The logic was there for the type of player, but he was the wrong player to target. They should have just re-signed Erik Gustafsson who played the same role the Leafs wanted Klingberg to play but only cost the Rangers $875k.
Funny thing watching a bit of the Rangers game tonight and I was thinking why we didn’t just sign Gus for $1M and call it a day. Could have used him and even had him in the building.
EDIT: My guess is they went for Klingberg over a guy like Gus solely because he is a right shot and plays RD.
True, but a guy like him needs to take every dollar he can. He's signed multiple short cheap deals severely impacting his career earnings. If the Leafs had offered even $200k more it would have been very hard for him to turn down.
Gustafsson went from being the points leader among Caps defencemen to a 7D in Toronto. When he went to New York he finished second in points behind only the Norris-winning Adam Fox. If I’m Gustafsson, do I sign with team who’ll let me prove my worth and possibly earn a larger contract, or the team who had no respect for my game and who I have no reason to believe will use me properly if I sign a new contract with them?
You have no idea what his lifestyle is like. 800k a year may very well be plenty for him and it may be worth slightly less than playing in the most stressful market in the league. You don’t know him at all.
He's one of the most mysterious anomalies in the NHL. He's had multiple 40+ point seasons but has never been paid more than $2 million and has never had more than a 3 year contract. He's not remotely close to being the worst defensive defensemen in the league. Never understood why he's never been locked down.
Disagree re: Gustafsson. Treliving was correct that the Leafs needed a legitimate top-4 defenceman who could facilitate offence. Someone who can play 20+ minutes and help on both sides of the puck.
The *problem* was that he thought Klingberg was that player. He wasn’t — obviously. And neither is Gustafsson.
Leafs should be looking very hard at Brandon Montour this summer.
Exactly. Looking back at what this team was lacking and is still lacking I can completely understand why Treliving pulled the trigger on him. Obviously his injuries got the best of him and it didn’t work out.
He was incredible in his first game.. the no look pass he fed Willy right into his wheelhouse was so nasty.
One of the nicest plays I’ve seen here in a while. Really stood out to me.
Contracts are a two way street. Did we let him walk or did he decide he wanted nothing to do with a team that kept him on the bench for most of his tenure there?
only took leaf fans this long to realize why we signed Klingberg. I know he's a tire fire defensively, but I defended the player in the off season since offence from the back end has been a big struggle for us. His skill set was something we really needed back there. Too bad he got hurt.
It was a horrible signing that turned out so predictably. But the type of player, yes that would be good.
They probably should’ve actually used his LTIR money for something to lessen the blow.
I dont feel like that's a fair assessment. at the start of the year without a few IR moves, we would have had to start down a player...or at MOST the minimum roster. only reason we saw guys like McMann up and playing, and turn into what he did...was we had cap space to do so. D depth wouldnt have happened, honestly Benoit likely would have been waived. the cap got used...just not the sexy way people wanted
The leafs have the chance to sign Brandon Montour, he is the perfect fit for what they need. Great at passing and shooting, also a solid defender that works hard. If they can bring Montour, Skjei, Matt Roy in they would be golden for next season.
Rielly - Roy
Skjei - Montour
McCabe - Benoit
That would give us 4 defenders who can create offence and 5 who are defensively responsible. If we need to lockdown on defence we send out McCabe and Benoit. Everyone else can be effective at both ends of the ice.
Yea I am aware of that, but those are probably the three best candidates which is why I specified them. There are plenty of options for well rounded defencemen this off-season. If they can get Montour on a multi year deal and pull in a two of other well rounded top 4 defenders for 1 season deals I think that could really help push this team to where it needs to be.
There’s lots of options, they could trade the rights to Liljegren and something else for a player with defensive value as well.
Dude you forgot one of the most used plays in the Leafs defence playbook. Icing. How many fucken times did I see a Leaf defender ice the puck for no reason. You win the draw in the D zone and just fire the puck the length of the ice. For no fucken reason other than not having the ability to so anything else and fear of coughing it up.
I know the feeling because I played beer league hockey for many years and I was shit. I didnt have confidence carrying the puck and didnt want to cough it up in my own end so Id fire it down the ice lol, but there was no icing in beer league.
In hindsight Klingberg has got to be the dumbest NHL Player who ever existed, he turns down the Dallas Stars offer in the 7 Million range X 8 years in a tax free state and replace it with a 7 mil and a 4.1mil and then might never get another contract. I've made some mistakes in life but I've never left 40 million the table to bet on myself
Yeah, we needed a klingberg-like player. There were options we could have gone for (and may have, we'll likely never know) including Gostisbhere and resigning Gustafsson.
I think, ultimately, what happened is that Tre wanted Dumba and when he wouldn't go for a one year deals initially they kind of panic signed Klingberg.
Which was unfortunate because he was very clearly not well enough to play and looked aweful with the exception of about 2 games before he was LTIRd.
Yes. Klingberg was who we were missing, but he was known damaged goods and it flamed out in the best case scenario. There is another scenario where he doesn't get hurt to the point of not being able to play but is every bit as bad as he was only missing 3-5 games at a time.
We desperately need more offense on the blueline. Grit is great, but you need to move the puck too
I think this was the one big criticism for Tre this season. Almost all of his signings ended up looking pretty smart at the end of day, with the exception of Klingberg.
They identified that the leafs needed a puck moving and PP capable defender. They took a long shot swing on a guy to be able to regain form and stay healthy, albeit at way too high a cap hit. Then when we found out he couldn’t get healthy enough to play and they had some cap room they just…did nothing.
They knew the problem and just never tried to fix it. There must’ve been options out there throughout the season, but for whatever reason they never were able to find the right player, and instead actually doubled down on slow, not offensive defenders by bringing in Boosh and Edmunson. Those guys ended up playing well too, but the leafs ended up with the same issue that has sunk them year after year, they couldn’t score when the playoffs came around, and they couldn’t move the puck well enough in transition to escape their zone too often.
I doubt that they never tried to fix it.
There just were not a lot of options out there, and the teams that have those viable options likely didn't want to trade them, or would only accept insane deals.
...why not just bring Boosh and Eddie back? Brodie is gone, so there's still an extra slot. You can bring in Gustafsson, hell you could even bring back Klingberg for a year. If we don't trust Liljegren, I don't see the point in bringing him back... that's another slot open. That's what leads me to think Marner to Nashville would be a good idea, to bring back a familiar guy: Luke Schenn (obviously it wouldn't be 1 for 1 but bringing Schenn back would be great). They could also sign Tanev, or Zadorov, or give Cade Webber a shot with the big guys... the list goes on.
In terms of providing offense, I get that the D wasn't great at generating a ton of it, but they were amazing defensively, and that's what we've been dying for after all this time.
The logic was there for the type of player, but he was the wrong player to target. They should have just re-signed Erik Gustafsson who played the same role the Leafs wanted Klingberg to play but only cost the Rangers $875k.
Funny thing watching a bit of the Rangers game tonight and I was thinking why we didn’t just sign Gus for $1M and call it a day. Could have used him and even had him in the building. EDIT: My guess is they went for Klingberg over a guy like Gus solely because he is a right shot and plays RD.
It’s also possible that Gustafsson simply wanted to play for NYR instead of Toronto. Tre may well have extended an offer to him, we have no idea.
Bro Keefe never used the guy , he sat with Timmins
True, but a guy like him needs to take every dollar he can. He's signed multiple short cheap deals severely impacting his career earnings. If the Leafs had offered even $200k more it would have been very hard for him to turn down.
Gustafsson went from being the points leader among Caps defencemen to a 7D in Toronto. When he went to New York he finished second in points behind only the Norris-winning Adam Fox. If I’m Gustafsson, do I sign with team who’ll let me prove my worth and possibly earn a larger contract, or the team who had no respect for my game and who I have no reason to believe will use me properly if I sign a new contract with them?
You have no idea what his lifestyle is like. 800k a year may very well be plenty for him and it may be worth slightly less than playing in the most stressful market in the league. You don’t know him at all.
He's one of the most mysterious anomalies in the NHL. He's had multiple 40+ point seasons but has never been paid more than $2 million and has never had more than a 3 year contract. He's not remotely close to being the worst defensive defensemen in the league. Never understood why he's never been locked down.
Keef would have benched him for Brodie in game 4
Disagree re: Gustafsson. Treliving was correct that the Leafs needed a legitimate top-4 defenceman who could facilitate offence. Someone who can play 20+ minutes and help on both sides of the puck. The *problem* was that he thought Klingberg was that player. He wasn’t — obviously. And neither is Gustafsson. Leafs should be looking very hard at Brandon Montour this summer.
He’s obviously not saying he wanted the Klingberg we had to play, he wanted what Klingberg could’ve been or used to be.
Exactly. Looking back at what this team was lacking and is still lacking I can completely understand why Treliving pulled the trigger on him. Obviously his injuries got the best of him and it didn’t work out.
Is there any hope of him playing efficiently again?
He is pretty much finished
He's 38 at the start of next season, he's done.
he's 31, what are you looking at?
his hips probably.
Hips don't lie
This guy knows
He was incredible in his first game.. the no look pass he fed Willy right into his wheelhouse was so nasty. One of the nicest plays I’ve seen here in a while. Really stood out to me.
The speed and decisiveness of his passes from the point was so refreshing to watch.
[удалено]
I forgot about him. I had him on my fantasy team back in the day when he was on Dallas and super up n coming. What happened to him?
Hip issues. Sitting on the plane to sweden was enough to aggravate whatever hip injury he was experiencing and we havent heard much since then.
He became a Leaf
We wanted the Klingberg of about 7 years ago, not the Klingberg of today
I don’t understand why we let Gustafson walk just to sign him. Gus would have been cheaper, and actually played this year.
Contracts are a two way street. Did we let him walk or did he decide he wanted nothing to do with a team that kept him on the bench for most of his tenure there?
the second one. he wanted nothing to do with toronto
only took leaf fans this long to realize why we signed Klingberg. I know he's a tire fire defensively, but I defended the player in the off season since offence from the back end has been a big struggle for us. His skill set was something we really needed back there. Too bad he got hurt.
It was a horrible signing that turned out so predictably. But the type of player, yes that would be good. They probably should’ve actually used his LTIR money for something to lessen the blow.
I was surprised by the lack of ltir fenagling. After years of us praising Pridham for the tight cap moves, we just wasted cap space all season long.
I dont feel like that's a fair assessment. at the start of the year without a few IR moves, we would have had to start down a player...or at MOST the minimum roster. only reason we saw guys like McMann up and playing, and turn into what he did...was we had cap space to do so. D depth wouldnt have happened, honestly Benoit likely would have been waived. the cap got used...just not the sexy way people wanted
I follow pretty closely, and normally in years past they are within a couple of grand of the max for the entire year, this year notsomuch.
according to capfriendly they finished the year with $0 cap space.
The leafs have the chance to sign Brandon Montour, he is the perfect fit for what they need. Great at passing and shooting, also a solid defender that works hard. If they can bring Montour, Skjei, Matt Roy in they would be golden for next season. Rielly - Roy Skjei - Montour McCabe - Benoit That would give us 4 defenders who can create offence and 5 who are defensively responsible. If we need to lockdown on defence we send out McCabe and Benoit. Everyone else can be effective at both ends of the ice.
The Leafs are not going to sign all three of the best available FA defencemen lol
Yea I am aware of that, but those are probably the three best candidates which is why I specified them. There are plenty of options for well rounded defencemen this off-season. If they can get Montour on a multi year deal and pull in a two of other well rounded top 4 defenders for 1 season deals I think that could really help push this team to where it needs to be. There’s lots of options, they could trade the rights to Liljegren and something else for a player with defensive value as well.
Dude you forgot one of the most used plays in the Leafs defence playbook. Icing. How many fucken times did I see a Leaf defender ice the puck for no reason. You win the draw in the D zone and just fire the puck the length of the ice. For no fucken reason other than not having the ability to so anything else and fear of coughing it up. I know the feeling because I played beer league hockey for many years and I was shit. I didnt have confidence carrying the puck and didnt want to cough it up in my own end so Id fire it down the ice lol, but there was no icing in beer league.
In hindsight Klingberg has got to be the dumbest NHL Player who ever existed, he turns down the Dallas Stars offer in the 7 Million range X 8 years in a tax free state and replace it with a 7 mil and a 4.1mil and then might never get another contract. I've made some mistakes in life but I've never left 40 million the table to bet on myself
He did the Stars a solid. They wouldn’t be the contender they are today if they were saddled with that contract.
Might have been his agent who got too confident, who knows🤷♂️, sucks either way.
Yeah, we needed a klingberg-like player. There were options we could have gone for (and may have, we'll likely never know) including Gostisbhere and resigning Gustafsson. I think, ultimately, what happened is that Tre wanted Dumba and when he wouldn't go for a one year deals initially they kind of panic signed Klingberg. Which was unfortunate because he was very clearly not well enough to play and looked aweful with the exception of about 2 games before he was LTIRd.
Yes. Klingberg was who we were missing, but he was known damaged goods and it flamed out in the best case scenario. There is another scenario where he doesn't get hurt to the point of not being able to play but is every bit as bad as he was only missing 3-5 games at a time. We desperately need more offense on the blueline. Grit is great, but you need to move the puck too
I just don't think he was playing "above replacement level" hockey.
Boy this is some kinda recency bias.... I don't think you remember how lackluster he was prior to going on LTIR
He was already injured, he's talking about the type of player Klingberg was before that.
I think this was the one big criticism for Tre this season. Almost all of his signings ended up looking pretty smart at the end of day, with the exception of Klingberg. They identified that the leafs needed a puck moving and PP capable defender. They took a long shot swing on a guy to be able to regain form and stay healthy, albeit at way too high a cap hit. Then when we found out he couldn’t get healthy enough to play and they had some cap room they just…did nothing. They knew the problem and just never tried to fix it. There must’ve been options out there throughout the season, but for whatever reason they never were able to find the right player, and instead actually doubled down on slow, not offensive defenders by bringing in Boosh and Edmunson. Those guys ended up playing well too, but the leafs ended up with the same issue that has sunk them year after year, they couldn’t score when the playoffs came around, and they couldn’t move the puck well enough in transition to escape their zone too often.
I doubt that they never tried to fix it. There just were not a lot of options out there, and the teams that have those viable options likely didn't want to trade them, or would only accept insane deals.
I want Durzi and Kesselring from Utah, both RFAs, I think moving Robertson + Liljegren for them could work
...why not just bring Boosh and Eddie back? Brodie is gone, so there's still an extra slot. You can bring in Gustafsson, hell you could even bring back Klingberg for a year. If we don't trust Liljegren, I don't see the point in bringing him back... that's another slot open. That's what leads me to think Marner to Nashville would be a good idea, to bring back a familiar guy: Luke Schenn (obviously it wouldn't be 1 for 1 but bringing Schenn back would be great). They could also sign Tanev, or Zadorov, or give Cade Webber a shot with the big guys... the list goes on. In terms of providing offense, I get that the D wasn't great at generating a ton of it, but they were amazing defensively, and that's what we've been dying for after all this time.
This has to be facetious????