobov, Gleason, Hagman)
Game #3: 3-5 (Couture, Vanek, Schremp)
Game #4: 0-4
Game #5: 1-6 (Gleason)
Game #6: 6-3 (Gleason, Suglobov, Dumont, Vanek 2, Schremp)
Game #7: 10-3 (Kuchin, Zetterberg 2, Dumont 2, Vanek 4, McCabe)



Toivonen was great in game 1.
Toivonen had a decent game in game 2 but he didn't need to be better as we were much better than Devils and ourshot them 56-22.
Semenov got banned for 2 games and will sit out games #3 and #4. Vorobiev will play instead.
Toivonen with another mediocre game. Hopefully he plays better next game.
Brodeur amazing again, Toivonen with a poor game.
Semenov returns for game 5.
Toivonen was horrible in game 5 so i decided to discipline him.
With season on the line called up Kuchin in place of struggling Tlusty. Hopefully he can spark the team. Toivonen will start in game 6 in NJ even though Wiikman is 6-1 career in elimination games.
Huge win in game 6, but the big news was that Brodeur was injured just a minute into 2nd period and will be out for about a week, and Devils placed him on IR so their backup (Crawford) will play game 7. Could be the break in the series we need.
And the Maple Leafs win the series. Crawford and Aubin were horrible for Devils in net and Vanek scored 4 goals in the win.

F Henri Laajanen - signed a 3 year ELC
F Oliver Kosik - signed a 3 year ELC - transfer June 2012

Eastern Conference Final:
Toronto vs Rangers
Season series: 3-1 Toronto

Was close series though, outscored them only 12-11. The Devils series has me worried as Toivonen hasn't been anything special against Devils and they would have won 100% if not for Brodeur injury.

Game #1: 3-6 (McCabe 2, Couture)
Game #2: 3-2 OT (Schremp, Suglobov, Vanek)
Game #3: 2-4 (Scatchard, McCabe)
Game #4: 2-3 OT (Suglobov, Dumont)
Game #5: 2-3 (Schremp, Scatchard)


In game 1 Toivonen had another horrible game, Wiikman wasn't much better either when he replaced him. Disciplined Toivonen again, he agreed and said he will try to motivate himself for the next game.
Our 2nd line scored all 3 goals to give us a huge win in game 2.
With Maple Leafs facing elimination we'll play Wiikman in game 5. Toivonen hasn't played well after the 1st series against Capitals. Anything that can spark a comeback, as Lundqvist is in god mode these playoffs and only a goalie as hot as him can stop the Rangers.
Our season comes to an end. Wiikman was solid in net but Lundqvist was just on another level. Our defense also could have done a better job. It could be another busy offseason in Toronto.


In final, Rangers and Oilers clashed but the Rangers won their 6th Stanley Cup. Congrats to them!



Yearly awards:

NHL:
Frank J. Selke Trophy Dave Scatchard, Niklas Hagman (2rd), Marcus Nilson (3rd)
Jack Adams Award: Paul Maurice (2nd)
James Norris Memorial Trophy: Bryan McCabe

*former Leafs player Ryan Wilson was nominated for Calder Trophy and was 3rd in voting.
*our entire 3rd line is nominated for Selke!


AHL:
Red Garrett Memorial Trophy: Andrei Kuchin


OHL:
Red Tilson Trophy: Jochen Becker
Goaltender of the Year: Jochen Becker
Star Player Award: Jochen Becker


WHL:
Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy: Jaroslav Faith
Plus-Minus Award: Jaroslav Faith
Bob Clarke Trophy: Jaroslav Faith


QMJHL:
Offensive Player of Year: Thomas Turan, Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen (2nd)
Jean Beliveau Trophy: Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen
Michel Bergeron Trophy: Thomas Turan, Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen (2nd)


Despite having a very good regular season, Henrik Zetterberg disappointed in the playoffs and will most likely be moved in the offseason in order to make room for Andrei Kuchin, who had a great year in AHL and is ready for top 6 spot in NHL, having scored 53 goals and 54 assists for 107 points in 72 games with the Marlies.


Maple Leafs 2012 NHL Draft:

1(29) - RD/LD Jared Gaudet
1(30) - C/RD Alexei Zavodovski
2(50) - LD Martin Suchanek
3(89) - G Mikko Koivisto
4(98) - LW/C/RW Ricky Eaves
4(119) - LW Ken Naslund
5(149) - C Ville-Valtteri Hakala
6(179) - LD Ulf Lundkvist
7(209) - LW/RW Robert Mikula



Made another trade in this draft, with the Rangers:

To Rangers:
2012 2nd round pick
2012 4th round pick (Penguins)

To Maple Leafs
2012 1st round pick.

Just like last year, really wanted one prospect but when i got to draft didn't there was this prospect who i was certain would go top 5 or top 10 but didn't and was shocked to see him still availible.


- Jared Gauted is an American defenceman who isn't a very good skater and has poor balance but scouts as a top pairing defenceman. Was ranked 17th overall but we are thrilled to have him, could be one of the best players out of this draft
- Zavodovski was the player we have scouted even before last years draft and we thought now way was he gonna last that long. The 2-way Russian center has fantastic stickhandling abilites and limitless potential offensivly. Could challenge Logan Couture for a #1 center spot down the road if he develops as we expect him to. He just oozes skill. Ranked 25th overall we expected him to be a top 10 or 15 pick but are thrilled to get him at 30.
- Suchanek was noticed by our scouts early in the season. The Czech defenceman scouts as a 3-4 defenceman and has very good offensive skills. He wasn't even ranked in the pre-season and mid-season ISS rankings but jumped right to 56 ranking in their final rankings. Was hoping to get him in later rounds but with such and immensive jump in rankigs we just couldn't take the risk of him dropping to our 3rd round
- Koivisto is a Finnish goalie that played last season in WHL as a backup. While he scouts as a backup goalie there just weren't many good options on the table so we took a goalie who should at least be a solid AHL goaltender in a couple of years and hopefully a decent 3rd string option for the Maple Leafs
- Eaves is a small winger playing in collage, scouts as a 4th line player but with draft being very shallow after the first round or two was the best option. Hopefully he develops well and at least turns into a soldi AHL player.
- Naslund is a Swedish winger who scouts a sa 3rd line player. Will attempt to sign him and have him play next few years in OHL.
- Hakala is another gamble pick. At 5'9 he is the same height as Eaves. Scouts as a 4th line player, we'll attempt to sign him too and have him play next few years in QMJHL. Hopefully him and Naslund at least turn into solid AHL players and potential depth players for Leafs.
- Lundkvist has limited potential and at this time in draft there were really not better options. Few more seasons in Sweden and hopefully he turns into a solid AHL player.
- Mikula is a Slovakian winger who has more holes in his game than Swiss cheese but still scouts as a 3rd line player. Not expecting anything from him really, maybe he surprises and turins into an AHL player at least.


F Ville-Valtteri Hakala - signed a 3 year ELC
D Martin Suchanek - signed a 3 year ELC

They will both play in juniors next season. Tried to sign Naslund but he can't come over this year.


Logan Couture has been voted Toronto Maple Leafs Player of the Year by fans.

Alex Grant hasn't developed as well as we had hoped, and is now asking for more than 1M /y for his new contract as a RFA, which is unacceptable especially sinc he was most likely gonna play in the AHL again. W attempt to move his rights this summer.

F Aaron Marvin - signed a 2 year extension (2-way)
D Philip Martinsson - signed a 3 year extenison (2-way)
G Miika Wiikman - signed a 1 year extenision, 780k /y

While Martinsson hasn't developed as well as we had hoped, he still had a solid season in AHL and should be a solid AHL player for us and a capable call-up option.

Wiikman only signed for 1 year as both Becker and Vavroch will be playing in AHL next season and in NHL too and one of them should be more than ready to be the backup in 1 year, i even expect Vavroch to win the starter job over Toivonen by the seaons end.

To Edmonton:
- F Henrik Zetterberg ****

To Toronto:
2013 1st round pick

With the emergence of Andrei Kuchin as a top 6 forward next season one of our left wingers was expendable. Both Zetterberg and Vanek had good years but Zetterberg played poorly in the playoffs so he will be traded. After losing LW Ilya Kovalchuk to free agency the Oilers really need a top line left winger and Zetterberg fits very well there as their left side is very weak.

Few days later Kovalchuk decided to sign with Oilers after testing free agency so their team is much stronger now.


F Radmir Mirionov - signed a 3 year ELC, transfer in June 2013
D Robyn Regehr - signed a 4 year contract, 3.670M /y

Mironov was a former 3rd round pick in 2010 by the Lightning who was a free agent. The Toronto Marlies really lack skill up front so Mironov should be a good fit for our farm team, but he will spend another season in Russia before comes over.

We really needed to upgrade our defense and with Mikhno, Gaudet, Suchanek and Carlsson still few years away we signed Regehr. This signing should really make us much better defensivly especailly with youngster like Vavroch hoping to make an impact. However now we have too many defenceman and will have to move one of Berard or Schultz.

Decided to keep Schultz as Berard as he is impending UFA and not very strong defensivly. Made a big trade with Nashville:

To Nashville:
- D Bryan Berard ****
- rights to D Alex Grant ***

To Toronto:
2013 1st round pick
2014 2nd rounc pick

Alex Grant gets a fresh start elsewhere while we get few draft picks in the next 2 drafts. Will look to contunue with solid drafting after basicly wasting 3 of the first 4 1st rounders.

This trade also gives us more breathing room in terms of salary cap and contract limit as i was at and over contract limit few times in the last 2 weeks and had to waive and release some players.

The offseasion is about to end and the training camp is just around the corner. We'll see how Regehr and Kuchin will preform and if Vavroch can win the starters job or if he needs seasoning in the AHL. Up next!

Re: Maple Leafs Dynasty

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:26 am
by suprvilce
The Training camp is about to begin. Invited all of our prospects except the ones who are committed to collage.
We have quite a few goalies under contract so we might end up waiving and releasing one (if not claimed) by the end of camp to make room for all. We'll see how it works out.

So far in training camp Andrei Kuchin has impressed and is a lock for a spot in the top 6. Hopefully he plays well in pre-season games as well.


Pre-season games:

Vs Rangers: 7-3 (Faith, Turan, Zavodovski 3, Suchanek, Naslund)
@ Blues: 4-3 (Carlsson, Sinkkonen, Turan, Zavodovski)
@ Trashers: 4-2 (Turan, Hakola, Zavodovski, Faith)
@ Devils: 2-4 (Turan, Martinsson)
Vs Blackhawks: 4-0 (Dumont 2, Nilson, Vanek)
@ Bruins: 5-3 (Schremp 2, Couture, Dumont 2)


Naslund and Zavodovski had very good games in game 1.
Zavodvski and Sinkkonen both had great games in St. Louis. Vavroch has played very well despite allowing 6 goals but our mostly prospect lineup has been outshot for two straight games. Will play
Becker had a very good game in Atlanta, stopping 25 shots.
Despite losing Becker had another very good game, stopping 40 shots in NJ. Suchanek also played very well in the last 2 games, as well as Turan, who scored in all 4 pre-season games so far.
The game against Blackhawks was the first game we played with mostly our regular lineup, though decided to give Marek Pap a start to see how he does, and he responded with a shutout.
Toivonen had a good gaime against Bruins despite allowing 3 goals.


F Billy Cote - signed a 3 year ELC
F Ken Naslund - signed a 3 year ELC, transfer April 2013
D Rustam Mikhno - signed a 3 year ELC, transfer June 2013

Strong play of Ken Naslund and Billy Cote in pre-season games has earned them a contract.



NHL season preview has been released:

1. Toronto Maple Leafs......MVP: Thomas Vanek,.........Key arrival: Robyn Regehr


We were ranked as the most likely to win the Stanley Cup for the first time. Should be a good season but.

At the end of training camp the following players were sent to back to their junior teams:

F Henri Laajanen (QMJHL)
F Ville-Valtteri Hakala (QMJHL)
D Martin Suchanek (OHL)
D Del Parker (QMJHL)

F Thomas Turan was assigned to Toronto Marlies even though he was very good in preseason, should he preform well with the Marlies he could replace Suglobov by the end of the season as a 2nd line RW.

Cody McCormick, who was very good player for Toronto Marlies in the last 6 seaasons, one of their veterans and a go-to guy, was claimed off waivers as we tried to send him down. He had a great season with Marlies last year, scoring 90 points along with 41 goals, so it's not surprising teams were interested in him. We wish him all the best, maybe we'll get him back one day.


Before regular seaosn started we made a minor trade.

To Red Wings:
- G Justin Pogge ***

To Toronto:
2015 3rd round pick


With Becker, Vavroch and Pap all starting their pro careers this season this ment Pogge was expendable. He had some very good seasons with Marlies. We wish him all the best in Detroit. They to need a backup goalie and a 3rd string goalie, their backup is only 20 and this could be his realy chance to prove himself as a quality goaltender.


Top 10 NHL players by position:

Centers:
- Rob Schremp (9th)

Top Prospects:
- F Andrei Kuchin (1st)
- G Jochen Becker (3rd)
- F Thomas Turan (4th)


Nice to see few of our prospects make the list. I am really surprised the hocke world hasn't noticed Vavroch yet but i'm sure he will start turning heads eventually.


Our lineup for this season:

Kuchin - Couture - Dumont
Vanek - Schremp - Suglobov
Hagman - Scatchard - Nilson
Tlusty - Rasmussen - Booth

Regehr - McCabe
Witt - Gleason
Schultz - Semenov
Vorobiev

Toivonen
Wiikman
Vavroch


Vavroch will start the season in AHL and then will call him up, how quick depending on preformance of our top 2 goalies, and give him few games to see if he's ready to be our #1 goalie.


Now it's time to look at our top 12 prospects:


1. Stanislav Vavroch G (AHL)
2. Jared Gaudet D (NCAA)
3. Aleksei Zavodovski F (Rus)
4. Todd Houle F (NCAA)
5. Rustam Mikhno D (Rus)
6. Thomas Turan F (AHL)
7. Martin Suchanek D (OHL)
8. Jochen Becker G (AHL)
9. Andrei Kuchin F (Maple Leafs)
10. Tobias Carlsson D (WHL)
11. Del Parker D (QMJHL)
12. Broc Irwin F (NCAA)


- Vavroch is a top goalie prospect in the world. In NHL rankings Becker was ranked 3rd and Vavroch isn't ranked, while in our rankings Vavroch is 7 spots ahead of Becker which shows how the league knows little about him and our prospects in general.
- Gaudet is a highly skilled offensive defenceman but has average skating. He will spend few more years in NCAA working on that. Scouts as a top pairing defenceman, he has tremendeous potential. Could become top 10 defenceman in the world one day.
- Zavodavski is a skilled Russian center. Will spend the year in Russia and depending on how he preforms we'll offer him a contract or leave him for 1 more year. He had spectacular camp and should be a top centerman in the league in a couple of years. Could very well end up better than Couture and soon.
- Houle is a highly highly skilled American winger. He developed very well in his 1st NCAA season even though he didn't have a spectacular season he still scored 26 points in 50 games. Scouts as a top line winger, depending on his preformance this season we'll either leave him for 1 more year or sign him.
- Mikhno had a great year in Russia and will most likely make the team out of camp next season. He didn't have a very good preseason but hopefully we expect him to do much better next year. Wouldn't be against it though if he spends a year in the AHL as he is stil very young.
- Turan is a highly skilled Slovakian winger who is starting the season in the AHL. Both Dumont and Suglobov have 1 more year on their contracts after this season but with Turan almost ready he will likely force us in trading one of our top 6 wingers to make room for him. All depends on how well he does with the Marlies this season.
- Suchanek scouts as a top pairing offensive defenceman. Will spend few seasons in OHL and likely a year at least in AHL, but he has high potential.
- Becker is a top notch goaltending prospect and we expect him to be in the NHL by this time next season. He has preformed very well everywhere he has played, WJC, OHL, NHL preseason and World Cup, where he was the top goaltender in the turnamend and backstopped Germany to a top spot in the European group before losing 3:0 in the quarter final against the eventual runner up Sweden. We have no doubt he could be our starter this year alredy but with Toivonen still under contract for this season he'll spend a year in the AHL.
- Kuchin will play on our 1st line this season (maybe 2nd depending how chemestry develops). A skilled winger with sick hands and lightning speed.
- Carlsson scouts as a 2nd pairing defenceman and has very good potential. Has started well in his 2nd season in the OHL and should turn into a solid pro but most likely not with this team. Could end up as trade bait, maybe at the draft.
- Parker had a rough 2nd seaosn in the Q but has started much better this year. Scouts as a top pairing defensive defenceman, he is one of my favorite prospects and could be a regular as soon as next year. Very excited to see him develop. Should be ranked higher imo.
- Irwin scouts as a 1st line player but i do not belive he can reach that, drafted him as i felt he could turn into a good depth player and a very good AHL player. Has potential to be a solid bottom 6 forward. I would personally put Cote here instead as a 12th best prosect, limited upside but very intriguing prospect, future 4th line enforcer.



A much deeper prospect pool than when i first took over. We do need to add some size and grit to our lineup as we seem to have a soft team. We need to draft a power forward prospect, hopefully there are some left by the time we pick in the next draft.

Marek Pap was loaned to Hamilton Bulldogs as he as we can't send him to ECHL and he wasn't gonan see any playing time with Marlies while both Vavroch and Becker are there.

Maple Leafs started the season very good, winning 6 straight so far. 2nd line has been amazing again this year, while on first line only Kuchin is close to 2ppg, with 11 points in first 6 games, while both Couture and Dumont each have only 6 points in 6 games. On 2nd line Vanek has 13pts, Schremp 11pts and Suglobov 14 pints, all in first 6 games. Hopefully Couture and Dumont wake up, not that they have been bad but i hope they produce a bit better. Also with Turan looking for a rooster spot Dumont could find himself in a trade very soon.

7 games in (all wins), despite being 3rd in GAA and 7th in PK our goaltending is still under 0.900%, so we called up Vavroch. Hopefully he can play well, but he seems to be extremely, now even in AHL despite being the better prosect Becker his playing infront of him so he is again a backup.

After 3 games decided to give Vavroch some time in the AHL and called up Becker instead, who has been playing fantasticly.

Becker was very good in his first 2 NHL games and we seem to have found a new starting goalie. Wi'll let this play out for another month or so before i make any trades though.

Andrei Kuchin (NHL) and Thomas Turan (AHL) won rookie of the month of October award.

Around the league both Alex Grand and Bryan Berard are having good seasons with Nashville Predators. Grant finally made the team and is palying very well for Predators.

After a strong start, Becker hasn't played as well and despite having a 6-1 record will be sent down and we'll call up Vavroch who's also been fantastic in AHL to give him a 2nd try. Leafs have a 19-2-2 record so far and are the best team in the league. The best goaltender for us so far has been Wiikman, but he has also played onl 4 games. So it will most likely be Toivonen who will be shipped out. Vancouver Canucks are lacking a #1 goalie and we'll see if we can make a deal here.

After being loaned to Hamilton Bulldogs, Pap was assigned to ECHL and on ECHL saver of the month, ECHL player of the month and ECHL rookie of the month awards for for November.

The Toronto Marlies are having a spectacular season, with a 20-0-2 record so far and 10 shutouts so far.

To Vancouver:
- G Hannu Toivonen ****

To Toronto
2014 1st round pick

Toivonen was the odd man out. His preformance in playoffs last year sealed his fate in Toronto but now There was just no spot left for him. Was originally planning to move Wiikman first but with him preforming so well this was the obvious choice. The Canucks had a backup goalie/3rd string goalie who was starting for them and still were 8th in conference so this could really help them. We have 3 first round picks in 2013 already so we asked for one in 2014 and Canucks were even more happy to make the trade. I wish Toivonen all the best, he can now really establish himself as a #1 goaltender in this league.

Sent Vavroch down and called up Becker.

Our PP hasn't been very good this year, we really miss Berard.

Suglobov was banned for 2 games so Turan will take his place. Very excited to see how he does.

After a very strong first 10 or so games, the 2nd line has cooled of. While 1st line is playing better now i hope the 2nd line can get it going again.

Turan preformed well but was sent down for more seasoning. Scored 3 points in 3 games.

Kuchin was injured for 3 weeks so Turan will take his place and play on left wing until Kuchin is ready to return.

After 41 games, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a fantastic 34-4-3 record and 71 points, 16 more than the 2nd place team. Our PK has improved since last year and is at over 88% and 2nd in the league, however PP has been mediocre and is currently at 17% and 13th in the league. Will try to acquire a PP specialist for the playoffs at the deadline however prices are very high.
Also other than Wiikman goaltending has been bellow .900% even though we are 5th best in GAA. I really hope my goaltenders can develop well in the next few years so we can finally find some stability in net.

2010 2nd round pick Jaroslav Faith is having a very good year in the AHL as a rokkie, scoring at over PPG pace.

Made a big trade with the Stars just after the midway mark of the season.

To Stars:
- D Nick Pageau ****
- D Grigori Bashkirov ****

To Toronto:
- F Carver Scott ***

Pageau was having a solid year but he wasn't in future plans despite being ranked surprisingly high in our depth chart. Bashkirov was a 6th round pick in 2011 and was having a solid year in the ECHL but unlikely to be more than an AHL player. Carver Scott is a LW who was picked in the 1st round of the 2011 draft and projects as a 1st line power forward. Just what we need. He is having a very good year in the OHL. He ranks as our 5th best prospect. After the trade both fans and board were very unhappy with the trade but we feel we made a good deal so we just ignored them :)

After the trade our AHL defensive deepth was very poor so we signed few AHL/ECHL quality depth defenceman to ELC contracts, just to fill in the empty roster spots.

Mid January Colorado Avalanche surprised us when they asked about Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen. They offered two draft picks but since we werern't really interested in adding picks we asked for one of their top prospects. Since they didn't want to part with their top prospect, Swedish LW power forward, we made a trade for one of their other top prospects.

To Colorado:
- F Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen *****

To Toronto:
- rights to F Alan Francis *****

Sinkkonen was having a very good year in the AHL, being over PPG as a rookie but wasn't really in our future plans. He scouts as a 1st line player.. Francis was a first round pick in 2011 and scouts as a 1st line 2-way forwrad. He is having a solid year in college and with Hagman and Nilson slowly getting up there in age he could be a good replacement down the road as a defensive forward, even though he'll likely be a top 6 forward. Will leave him in college as long as possible to develop nicely. After the trade he is considered our 3rd best prospect.

Another trade:

To Boston:
- F Mathieu Roy ***

To Toronto:
- F Cody McCormick *

Roy is a veteran and has only played 2 games only this year. I have tried trading him in the last 2 years but no sucssess. While McCormick is also a veteran in AHL he is also a better player who can push another less skilled veteran out of a lineup. This all depends should he clear waivers. If he doesn't i didn't really lose anything as Roy wasn't gonna play anyway. A solid replacemant for Sinkkonen.

Toronto hasn't been as dominant in the 2nd half of the season, lots of games we could have won bit didn't. Currenttly with a 5-5 record in last 10 games and on a 3 game losing streak. Really miss Kuchin.

Disciplined Wiikman for poor preformance after he bombed 2 straight games, and he was unhappy.

After losing in the conference finals 2 straight years we made a blockbuster trade this year and added a piece that we feel will help us claim another championship!

To Wild:
- D Brendan Witt ***
- F Jiri Tlusty ****

To Toronto:
- D Chris Pronger ****

Lots of teams were interested in Pronger and were offering very little like a 3rd round pick. Witt has played very well but Pronger is an upgrade no doubt. Both are impending UFAs. Tlusty still scouts as a 1st line player and if he plays on 1st line he can certanly preform very well. He has played so far on my 4th line and been very good but ever since him going AWOL 2 years back the board wants him gone. After this trade we needed to get a 4th line checker for our club though. Pronger is 38 years old and most likely won't be resigned, but should help us with our quest to win the Stanley Cup.

In the first game after the trade we lost 6-3 to Penguins. Becker had a very poor game and Couture got injured for 2 weeks. Also got news that defensive prospect Del Parker got injured and will be out for 4 months. Not a vey good day.


To Blue Jackets:
2013 6th round pick

To Toronto:
- F Jed Ortmeyer *

Needed a 4th line forward after trading Tlusty. Booth will go on left side and Ortmeyer will play on right side.

Really hope the Pronger trade will work out well for this team, we expect several rookies to make the team next year and the year after that so it could take a feaw years of learning for the youngsters before the team is THE contender again.

Another loss, this time to Senators. Could make another trade for a depth centerman, with the injury to Couture we don't have anyone capable in the AHL to take his place, so Lof is playing with the Leafs at the moment.

Called up Vavroch and sent down Becker for a few games, we'll see how he does.

Few days before Couture returned from injury Schremp got injured as well and now we have serious lack of skill down the middle for the next few days.

Vavroch has played very well, even though his team hasn't. Still playing .500 hockey. Hopefully our team can get healthy soon.

Despite currently sitting only 6th in conference, the Penguins i belive are most likely the best team in the league. They have been playing very well over the last 2 months after a slow start to the season.

Vavroch had another great game as we defeated Bruins 3:1 but Pronger will be out for 10 days.

Stanislav Vavroch recorded his first career shutout in a 3:0 win against Canadiens in Montreal. Also i belive first shutout for any Leafs goalie this season. He was spectacular the next game as well, winning 5-1 against Sabres.

Vavroch won the NHL defensive player fo the month and NHL rookie of the month for February. Played 7 games, winning 5 and recording a shutout.

Just as Pronger returned from injury and we were going to be 100% healthy finally, Rasmussen is injured and will be out for 10 days.

Andrew Raycroft shuts the door as the ex-Leaf leads Trashers to a 3-2 win over Maple Leafs.

Tim Gleason is having a very good year, he is leading all NHL defenceman in scoring from our 2nd pair and 2nd pp unit.

F Aleksei Zavodovski - signed a 3 year ELC, transfer June 2013

Zavodovski is having a solid year in Russia but we could really use a skilled center in AHL. He will likely play next year with the Marlies unless he really impresses.

After two poor games, Vavroch responded well and recorded his 2nd career shutout, in a 8:0 win in Carolina.

4 game losing streak, not a good sign as we are nearing the end of the season.

Antti-Pekka Sinkkonen has played wery well for Colorado, scoring 19 points in 22 games so far as a 20 year old. Nice to see the trade working out well for them.

Snapped the 4 game losing streak with a big 9:0 win over Montreal in the last game of the season. Vavroch with the shutout.

Toronto Maple Leafs win the President's Trophy for the 2nd staright year and 3rd time in 4 the last years. In the AHL Toronto Marlies are the top team for the 3rd time in the last 5 years.
Maple Leafs finished with a 57-21-4 record and 118 points. After a strong 1st half, the 2nd half wasn't very kind to the Leafs but we still held on to the NHL lead.


Standings:

Code: Select all

Eastern Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   C Maple Leafs             82     57     21     21     21     0.720   340  235  118  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlThrashers               82     54     25     25     25     0.677   289  219  111  
3rd   PlRangers                 82     51     27     27     27     0.646   295  241  106  
4th   PlCapitals                82     47     28     28     28     0.616   290  267  101  
5th   PlPenguins                82     48     31     31     31     0.604   308  268  99   
6th   PlSenators                82     44     30     30     30     0.585   298  283  96   
7th   PlCarolina                82     43     33     33     33     0.561   256  256  92   
8th   PlPanthers                82     40     35     35     35     0.530   289  292  87   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Devils                  82     39     37     37     37     0.512   244  261  84   
10th    Flyers                  82     39     37     37     37     0.512   240  235  84   
11th    Bruins                  82     39     40     40     40     0.494   276  289  81   
12th    Lightning               82     36     37     37     37     0.494   248  273  81   
13th    Canadiens               82     36     37     37     37     0.494   274  287  81   
14th    Islanders               82     32     45     45     45     0.421   239  291  69   
15th    Sabres                  82     30     47     47     47     0.396   268  354  65   


Western Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   PlKings                   82     50     24     24     24     0.659   330  262  108  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlFlames                  82     47     25     25     25     0.634   286  230  104  
3rd   PlNashville               82     45     27     27     27     0.610   261  224  100  
4th   PlDucks                   82     46     32     32     32     0.585   295  270  96   
5th   PlWild                    82     43     30     30     30     0.579   262  275  95   
6th   PlCoyotes                 82     41     34     34     34     0.543   283  303  89   
7th   PlSharks                  82     41     34     34     34     0.543   267  276  89   
8th   PlOilers                  82     40     35     35     35     0.530   294  293  87   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Blues                   82     37     34     34     34     0.518   283  300  85   
10th    Blue Jackets            82     40     39     39     39     0.506   254  269  83   
11th    Colorado                82     38     37     37     37     0.506   273  287  83   
12th    Canucks                 82     35     40     40     40     0.470   254  295  77   
13th    Red Wings               82     34     40     40     40     0.463   252  285  76   
14th    Stars                   82     30     50     50     50     0.378   253  303  62   
15th    Blackhawks              82     28     48     48     48     0.378   246  324  62
Stats:

Code: Select all

================================================================================================
 2012-13 Regular Season Stats
================================================================================================

No   Name                     GP  G   A   P   +--  PIM  SOG  ShAv R 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
35   Becker, Jochen           21  0   1   1   0    0    0    -    7.52 
41   Vavroch, Stanislav       30  0   0   0   0    0    0    -    8.13 
20   Wiikman, Miika           24  0   0   0   0    0    0    -    7.92 
28   Regehr, Robyn            75  2   34  36  17   71   134  1.5  7.87 
7    Schultz, Jeff            82  1   17  18  13   47   94   1.1  7.16 
25   Vorobiev, Dmitri         10  0   3   3   5    4    8    0.0  7.30 
4    Gleason, Tim             82  14  39  53  44   38   219  6.4  8.10 
24   McCabe, Bryan            82  12  40  52  14   96   216  5.6  7.89 
2    Pronger, Chris           26  2   11  13  7    22   35   5.7  7.65 
21   Semenov, Alexei          82  2   5   7   15   137  55   3.6  7.49 
12   Booth, David             82  14  6   20  4    42   91   15.4 7.06 
43   Hagman, Niklas           82  18  17  35  24   36   119  15.1 7.06 
32   Kuchin, Andrei           70  39  47  86  27   30   332  11.7 8.67 
17   Nilson, Marcus           74  16  25  41  21   34   86   18.6 7.11 
45   Vanek, Thomas            82  38  48  86  29   49   265  14.3 7.88 
89   Couture, Logan           76  35  51  86  21   118  250  14.0 8.55 
8    Lof, Jonas               9   2   0   2   1    8    9    22.2 6.56 
10   Rasmussen, Erik          77  1   15  16  -2   66   53   1.9  6.77 
38   Scatchard, Dave          82  21  27  48  20   76   139  15.1 8.48 
11   Schremp, Rob             77  37  61  98  27   71   296  12.5 8.66 
71   Dumont, Jean-Pierre      82  44  46  90  21   55   326  13.5 7.94 
18   Ortmeyer, Jed            29  2   6   8   -2   22   15   13.3 6.48 
22   Suglobov, Alexander      79  27  46  73  28   89   325  8.3  7.68 
76   Turan, Thomas            14  1   11  12  -6   10   32   3.1  6.86
Stanislav Vavroch.... 30GP.... 19W.... 9L.... 2OL.... 2.78GAA.... 0.903sv%.... 3SO
Jochen Becker.... 21GP.... 13W.... 7L.... 3.09GAA.... 0.881sv%
Miika Wiikman.... 24GP.... 18W.... 4L.... 2.58GAA.... 0.902sv%


Our lineup for the playoffs:

Kuchin - Couture - Dumont
Vanek - Schremp - Suglobov
Hagmna - Scatchard - Nilson
Booth - Rasmussen - Ortmeyer

Regehr - McCabe
Pronger - Gleason
Schultz - Semenov
Varlamov

Vavroch
Wiikman


All eyes will be on Vavroch as he has a tough job ahaed of him, trying to lead the team to the Stanley Cup.



Eastern Conference Quarter Final:
Toronto vs Panthers
Season series: 3-1 Toronto

They have a good team but kinda lack some depth. Will be a hard series though, Panthers can be very unpredictable.

Game #1: 5-6 OT (Vanek 2, Kuchin, Dumont, Schremp)
Game #2: 5-4 (Dumont, Nilson, Couture, Kuchin, Vanek)
Game #3: 2-4 (Dumont, Suglbobov)
Game #4: 1-4 (Schremp)
Game #5: 4-2 (Booth, McCab, Couture 2)
Game #6: 3-1 (Dumont 2, McCabe)
Game #7: 3-5 (Booth, Dumont 2)


Vavroch had a poor game, i rearlly hope he can turn it around, don't want to play Wiikman right away.
Vavroch had another poor, game really has me worried. Luckily this time around Esche wasn't much better and we were able to outscore them.
3rd straight poor game for Vavroch. Decided to discipline him (wasn't happy), don't want to face elimination going home for game 5. Really hope he plays well, this is his last chance.
Vavroch wasn't much better so his time is out. Wiikman will start game 5.
Wiikman wasn't any better than Vavroch in game 4 but our team played great and outshot Panthers 46 to 14. Esche had a great game but they still lost.
Wiikman was very good in game as we again outshot Panthers by almost 30 shots. Wiikman is now somethinglike 8-1 in elimination games i belive, give or take a win/loss.

And our season comes to a shocking end after a 1st round loss to the Florida Panthers. Wiikman had an average game while Esche was spectacular, like in most games.
There could be some changes in the offseason. What we really lack, despite being 1st in the league in GF/G, is a top notch forward who can take the team on his back, like Sundin could. Zavodovski does have that potential but is at least a few years away from making that kind of an impact. Couture is a good #1 center and was good in the playoffs this year but he is more of a complementary forward. Also none of our forwards was in top 20 in scoring, a bad sign.

In AHL Toronto Marlies advance to round 2 of the playoffs after sweeping the Syracause Crunch in the first round. So at least some good news.

After the game 7 loss both Kuchin and Vavroch were assigned to Toronto Marlies to help with their Calder Cup quest.

Ken Naslund also joines the Marlies after comming from Sweden.

Chris Pronger and Bryan McCabe most likely will not be re-signed.

F Miles Stephens - signed a 3 year ELC
D Alik Borisov - signed a 3 year ELC
D Tobias Carlsson - signed a 3 year ELC

F Jed Ortmeyer - signed a 2 year extension
F Thomas Vanek - signed a 2 year extension (3M /y)
G Miika Wiikman - signed a 1 year extension

We'll see how long Vanek stay though, should be an interesting offseason.

Toronto Marlies swept the Rochester Americans in the 2nd round of the AHL playoffs. A good run, we have added few players to the Marlies though in the last 2 weeks.

A 3rd straight sweep for the Marlies, defeating Ohama Ak-Sar-Ben Knights in the conference finals.


Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1.

Toronto Marlies won the Calder Cup after defeating the Springfield Falcons 4-3. Vavroch played in the last game of the series after beinh sctarched for the last 4 (won first two games but wasn't anything special) and got the shutout and a 1st star. A good piece of news after melting down in the NHL playoffs.

Yearly awards:

NHL:
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy: Dave Scatchard (3rd)
Frank J. Selke Trophy Dave Scatchard, Niklas Hagman (2rd), Marcus Nilson (3rd)
Jack Adams Award: Paul Maurice (3rd)
James Norris Memorial Trophy: Tim Gleason (2nd)
NHL Plus-Minus Award: Tim Gleason (2nd)
NHL Rookie All-Star Team: Stanislav Vavroch, Andrei Kuchin

*not Vavroch or Kuchin were even nominated for Calder trophy, probably bug when they get sent down to AHL after regular season ends they are inelgible or something
*same Selke winner and finalists as last year! Great line!

AHL:
Red Garrett Memorial Trophy: Thomas Turan, Jaroslav Faith (3rd)
Fred T. Hunter Memorial Trophy: Jaroslav Faith

ECHL:
Goaltender of the Year Award: Marek Pap
John A. Daley Memorial Trophy: Marek Pap


Maple Leafs 2013 NHL Draft:

1(16) - C Garth Shattenkirk
1(22) - RD/LD Mikael Pikkarainen
1(25) - LD Ken Wackfeldt
1(29) - RD Andrei Kabish
2(59) - C Jon Peltonen
3(89) - LW/RW/C Leonid Timakov
4(99) - LD/RD Alexander Vyborny
4(119) - RD/LD Frantisek Havelka
5(149) - RW Jesse Ahonen
6(159) - LW/RW Brandon McNamara



To Ducks:
- F Aleksandr Suglobov ****
- D Tobias Carlsson ***
- F Josh Jensen ***
2013 7th round pick

To Toronto:
2013 1st round pick (22nd overall)

Made this trade as i really liked Pikkarainen even though there is a big question mark around him like Carlsson, and their upside is about the same, i for some reason like him more. Carlsson was getting slowly pushed down the depth chart, Suglobov had a great start to the season but slowed down and had only 1 goal in the playoffs. He will be replaced by Turan. Jensen played very well for me but was AHL veteran and expendable. May be able to crack their lineup though. 7th rounder was just to sweaten the deal. To be honest this is a huge overpayment for a late 1st round pick. In the real NHL a 70 point 2nd line forward with 1 year left on his contract should be able to land a 1st by himself and add a potential top 4 defenceman and its a steal. But i like the trade, just couldn't wait any longer as i felt Pikkarainen wasn't gonna fall much lower.



Recap:

- Shattenkirk is an American skilled 2-way centerman who has top line potential. He has very good defensive skills and could be a Selke Trophy winner one day.
- Pikkarainen is a small Finnish defenceman who scouts as a top pairing defenceman. Will take few years to develop but could be worth it. Hopefully he turns out better than Carlsson. He has amazing consistency
- Wackfeldt was also one of the reasons why we could afford to trade Carlsson, he is a skilled Swedish defenceman Needs to improve his skating and acceleration, but we feel he has top pairing potential.
- Kabish is a highly skilled Russian offensive defenceman. He was ranked 57th but made a huge jump as he was ranked about 150th in preseason rankings. We do have a high number of defensive prospects now but this is a good problem. Scouts as a top pairing defenceman. Very creative player, but needs to work on his defense, also his stamina is not NHL calibre so this could eventually hold him back.
- Peltonen is a skilled Finnish center who scouts as a 2nd line center. Has good all around skills and should turn into a solid AHL player at least. He has NHL potential but we'll see how he develops. Dont't think he has enough skill to play in top 6 though.
- Timakov is a skilled Russian versetile winger He needs to work on his speed, stamina and strength to make it as a NHL player. He has high potential but is rather inconsistent. Scouts as a 3rd line forward.
- Vyborny is a Czech defenceman who has good attributes and scouts as a 5-6 defenceman. We feel he could turn into a solid AHL player.
- Havelka, same as Vyborny. AHL potential, not much more. Scouts as a 5-6 but isn't as developed as Vyborny though.
- Ahonen is a potential 4th line Finnish winger who had a poor year in the AHL. Could use some AHL depth player and maybe he turns into one.
- Brandon McNamara, scouts as a 3rd line power forward. After few years in college he could turn into a solid AHL player.


Free agency is about to start. Pronger was horrible in the playoffs so no way we re-sign him. McCabe is 38 and won't be back either.


F Cody McCormick - signed a 2 year extension (2-way)
F Jonas Lof - signed a 3 year extension (2-way)
F Andrei Kuchin - signed a 4 year extension 2.160M /y
F Thomas Turan - signed a 4 year extension 1.5M /y
F Jaroslav Faith - signed a 2 year extension (2-way)
D Joey Lavin - signed a 2 year extension (2-way)
D Del Parker - signed a 2 year extension (2-way)
D Dimitri Vorobiev - signed a 2 year extension


As we were right at the contract limit (even above, had to cut some depth players i signed during the season to help the Marlies), we decided to ship few players out.

To Colorado:
- rights to F Tim Kraus *
- rights to D Albert Polinin ***

To Toronto:
2016 3rd round pick

Polinin has developed well and had another good year with the Marlies but with so many defensive prospects better than him he wasn't gonna get his chance. He is also a veteran in the AHL so his playing time was gonna go way down. Kraus was a throw in from the Kaberle trade few years back, he has played very well with the Marlies. He had 4 very good years with our minor team, and had 71 points theas season. Also a veteran he's playing time would be very limited.

Fired Jon Hull as an assistant coach as he hasn't really helped develop our forwards as much as we would have liked, and signed Mark Pederson as the new assistant coach. Hopefully he can help develop offensive abilites of our players better than Hull. Have also been looking for several years now for a coach that would help our players improve their skating but no luck yet.
Hull could eventually become a head coach even in the NHL but he needs some experiance as a head coach and he wasn't gonna get it here.

This is also the last year of the contract for Paul Maurice. If he doesn't do well we might promote Erikas Steponaitis as the new head coach as we feel he is ready to take that next step. All depends on the season though and how the playoffs unfold.


D Shane O'Brien - signed a 2 year contract, 700k /y

O'Brien is a stop gap in case Del Parker isn't ready for a top-4 position for next season.

This is it for this season, next training camp and the 2013/14 season. The team is in some serious re-tooling, we'll see how the younger Maple Leafs do.

Re: Maple Leafs Dynasty

Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 1:56 pm
by suprvilce
After a break its time to continue with the dynasty. Training camp is about to start. Invited all of our prospects except the ones in college. Also signed one of our college prospects as we felt he was ready for the AHL

F Todd Houle - signed a 3 year ELC

Should start his pro career with the Marlies this season.

Rustam Mikhno is one of the players having an outstanding training camp, which is nice to see as i have him penciled in as a top pairing defenceman for this season. He is still only 19 years old (20 in few days), but has tremendeous potential. Really excited to see how he does.

F Jon Peltonen - signed a 3 year ELC, transfer June 2014

Will play next year in QMJHL as we feel he will develop better there.


Preseason games:

@ Bruins: 2-3 (Vyborny, Turan)
@ Stars: 1-2 (Couture)
@ Panthers: 4-1 (Turan 2, Zavodovski, Couture)
@ Rangers: 5-3 (Turan 2, Houle, Mironov, Mikhno)
@ Blue Jackets: 1-2 (Scott)
@ Canadiens: 1-3 (Couture)


Played only prospects in first game, Becker was great in net but we still lost. Zavodovski, Vyborny and Turan had good games.
Training camp has finished much sooner this year for some reason so the prospects were only around for 1 preseason game.
Becker was great in 2nd game too but Stars managed to take away the win.
Becker another spectacular game as the Leafs win first preseason game. Mikhno had a great game too.
Vavroch played against Rangers and had a good game but was expecting a bit more.
Another preseason loss, Vavroch was good again but could have been better. Looks like Becker will be our starter this season, or at least until he struggles.
Becker was solid in net but ex-Leaf Hannu Toivonen shut the door as the Canadiens handed the Leafs another loss.

We finish the preseason with a 2-4 record, very bad. I hope we do better in regular season.

The following players were returned to their junior teams:

F Ken Naslund (OHL)
F Ville-Valtteri Hakala (QMJHL)
D Martin Suchanek (OHL)

Several of our top prospects will start the season in AHL. Some of the players assigned to Toronto Marlies:

G Stanislav Vavroch

D Del Parker

F Carver Scott
F Aleksei Zavodovski
F Todd Houle


NHL Season Preview:

1. Toronto Maple Leafs....MVP: Jean-Pierre Dumont,........Key Arrival: Shean O'Brien


Nice to see us 1st again, but Dumont, Obrien....... hopefully some other guys step up.


Rasmussen seems to have retired (just noticed he's missing as a 4th line center so Jonas Lof will play there. Hopefully he does well.


Top 10 NHL players by position:

Defenceman:
- Tim Gleason (10th)

Centers:
- Rob Schremp (8th)

Top prospects:
- G Stanislav Vavroch (1st)
- G Jochen Becker (2nd)


Our lineup for this season:

Kuchin - Couture - Dumont
Vanek - Schremp - Turan
Hagman - Scatchard - Nilson
Booth - Lof - Ortmeyer

Regehr - Mikhno
O'Brien - Gleason
Schultz - Semenov

Becker
Wiikman

Yeah maybe i should put Gleason on 1st pair and give Mikhno 'protected' minutes but with Regehr as his parther to cover for his potential mistakes i just really want to see what he can do. If he struggles i wil switch him with Gleason though. Vavroch will likely get few callups, want to see which of these two (Becker vs Vavroch) goalies plays the best, so while one plays in NHL one will be in AHL. I expect boh of them to be regulars next year though, Wiikman was brought back for 1 more year just as an insurance.


Lets take a quick look at our top 10 prospects:

1. Stanislav Vavroch G (AHL)
2. Rustam Mikhno D (Maple Leafs)
3. Aleksei Zavodovski F (AHL)
4. Thomas Turan F (Maple Leafs)
5. Jared Gaudet D (NCAA)
6. Garth Shattenkirk F (NCAA)
7. Mikael Pikkarainen D (Fin)
8. Joni Peltonen F (Fin)
9. Ken Wackfeltd D (Swe)
10. Andrei Kabish D (Rus)
11. Jochen Becker G (Maple Leafs)
12. Alan Francis F (NCAA)


- Gaudet could play in the NHL this season already but we'll give him one more year in NCAA. We'll see how he does, might start next year for us. Top pairing defenceman.
- Shattenkirk scouts as a defensive power forward with 1st line potential and should be ready for NHL in a year or two. Won't rush him though as we have Scatchard still playing as a top shutdown forward.
- Pikkarainen has huge potential, i really hope he develops for me. Top pairing all around defenceman.
- Peltonen is ranked a bit too high imo. Could eventually turn into a 2nd or a 3rd line forward.
- Wackfeltd has good potental, top pairing defenceman.
- Kabish has unreal offensive potential, could end up in NHL in a year or two. Highly skilled defenceman, top pairing potential no doubt, but only 4 stamina, we'll see how much that affects his development.
- Francis is a skilled 2 way winger with 1st line potential. Will play in NHL after this year but i don't see him as a regular despite having huge potential. His hockey sense, skating, leadership and poise aren't as high as i would like them to be from a top 6 forward.

We have a very deep prospect pool, several prospects not ranked would easily make other teams top 5 list.

Andrei Kuchin graduated. He is a 1st line winger for us.


First game of the season, outshot Lightning by 58 vs 22 but still only won 3:2. Getting few power forwards in our linep will help us greatly.

D Jake Canzanello - signed a 3 year ELC

Could use some depth on defense for Marlies so signed one of our prospects from college.

Lof seems to be tanking a lot of penalties. Will try to find an upgrade. 5 penalties in first 2 games not a good thing from a 4th line checker.

Despite scoring 5 goals in first 6 games, Logan Couture has been disappointing.

In the AHL, Stanislav Vavroch has played 5 games and has 5 shutouts. Becker has played well in the NHL but we'll give Vavroch a try and see how he does.

F Blair Betts - signed a 3 year contract (league minimum)

Will send Lof in the AHL and Betts will play 4th line center. 16 PIM in first 6 games as a 4th line forward (no fights) is too much.

Promoted Gleason to 1st line. Mikhno has been good but only 1 point in 7 games.

Also Promoted Schremp as a #1 center.

Vavroch has been great since called up. First game we got shut out 1:0 by Predators, 2nd game he shut out Blackhawks 4:0.

Martin Suchanek is having a breakout year in the OHL.

Decided to send Aleksei Zavodovski to WHL, he wasn't as good as i had hoped in the AHL and wasn't seeing as much ice time as we would have liked. Lesser competition could really help him develop his scoring touch.

Couture has been playing much better as a #2 center. Really happy to see the change i made working out.

Lost 3 straight home games despite being 1st in GF and GA. Something is wrong, need to find out what. Our PP isn't very good, only at 16%. Need to improve that.

5 straight home losses. Really need to turn this around.

Vavroch has been the starter for us ever since being called up, he has played fantasticly. I hope he can keep this up.

Yet another home loss, lost 3rd straight game to the Devils this season.

So far Leafs have 10-0-1 road record but only 9-6-1 home record. Need to improve this, can't just have other teams come into our building and take 2 points!

On December 2nd, after a 5-7 loss in Pittsburgh we have decided to shock everyone in hockey world and fired our head coach Paul Maurice. Everyone including our board and our fans were totally shocked but we felt we needed to shake things up. Toronto Maple Leafs do sit 1st in the NHL though but things just weren't going our way latley. Maurice record was 362-191-49. We have named Erikas Steponaitis as the new head coach. (now our head coach has 5 stars (at compare teeam), yay :) )

We have a 3-0 record under the new head coach, also snapped a 6 game home losing streak, though we haven't played as well as we would have hoped.

After a slow start, Zavodovski has really exploded offensivly in the WHL. Should be ready for the NHL next season.

After the head coach switch none of our goalies seem to be capable of having a game with a rating higher than 8.

We are giving up too many PP opportunities. Will look to remove players with high PIM in the offseason.

The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to roll. After the slow start they had last season, they have been on fire. They have the best record in the NHL and Felury is playing amazing for them.

After poor start when he only had about 8 points in his first 30 games, Rustam Mikhno has really taken his game to another level and is finally producing offensivly, with 8 points in his last 10 games.

After 41 games, Maple Leafs sit 1st in the NHL but are only 1 point ahead of 2nd place Penguins who also have 2 games in hand. The coaching change hasn't made the impact i had hoped for, but there is still plenty of time. Penguins are the hottest team in the league and will be very tough stop from claiming the President's Trophy. Hopefully the Leafs click and start playing better.

After another 2 straight home loses, the Penguins have taken a lead in the President's Trophy race and aren't slowing down.

Called up Becker to give him a couple of starts. He was injured in his first game and sent back down.

Paul Maurice was hired as the new head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Zavodovski is having a great year in the WHL and could very well end up as our #1 center as soon as next season. We'll see how he does in training camp and preseason games and move from there.

Our defense has been quite poor this season, good thing we have a lot of defensive prospects comming up.

Jean-Pierre Dumont got injured for 3 months after a 3:4 SO loss in Colorado. Forward prospect Todd Houle will take his place.

5-3-2 in our last 10 games while the Penguins are dominating the league.

Despite being one of our most skilled forward prospects, Houle has played poorly and was replaced by Jaroslav Faith.

Flyers destroyed us 10:3 in our own building thanks to a horrible preformance of Wiikman. Becker was called up again.

In most games we outshoot our oponents but many times we still lose. We really need a true superstar scorer, a go-to guy. Hopefully Zavodovski becomes that player.

F Dale Scatchard - signed a 1 year extension (about same salary, 3M)
D Tim Gleason - signed a 2 year extension, 4.1M /y, small raise

He is 38 but still an ellite defensive forward. Should be good for 1 more year.

D Andrei Kabish - signed a 3 year ELC, transfer June 2014

With Zavodovski doing so well, maybe Kabish too can take his game to the next level in juniors next season.

We have lost too many 1 goal games this season. I expect us to be better next year.

After an interesting end to the regular season, Maple Leafs ended up only 1 win shy of the President's Trophy, which was won by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Maple Leafs finished 2nd in the league with a 54-18-10 record and 118 points. We were 1st in GF and GA, 2nd in PK but only 18th in PP%. This is an area we need to improve. The Toronto Marlies also finished 2nd in AHL.

Standings:

Code: Select all

Eastern Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   C Penguins                82     58     21     21     21     0.726   304  221  119  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlMaple Leafs             82     54     18     18     18     0.720   325  216  118  
3rd   PlPanthers                82     47     33     33     33     0.585   272  245  96   
4th   PlDevils                  82     52     21     21     21     0.689   289  228  113  
5th   PlFlyers                  82     44     27     27     27     0.604   276  240  99   
6th   PlRangers                 82     45     30     30     30     0.591   304  246  97   
7th   PlThrashers               82     46     32     32     32     0.585   268  229  96   
8th   PlLightning               82     44     31     31     31     0.579   257  237  95   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Canadiens               82     41     30     30     30     0.567   286  270  93   
10th    Carolina                82     42     34     34     34     0.549   269  268  90   
11th    Capitals                82     40     37     37     37     0.518   279  285  85   
12th    Senators                82     35     42     42     42     0.457   255  298  75   
13th    Bruins                  82     30     47     47     47     0.396   250  348  65   
14th    Sabres                  82     25     45     45     45     0.378   253  336  62   
15th    Islanders               82     28     49     49     49     0.372   232  337  61   


Western Conference

Pos     Team                    GP     W      L      L      O-SL   Pct     GF   GA   Pts  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st   PlWild                    82     49     26     26     26     0.640   298  264  105  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd   PlBlues                   82     48     25     25     25     0.640   298  245  105  
3rd   PlDucks                   82     47     31     31     31     0.598   283  270  98   
4th   PlCanucks                 82     47     27     27     27     0.622   286  248  102  
5th   PlColorado                82     48     30     30     30     0.610   287  253  100  
6th   PlSharks                  82     45     29     29     29     0.598   285  246  98   
7th   PlOilers                  82     45     31     31     31     0.585   278  262  96   
8th   PlFlames                  82     41     35     35     35     0.537   267  281  88   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9th     Blackhawks              82     37     36     36     36     0.506   275  293  83   
10th    Nashville               82     38     40     40     40     0.488   258  271  80   
11th    Kings                   82     35     39     39     39     0.476   277  292  78   
12th    Red Wings               82     32     43     43     43     0.433   225  291  71   
13th    Stars                   82     29     40     40     40     0.433   256  330  71   
14th    Coyotes                 82     31     47     47     47     0.402   228  307  66   
15th    Blue Jackets            82     27     50     50     50     0.360   216  279  59
Messed up the stats again. The game automaticly shows playoff stats and not regular season.

Here are few most important players:

Tim Gleason - 81gp/11g/46a/57pts/+62
Rustam Mikhno - 82gp/8g/20a/28pts/+24
Thomas Vanek - 80gp/39g/41a/80pts/+33
Andrei Kuchin - 82gp/46g/57a/103pts/+38
Rob Schremp - 82gp/45g/69a/114pts/+38
Logan Couture - 82gp/37g/57a/94pts/+41
Thomas Turan - 80gp/22g/52a/74pts/+44
Jean-Pierre Dumont - 49gp/17g/24a/41pts/+12




Stanislav Vavroch.... 63GP.... 44W.... 10L.... 6OL.... 2.29GAA.... 0.915sv%.... 4SO
Miika Wiikman.... 13GP.... 3W.... 6L.... 1OL.... 3.60GAA.... 0.879sv%
Jochen Becker.... 12GP.... 7W.... 2L.... 3OL.... 2.70GAA....0.897sv%


Vavroch had a great season but it will be interesting how he does in the playoffs. He bombed bad last year, hopefully he does better this year or he could find himself on a trading block.
Schremp (2nd), Kuchin (11th) and Couture (25th) were among 25 top scorers in the NHL. Tim Gleason was top scoring defenceman this year.

Eastern Conference Quarter Final:
Toronto vs Trashers
Season series: 3-0-1 Toronto

They have a few good players but after that their depth is very poor. If our goaltending holds up we should have no problems defeating them.

Game #1: 2-0 (Vanek, Faith)
Game #2: 4-1 (Hagman, Faith, Vanek, Schremp)
Game #3: 3-2 (Faith, Ortmeyer, Schremp)
Game #4: 3-1 (Regehr, Scatchard, Turan)


Vavroch was great in the first round and Faith also played very well, scoring in first 3 games.


Eastern Conference Semi Final:
Toronto vs Lightning
Season series: 2-1-1 Toronto

Tampa Bay Lightning shocked the Penguins in the 1st round and advanced after a 4-2 series win! And that after going 8-1-1 in last 10 games of regular season and just making the playoffs. So should be an interesting series.

Game #1: 2-1 (Vanek, Schremp)
Game #2: 3-2 OT-2 (Hagman, Schremp, Regehr)
Game #3: 2-3 (Schremp, Nilson)
Game #4: 3-2 (Turan, Kuchin, Scatchard)
Game #5: 4-0 (Schremp, Schultz, Kuchin, Couture)

Before game 5 Dumont returned from injury so we sent Faith down, he hasn't played very good in Lightning series anyway.


Eastern Conference Final:
Toronto vs Panthers
Season series: 3-1 Toronto

Panthers eliminated us last year in 1st round so we'll be looking to return the favor. Despite most games in the playoffs being close we are very confident as Vavroch has been the best goaltender in the playoffs.

Game #1: 2-1 OT (Semenov, Couture)
Game #2: 3-0 (Booth, Kuchin, Schremp)
Game #3: 4-2 (Schremp 2, Couture, Scatchard)
Game #4: 2-0 (Schremp, Turan)


Vavroch comes up big with 2 shutouts and the Leafs advance to the Stanley Cup final!

In the AHL, Toronto Marlies advanced past first two rounds are will be looking to capture another Calder Cup.


NHL Stanley Cup Final:
Toronto vs Colorado
Season series: 1-0-1 Toronto

Cup rematch from 2010. With players like Wolski, Jokinen, McDonald, Iginla and chara as key players, Colorado will be very hard to beat. Budaj has been good in playoffs, but they do lack quality depth on defense after Chara so hopefully we can exploit that. It should be very good series.

Game #1: 5-1 (Vanek 2, Schremp, Kuchin, Dumont)
Game #2: 4-3 OT (Couture, Schremp 2, Turan)
Game #3: 3-1 (Schremp 2, O'Brien)
Game #4: 1-2 (Betts)
Game #5: 4-8 (Scatchard, Dumont, Mikhno, Turan)
Game #6: 3-8 (Vanek, Schremp, Semenov)
Game #7: 3-4 OT (Vanek, Dumont, Turan)


Maple Leafs take a 2-0 series lead with Schremp scoring the OT winner but Vavroch is injured and will be out for the rest of the playoffs. We will call up Becker, hopefully he can play well enough and win us 2 more games. The Marlies are in Calder Cup final too so we will assign Pap from ECHL to AHL, hopefully he can play well for them, even though he was poor in 4 games he played there during th year.
Wiikman played in game 3 (coach) but Becker will start in his first ever NHL playoff game in game 4.
Becker played well but not great. Will get 1 more start and we'll see how he does at home.
Becker was horrible in game 5 and was assigned back to Tornto Marlies. Wiikman will play in game 6 and Koivisto will be his backup.
Wiikman was very bad in game 6 and Colorado won 3 straight and is back in the series. Game 7 will be in Toronto. Vavroch is still injured but practicing a little and even though he has fractured wrist he will start game 7 as he is the best option we have despite him being injured. We just can't risk losing the series and the Stanley Cup after already leading 3-0. 14 goals against in 2 games is very very bad news. Hopefully the team responds well.
Also need Tim Gleason to step up, he has played very poorly in playoffs this year.

And the Leafs lose in 7 games. A huge disaster after leading the series 3:0 already. Coaches put Miika Wiikman in net instead of Vavroch and he didn't play well enough to give his team a chance to win. No time to feel sorry for ourselves, the draft is just around the corner.


F Broc Irwin - signed a 3 year ELC
F Alan Francis - signed a 3 year ELC
D Ulf Lundqvist - signed a 3 year ELC
G Mikko Koivisto - signed a 3 year ELC


Yearly awards:

NHL:
Art Ross Trophy: Rob Schremp (2nd)
Calder Memorial Trophy: Rustam Mikhno
Frank J. Selke Trophy: Niklas Hagman (2rd)
James Norris Memorial Trophy: Tim Gleason
Hart Memorial Trophy: Tim Gleason, Rob Schremp (3rd)
Veznia Trophy: Stanislav Vavroch
William M. Jennings Trophy: Stanislav Vavroch
NHL Plus-Minus Award: Tim Gleason
NHL First All-Star Team: Stanislav Vavroch
NHL Second All-Star Team: Tim Gleason, Rob Schremp
NHL Rookie All-Star Team: Rustam Mikhno

ECHL:
Goaltender of the Year Award: Marek Pap

WHL:
Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy: Aleksei Zavodovski


F Marcus Nilson - signed a 2 year extension
F Niklas Hagman - signed a 2 year extension
D Aleksei Semenov - signed a 2 year extension

The Toronto Marlies won the Calder Cup. At least some good news for our organisation.


The draft is almost here. There is a player we really like but it is doubtful he falls to us. It has happened few times before so hopefully we get lucky again.

Maple Leafs 2014 NHL Entry Draft:

1(22) - C/RW Sultan Sheppard
1(28) - C Ian Eaves
2(40) - G Roman Shagalov
2(58) - RW Nick Foster
3(88) - LD/RD Joni Leinonen
4(118) - RD Frantisek Dvorak
5(148) - LW Milan Cerny
6(156) - C Jaakko Tahvanainen
6(178) - C/LW Shaun Higbee
7(208) - C Simon-Pierre Ferrari


It was a different draft than usually. The player we wanted was picked 2 picks before us. We still got 2 skilled centers in Sheppard and Eaves, both American and both project as 1st line 2-way centers. We do have a lot of centers in our system so some will be traded out eventually. Will be interesting to see how these two develop. Scouts recommended me a different player with 22nd pick but i liked Sheppard more. He is a gamble pick, even though he is a 1st round pick he has played in QJAHL for the last 2 years and his numbers leave much to be desired. Hopefully he develops well.
- Shagalov is a Russian goalie our scouts wanted me to take. Scouts as a #1 goalie but has bad reflexes and only 10 consiscency.
- Foster was a gamble pick, didn't really like anyone so i took him. Scouts as a 3rd line winger. Hopefully he surprises. Will go to college.
- Leinonen is a Finnish defenceman, scouts as a 5-6 defenceman. I don't expect anything more from him than an AHL depth player, but you never know. Scouts didn't rally like him, but there weren't any really better options.
- Dvorak is another gamble pick. The Czech defenceman seems almost NHL ready but scouts think his upside is 7th defenceman. Hopefully he pans out.
- Cerny has horrible almost all mental attributes, 6 are 5 or lower and only 1 is over 10. Interestingly he scouts as a top line winger and one of our scouts really liked him so drafted him. Surprisingly he is currently ranked our 9th best prospect.
- Tahvanainen is a Finnish centerman, scouts don't belive he has NHL upside, but he will play in QMJHL next year, maybe he proves them wrong.
- Higbee is another player that scouts don't belive has NHL upside. The American center will go to college and hopefully develops well. Could become at least a solid AHL player if nothing else.
- with nothing left on the board we took Ferrari. A smallish center, standing at 5'8, he has some big holes in his game. Maybe he pans out, scouts as a 3rd line center.

D Jared Gaudet - signed a 3 year ELC

1st round pick in 2012, Gaudet has developed well and is ready for NHL even though his skating needs improvement.

Free agency has started. We decided not to re-sign Dumont and Wiikman.

F Ville-Valtteri Hakala - signed a 2 year extension
F Carver Scott - signed a 4 year extension, 1.290M /y, big raise, has 2-way clause, we'll see where he ends up
F Ricky Eaves - signed a 3 year ELC
F Henri Laajanen - signed a 2 year extension
F David Booth - signed a 3 year extension
D Jeff Schultz - signed a 3 year extension
G Marek Pap - signed a 2 year extension

And the biggest news in the offseason:

F Aleksei Zavodovski - signed a 9 year extension, 2.5M /y

This may be a lot of money for someone who has never played in the NHL but we belive this will end up being one of the best contracts in the league in no time.

This is it for this season. Hopefully we won't melt in the Cup finals next year if we make it there. Lots of changes comming in the next several years as we try to retool our team. Training camp and pre-season next.
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