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The Official 2026 Off-Season Thread: Revenge of the Nerds

It's tough to be too positive.

The only silver lining is that the UFA market was crap, and chayka may have left himself just enough flexibility to still land another elite piece this year (and more as the cap rises going forward), and we know he loves to trade.

Of course the rumor that it was gonna basically be rielly for ferraro doesn't help the vibes much.
 
hockeylover said:
Maybe, he certainly has more veteran support than they did, is more talented, and more support than some of the previous #1 overalls.

PP should be really great too you'd think.

But anywhere north of 60 is still a big impact and is a reasonable guess.
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The discourse around McKenna right now kind of reminds me of what we heard about Willy and, to an even greater degree, Mitch before their rookie seasons.

Where because neither player was a hulking, muscle-bound physical player, the general consensus was that there would be a hard adjustment period. And then, of course, both guys hit the ground running and were instant 1st-line calibre wingers who put up 60+ points.

Honestly, I’ll be a little surprised if McKenna doesn’t do the same. The argument for it is that like those two guys, he’s stepping into a team with some legitimate offensive talent for him to play with. He’s clearly a fitness nut based on his combine results, like Willy is and always has been. And he’s a better prospect than either of those guys.

Though the argument against it is Willy had a ton more seasoning between being drafted & making his full time NHL debut (a year and a half in the SHL, then a half season split between the AHL & NHL). Mitch likewise went back to junior for another full season after being drafted and went on a Memorial Cup run.

Either way, definitely the most intriguing part of this upcoming season to watch, aside from whether or not Matthews bounces back.
 
leafman101 said:
July 1 was nuts, but this team is still looking good. They added McKenna, took two high end swings in Raddysh, who last year was better than any dman we've had since maybe prime Kaberle, if not Salming, and Bob, who might suck, but they are betting on getting playoff Bob in game 7 instead of playoff Woll/Freddy/Campbell/Samsonov.

The bottom 6 will do their job like Dubas' did. They won't win you games, but they won't lose you games. Though Paul has a history of winning games if last year was just an injured one off.

And I expect them to move Col 1st and prospects for an impact player between now and the deadline.

Vibes are still high IMO.
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Roslovic and Paul also give them some depth and flexibility they haven’t had in years to balance out Matthews, nylander, knies and Tavares between the top three lines.
 
Id be surprised if McKenna wasnt a development year ahead of both. He's that level of a prospect.

Also, both probably could have jumped right into the league as 40+ point middle 6 wingers and were held back because smol
 
What is the plan if they're still actually trying to trade Rielly? If Ferraro was plan A, wtf is plan B? At this stage it would take a miracle for it not to be a downgrade. Which means Mo definitely asked to be traded, or the rumors are false and they're open to keeping him.
 
Dubas would have aimed higher than Raddysh and Bob? He did aim high. Thats kind of the point.

Blueger had the same cap hit% as Krok.
Paul/Roslovic has the same cap hit% as Ritchie.

He paid way more for Sissons than Kampf.
 
leafman101 said:
Dubas would have aimed higher than Raddysh and Bob? He did aim high. Thats kind of the point.

Blueger had the same cap hit% as Krok.
Paul/Roslovic has the same cap hit% as Ritchie.

He paid way more for Sissons than Kampf.
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I said July 1st. When he had ~25m to spend. And Bob is not aiming high, that's just aiming dumb.

Leafs were in a cap crunch when they desperately signed Ritchie. This is not like that.
 
Preston said:
I get the Dubas comparisons, but Dubas never had $25m to spend in a single summer where he spent it all on plugs. I'd like to think that if he had that kind of cap space he'd aim higher.
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I doubt it. Dubas was never much of a big-game hunter either, and he absolutely adored his expensive plugs.

He 100% would’ve spent that space on a couple extra low-event cardio-merchant Kampfs and Jarnkroks.
 
LeafGm said:
I doubt it. Dubas was never much of a big-game hunter either, and he absolutely adored his expensive plugs.

He 100% would’ve spent that space on a couple extra low-event cardio-merchant Kampfs and Jarnkroks.
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Leafs had a bunch of low event milquetoast trash with Kyle, but I don't recall him ever having this amount of cap space and choosing to deploy that money on guys like that.

Very possible he would have done that though, point taken.
 
leafman101 said:
I don't get the logic tbh.

Its definitely worse if they don't think Bob is good.
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It's worse that he feels like signing Bob to that contract is aiming high, yeah. Aiming high was Raddysh, Werenski, someone who is actually elite and has been elite since 2023. Bob is not that. You are getting silly with this now.
 
I dunno, like Bob is definitely a big swing. Not a swing I would've taken!! But if they're right, it should be a pretty significant impact.

If they're right about Paul, it should be a decent impact too.

Blueger, Sissons, Dehairme, I dunno. Just seem like plugs.
 
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