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

Fire Berube and see how fast things get better.

This must just be about that, but either they haven’t gone so far as to leak it or the media is too chickenshit to actually speculate something realistic.
 
LeafGm said:
This is where I’m still just not buying any of this talk. The only two “options” he has are to report to camp in the fall or demand a trade.

And it just seems inconceivable to me that he’d be demanding a trade after one single down year and one year out from when he’s eligible to sign an extension and actually needs to decide on his future here.
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The thing that makes the absolute most sense is that Matthews just wants to take the opportunity to lean on the new management. He wants to compete now and he wants changes to style of play. This is the lever he has to pull and letting the Toronto sports media do what they do with a sliver of a statement is easy for him to do while rehabbing a few thousand km away.
 
It’s possible he wants out. His butt buddy wanted out.

The fact that something was broken was laid bare after the gudas knee.

Maybe uts coaching or mgmt. or maybe he’s just sick of having to deal with dickless schmucks like Simmons and cox.
 
I could see him wanting out after last season. Not because it was on bad year but for the same reasons we all gave up on the team. And now he needs to know that Chayka isn't also a fucking idiot.

Or the Leafs asked him if he is still committed because they don't want another Marner.

Or both.

Or its all bullshit.
 
If he does really want to go, it’d be nice of him to have a stellar season and then refuse to sign the extension.

Also, tough to believe his butt buddy was much of a buddy to leave him and have his dad trashing him online every day.
 
Matthews doesn't like Chief. He is angling to see if the Front Office will listen to his "suggestions" about which new coach would work here.
 
McKenna’s 8 point game is on YouTube and I was watching it yesterday. You definitely see some of the criticism that he doesn’t engage in board battles, there were some flybys. Hes not hitting anyone.

But also this guy back checked hard to break up two odd man rushes and was the only guy back defending on one play in the 3rd period of a 9-4 game. Hes not a floater that doesn’t care about D.

And obviously the playmaking and puck skills are off the chart. Not a lot of hockey players can do what he can with the puck.
 
Also the guy played like 23mpg which is unheard of for a college forward. Let him preserve that energy.
 
I also get why scouts love Chase Reid. He is big, and has elite skating and puck skills. His gap control is also amazing. He is physical in board battles. He just kills plays and gets the puck moving the other way. He’ll be a really good player.

I don’t know about the Cale Makar/Hughes/Bouchard elite playmaking ability though. Hes got the skill set but doesn’t seem to create at that level. Maybe more Brock Faber.
 
GEEMAN said:
Bingo , get an answer before the draft and move on

You fire the regime if this is Marner 2.0
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Didn’t we just fire the regime?

Anyway, this is win win. Either this is all much ado about nothing and he’ll be back and as good as ever, or he’ll demand out and we’ll get a king’s ransom for a guy who may never return to form.

Now I gotta go have my cake and eat it too.
 
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