It’s a long way to free agent season, and there’s likely not going to be any trades for two months or so, but there are a few players we can be very sure played their last game for the Leafs in Sunday’s loss to Columbus.
Then there’s some we hope have.
Tyson Barrie
Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images
Acquired in the Nazem Kadri trade, and with half his salary retained to make the numbers work, Tyson Barrie arrived as a credentialed top-pairing right-shooting defenceman. He will leave as a derided third-pairing fill-in and power play specialist who wasn’t missed when he left his last Leafs game injured in the second period.
We all really wish him well, and hope his injury isn’t serious. He’d taken hit after hit after hit in that game, and may well have a pile of Boone Jenner-shaped bruises.
You can’t call Barrie’s tenure on the Leafs anything but an abject failure, and his season was in some ways the Leafs season. He started out very ineffective, and that was all blamed on Mike Babcock. There’s something to that. The thing that most correlated with terrible shot share or quality of shooting at either end of the ice in October was Tyson Barrie. He even made Jake Muzzin look bad.
Barrie fared better with Sheldon Keefe behind the bench, but that was mostly because Keefe put him on the first power play unit while Morgan Rielly was not 100% and used him on the third pair the rest of the time. Barrie has the distinction of having a very high Corsi For impact that he erodes from his own effect on offensive quality down to something barely above replacement level. Keefe’s usage made sense, and was a good example of making the most of what he had. Continuing to use Barrie on the first power play once Rielly was healthy is another story, however.
Tyson Barrie’s boomer of a shot from the point right into someone’s shin pads became a classic moment of this Leafs season.
And we will never have to see that again.
Cody Ceci
Oh, Cody. It was the best of times:
It was the worst of times:
It’s easier to just shrug off all the Ceci-ness of Cody Ceci than it is Barrie’s Barrie-ness. Ceci was always meant to be something we endured as a way to get out from under the term on the Zaitsev deal without buying it out (which was clearly how Lou planned on coping). And Ceci always gave it his all. He just doesn’t have all that much to give.
He rates out as almost exactly a replacement level player, playing too many minutes over his head against competition he shouldn’t have been facing. He should have been the third-pairing right defender, but Tyson Barrie took that job from both Ceci and Justin Holl. A truly amazing feat.
I wish Cody Ceci all the best wherever he goes next, and even if he’ll take a sweetheart deal, the Leafs have all the third-pairing guys they need, so no thanks. Good luck Cody! Maybe you can take over for Luke Schenn with the Lightning.
David Clarkson
Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images
At long last, our David Clarkson nightmare is over. Both his and Nathan Horton’s contracts expire this offseason, and that means the Leafs can start next season, barring actual injuries, with no one on LTIR.
I have to admit the moment when I figured out why the Leafs had traded for David Clarkson’s contract last summer is a fond memory. (They needed a higher total cap hit if Mitch Marner had not signed by opening day in order to effectively use the LTIR room created by Nathan Horton.) But that’s about all of the long, tortured story of Clarkson that is a fond memory.
Nothing that happened because of him was his fault. He was offered a contract that was ludicrous, and he wasn’t going to turn it down. But if you’re feeling low right now, remember how far the Leafs have come from the day that deal was signed.
No more dead money on LTIR. That phase of the rebuild is over.
Frederik Gauthier
Photo by Jeff Chevrier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Frederik Gauthier is a faceoff and PK specialist who isn’t very good at PK the way the Leafs do it these days. The playoffs proved that even his legitimate ability at taking defensive-zone faceoffs wasn’t enough to make up for his unassertive play the rest of the time.
Pierre Engvall was fine as a fourth line centre, and Keefe’s decision to scratch Gauthier may lead to an end to the faceoffs matter theory of the 4C of the Leafs.
On the other hand, he will likely re-sign to a cheap contract for next year that might vault him right back into the lineup of the cap-strapped Leafs.
So maybe this isn’t goodbye to Gauthier but only au revoir.
Kyle Clifford
Clifford in a spot few Leafs got to in the playoffs.Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images
Kyle Clifford is a UFA, but is he absolutely destined to leave? Re-signing him upgrades a draft pick owed to LA to a second-rounder from a third, so that seems to make it an instant no.
But, he was effective with Jason Spezza (sure to return if he wants to) and Engvall, and while they weren’t offensively dangerous, he can make space on the ice in ways other players sometimes struggle to duplicate.
But he seems destined to cost too much for what the return is, so I think it’s likely that we’ve seen the last of that part of the only meaningful deadline trade the Leafs made.
The Formerly Unthinkable
Before this loss, Kyle Dubas was 100% committed to the core of his team. “We can and we will” was his motto, and he stuck to it. Will he keep that up?
It’s hard to imagine him watching what’s just happened against the Blue Jackets and running back the exact same core of Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Nylander, Andersen and Morgan Rielly.
It says here that at least one of those players will be sacrificed as part of wider changes before the start of next season and — spoiler alert — there’s no chance it’s Matthews.
I’m not sure I find Johnston’s argument convincing, and I don’t think the playoff performance is really the thing that should be deciding the future. The regular season performance should be. But do you agree with this take? Have we seen the last of one of the core?
Poll
Will one of the core Leafs be traded this offseason?
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
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