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Leafs' Prospect/Marlies Discussion Thread!

I was watching an interview with Penn States coach where they asked him about McKennas coach ability. And his answer was you have to be careful with him, because one time he came into the room yelling at the team for not being physical enough and Gavin comes out throwing the body around like a wreaking ball and he’s like “no not you”.

Surrounding Matthews/Willy with real hockey players like Knies/Cowan/McKenna/Danford instead of Tavares/Marner/Mo is nice.
 
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I do but I disagree with it.

My thoughts on Tavares are well known. Great player, great character, good leader, good person. The fact that he doesn’t hit people doesn’t make him any less a player than the 90% of other star players that don’t play too physical.

Reilly, we can say what we want about his defensive game, but he’s still a very good player in all other facets and plays a bit physical too. Another character guy on and off the ice. I think every one of you have expressed a strong desire to dump him. I’m firmly in the other camp.

Now Marner is the biggest toxic bitch out there, and won’t play physical but will run his mouth like he does. A perimeter player but not to the extent portrayed here. He’s still an impact player obviously.

Fuck Marner in every way. But Tavares and Reilly are good, impact, character guys that you should always want on your team. If by “real” you meant only physical, then obviously I didn’t know exactly what you meant.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
I do but I disagree with it.

My thoughts on Tavares are well known. Great player, great character, good leader, good person. The fact that he doesn’t hit people doesn’t make him any less a player than the 90% of other star players that don’t play too physical.

Reilly, we can say what we want about his defensive game, but he’s still a very good player in all other facets and plays a bit physical too. Another character guy on and off the ice. I think every one of you have expressed a strong desire to dump him. I’m firmly in the other camp.

Now Marner is the biggest toxic bitch out there, and won’t play physical but will run his mouth like he does. A perimeter player but not to the extent portrayed here. He’s still an impact player obviously.

Fuck Marner in every way. But Tavares and Reilly are good, impact, character guys that you should always want on your team. If by “real” you meant only physical, then obviously I didn’t know exactly what you meant.
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C’mon. Even as JT’s #1 fan around these parts, you have to acknowledge the guy is an emotionless hockey android.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but you also need that to be complemented with guys that get fired up, and that seems to be what leafman’s talking about here.
 
leafman101 said:
they are good players. But thats not the point. all 5 of them are the same personality. And most hockey players are psychos.

You need some psychos.
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Yep. Matthews isn’t quite the android JT is, but he’s also not a guy that ever really gets fired up at all. And then Willy’s our perpetually happy mimbo.

Having one of our most skilled players be a bit of a psycho would be a welcome change of pace. We haven’t really had that since Kadri left.
 
I don’t think Knies, Cowan, and Danford are psychos. The first two seem like model citizens to me. The third we have no idea.

But remember, Rielly is the guy that tried to murder a Sen at the end of a regular season game for slapping the puck into the empty net. And I don’t think Tavares is emotionless. He just gets excited by goals, not hits.

So saying we need real hockey players around the other guys just didn’t land. Matty and Willy are both reserved personalities too, for sure. And all of them do need a few psychos around them, but that’s a different issue.

We’ve all said how we need to find that Roberts and Tucker magic again. I don’t think any of our guys have that and I doubt McKenna does either. You usually don’t find it in the star players. But yeah, Marchand and Bennett would’ve changed things. I don’t know who else is out there who fits the bill. Closest I can think of is Bunting.
 
Even Bunting isn't in the same class as those other guys. He's more of a weasel whereas Marchand/Bennett are psycho rats. Maybe like the Travis Green to Tucker/Corson back in the day? The dream would be Matthews somehow evolves to incorporate a Roberts-like edge to his game but the probability of that seems very low. He has the size for it tho
 
I don’t even mean like Kadri/Bunting/Roberts psychos.

I mean guys that don’t get pushed around and smile.

Cowen/Knies like mixing it up. Danford has a junior highlight reel of taking guys heads off. McKenna gets into bar fights.
 
speaky of gritty this kid has it, though probably doesn't have more than 4th line skill


View: https://x.com/mic_mazz/status/2063073172006568348?s=20

he was only ppg in an overage junior season last year.

spent some time in the ECHL this year but actually missed most of the year to injury.

ECHL (21): 18gms, 3gls, 6pts
AHL (21): 19gms, 4gls, 6pts

Didn't start the playoffs in the starting lineup but has earned his way right in.
 
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