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2020 NHL Trade Deadline primer: Toronto Maple Leafs – Sportsnet.ca

Published

5 years ago

February 20, 2020

While the Toronto Maple Leafs’ wild inconsistency, rash of injuries and some train-wreck third periods have led a segment of observers to conclude that this roster and this season isn’t worth further investment, the general manager wants to seize every spring that he can roll out his murderers’ row of gamebreakers.

Think about all that Kyle Dubas has spent to compensate and surround his core of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly and Frederik Andersen to embark on a run like this one: his first fire-the-coach card, his 2019 and 2020 first-rounders, three third-rounders, a fifth-rounder, Nazem Kadri, Connor Brown, Nikita Zaitsev, Carl Grundstrom, Trevor Moore, Calle Rosen and Sean Durzi.

Do you really think he’s going to waste Matthews’ race for the Rocket — plus superb offensive campaigns by Nylander, Marner, Tavares and Zach Hyman — by not trying to do his part to patch up the holes?

“It’s being able to go through the crucible, if you will, when you’re being severely tested — and I think we are being tested now — to be able to endure that and be able to come out on the other side,” Dubas said recently. “That’s really something that our whole group and organization needs to do.

“I know there’s some anxiety and panic. But I look at it as one of the best opportunities that we’ve had in the whole time here, because I do have a strong belief in the group. I do think the group is capable of great things.”

As ugly as things have looked at times, the Leafs are still in the hunt. And Dubas does not sound like a man who is selling.

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Needs

Dee-fence.

Same as always, the Maple Leafs are in need of blue-line depth. They need more responsible players who can break out of his zone cleanly, kill penalties, box out, and do the dirty work. Perhaps even throw the occasional body check.

Dubas did a fine job a couple weeks ago, leaping ahead of the pack and addressing two key needs via his trade with L.A. — a more dependable backup goaltender (Jack Campbell) and a bottom-six winger with edge (Kyle Clifford).

But the gaping hole, for both now and the future, remains. Only two of Toronto’s regular D-men when everyone’s at full health, Morgan Rielly and Justin Holl, are under contract beyond June 30.

No one expects pending UFAs Cody Ceci and Tyson Barrie (on whom Dubas has received calls) to re-up here, and while negotiations to extend Jake Muzzin appear promising, the Maple Leafs’ best pure defender may need to be willing to leave money on the table to stay.

True, rookie call-ups Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren have tread water in sheltered relief — and hopefully take a step to be valued contributors in 2020-21 — but the mere fact Toronto has rushed to dress the NHL’s most inexperienced defence pairing underscores that the position remains one of weakness.

The Maple Leafs rate fifth worst in goals allowed (3.28 per game), and that figure cannot be hung solely on the goalies. Their penalty kill is the seventh worst (76.6 per cent). They’ve turned the puck over more than all but seven teams (666 giveaways). These are big problems.

No other team with numbers this gaudy in these categories is in playoff position.

“We could add a defenceman, but just to say that we did is not probably something we would do,” Dubas said. “We would want someone to move the needle for us in the long run, not in the short run — unless it was the perfect deal.”

That perfect deal would be a youngish right shot with term. Minnesota’s Matt Dumba, 25, tops that list. Dumba’s teammate, 26-year-old Jonas Brodin; Anaheim’s Josh Manson, 28; and Buffalo’s Rasmus Ristolainen, 25, should be considered as well.

The influx of salary-cap space suddenly available with Reilly, Ceci and Andreas Johnsson all on LTIR could prompt Dubas to at least explore a rental market that includes experienced, minutes-munching defenders on bad teams.

Most of the better ones (Brenden Dillon, Dylan DeMelo, Andy Greene, Marco Scandella) have already been snatched up. Sami Vatanen, Erik Gustafson and Ron Hainsey remain possibilities, but the pickings are slim.

Pending free agents, age, salaries

RFAs
• Travis Dermott, 23, $863,333
• Ilya Mikheyev, 25, $925,000
• Frederik Gauthier, 24, $675,000
• Pontus Aberg, 26, $700,000
• Jeremy Bracco, 22, $842,500
• Mason Marchment, 24, $767,500
• Adam Brooks, 23, $759,167
• Kasimir Kaskisuo, 26, $675,000

UFAs
• Jake Muzzin, 30, $4 million
• Tyson Barrie, 28, $2.75 million
• Cody Ceci, 26, $4.5 million
• Jason Spezza, 36, $700,000
• Kyle Clifford, 29, $800,000
• Michael Hutchinson, 29, $700,000

Potential assets to move

Kasperi Kapanen
With Johnsson injured, the fastest Leaf on the roster is hands-down the club best movable trade chip. Kapanen has a 20-goal season, kills penalties, is signed for two more seasons beyond this one at a fair $3.2-million cap hit, and it’s widely believed he could skate farther up the lineup on a club not so stacked at right wing. Toronto would only part with Kapanen is if it’s for a top-four defenceman with term.

Alexander Kerfoot
Kerfoot falls into the same middle-class, middle-six boat as Johnsson and Kapanen, meaning he has a palatable contract that makes him movable. Kerfoot, 25, is versatile enough to play any forward position and brings a mix of speed and grease that allows him to complement high-end skill players.

Jeremy Bracco
The organization and Bracco appear to be heading to crossroads. The dynamic playmaker and power-play maestro enjoyed a dominant offensive season on the farm in 2018-19 (79 points in 75 games) but has been consistently been passed over when it comes time for the big club to make a call-up. Bracco is an RFA at season’s end and could climb the depth chart more easily in an organization less flush on the wings.

Draft picks
The Maple Leafs already spent their 2020 first- and third-round picks but could use their extra fourth-rounder and two extra sixth-rounders to sweeten a larger deal or grab a second-tier rental. A gamble would be to put their second-round pick in play, because then the Leafs’ amateur scouts will be sitting on their hands for the first three rounds in Montreal.

Draft picks

2020: 2nd, 4th, 4th (VGK), 6th, 6th (CAR), 6th (COL), 7th (SJS), 7th (WPG), 7th (STL)
2021: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th

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One bold move the Maple Leafs could make

Package Kapanen (11 goals, 32 points) with a pick and/or prospect to land a top-four, right-shot defenceman with term.

The math makes it all but inevitable that Dubas will be pushed to deal one of his forwards with a minimum of $3-million AAV in order to free up enough budget to (re-)sign defencemen.

Such a deal certainly doesn’t need to happen before Monday — Dubas could use his time and re-evaluate in June — but if it does, that means one extra playoff run with a better blue line.

I think the Maple Leafs should not…

Sit pat.

There is a unique opportunity opening up here. Florida isn’t exactly seizing the third seed in the Atlantic, and a bolstered defence could be the difference between making the dance and talk-radio anarchy.

That Dubas was already willing to spend futures on Clifford and Campbell suggests he believes in this core. The GM should not let this be a lost campaign. If Rielly can throw on a cape and rejoin an improved blue line for the post-season, the Leafs can wheel out a group dangerous enough to upset.

That said, Toronto’s lack of urgency in games leading up to the deadline could give Dubas pause.

“I’m not the GM, so I don’t know what’s going through his head or what he’s thinking,” Matthews told reporters after getting spanked in Pittsburgh Tuesday. “We believe in one another in this locker room, but it’s not a matter of saying it. It’s a matter of showing it.”

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

Published

17 hours ago

October 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

Published

1 day ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

Published

1 day ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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