View Full Version : No Foote? No Problem.
Newfie John
8-02-05, 8:04 PM
A lot of leaf fans are very sad that the leafs couldn't get Foote, he's the defencemen that our defence needed. Since there's pretty much no one out there like him, I say we take someone from within. Who is this person? Its Jay Harrison. Last year he had a injury riddled season in St. Johns.
He has little to no offensive game, but he has good ability as far as making that first breakout pass. He is big, he's mean, and he's a rock defensively. He clears the front of the net, and racks up his fair share of fighting majors.
I say we bring in this guy to be our coveted stay at home guy. He just might surprise you all.
The Insider
8-02-05, 8:08 PM
Well, it's an idea. I will say that if we are going to bring in any rookies now is the time since we have no money to sign anyone. I like the thought of seeing guys like White, Harrision, Wellwood and Colaiacovo getting a shot to play in the big time. You sit back and think "What's the worse that could happen?" we are already horribly thin in all aspects except in goal and Line 4 so why not give these guys a shot?
Newfie John
8-02-05, 8:15 PM
Well, it's an idea. I will say that if we are going to bring in any rookies now is the time since we have no money to sign anyone. I like the thought of seeing guys like White, Harrision, Wellwood and Colaiacovo getting a shot to play in the big time. You sit back and think "What's the worse that could happen?" we are already horribly thin in all aspects except in goal and Line 4 so why not give these guys a shot?
Exactly my point. We're obviously not going to win a cup this year, unless Fergy pulls something out of his ass. Why not try out the kids and see how they do?
The Insider
8-02-05, 8:19 PM
Exactly my point. We're obviously not going to win a cup this year, unless Fergy pulls something out of his ass. Why not try out the kids and see how they do?
That's really our only choice, doing this may also bring the slight possibility of bringing in a high to mid priced player since we can burn some roster spots with the league minimum salary. The only down side I see, and John, you might want to cover your eyes for this one, is it will make the Marlies team very weak if we have to bring up all our young guns, and 2 losing pro hockey teams in the city is not good for business :wave: .
Newfie John
8-02-05, 8:21 PM
That's really our only choice, doing this may also bring the slight possibility of bringing in a high to mid priced player since we can burn some roster spots with the league minimum salary. The only down side I see, and John, you might want to cover your eyes for this one, is it will make the Marlies team very weak if we have to bring up all our young guns, and 2 losing pro hockey teams in the city is not good for business :wave: .
The Marlies losing breaks my heart, really does. :rolleyes:
The Insider
8-02-05, 8:23 PM
The Marlies losing breaks my heart, really does. :rolleyes:
LOL, I figured that much :thumb:
Bob burns
8-02-05, 8:30 PM
We're obviously not going to win a cup this year,
I didn't even know that kind of talk was in the Leaf fan vocabulary. ;)
The Insider
8-02-05, 8:35 PM
I didn't even know that kind of talk was in the Leaf fan vocabulary. ;)
It's in the slang category of our dictonary :thumb:
But it doesn't take much to see that our team is going to be out of contention this year, you guys get a break because there are going to be a lot of depressed Leafers this winter :(
Agreed with the fact that since Toronto won't be in contention for the Cup you may aswell get a jump start on your youth movement. Thus, "no Foote no problem" as the topic suggests s not that unaccurate. And I doubt Foote would've made the difference between this current group of players and the Cup anyway, as nice as he would've been.
But if Jay Harrison is your plan B you better prepared for some serious exploitation of the young lad. And there's nothing worse for a young guys development than to destroy his confidence. While playing under Pat Quinn. In a city where every mistake will be magnified. 900 times.
John mentioned he has a nice first pass, is big mean and solid defensively but that's just not enough at the NHL. There are tons of guys out there who are big, mean and can put a puck right on the tape. And with the new NHL's crack down on abstrustion Jay isn't the type of guy who'll be finding life any easier. Harrison is quite a poor skater and he, along with many oters around the AHL, benefited from being able to abstruct fast opposing forwards. At the NHL level the guys are even faster, not to mention stronger, so his size advantage won't be as great. I certainly don't fancy his odds against a Kovalchuk, a Fedorov, and just for the Newfie, a Havlat when he's not able to tie them up a hold on for dear life. Infact, even if Harrison was able to do such I think he'd be made to look quite foolish by the NHL's best. And with the red-line being taken out the stretch pass will not only take advantage of even the most seasond vets, but will be sure to rip apart heavy footed, inexperienced d-men. Know anyone who fits that description?
Why you would want to bring this guy up to T.O over Cola, Bell, or maybe even Vorobriev if he comes over from Europe is beyond me. For a guy who is (IMO) going to be a very nice player to round out a top 4 in his prime, expecting him to bring what Foote would - top pairing minutes with all the intangibles - in his rookie season is nuts. And on top of all of that this isn't the year to introduce him. As said before, slow skating defencemen are really going to be exploited with these new rule changes. It'd be best to let guys such as Harrison adjust to the new rules down in the AHL first before bringing them up for prime time. Pluging him into Toronto's top-4 right now would not only be bad for immediate results (triva question: what would rise faster with Harrison on the ice? TO's GA or Domi's PIM's?), but could quite likely be bad for future results aswell by seeing a solid prospect lose his confidence.
Bob burns
8-02-05, 8:45 PM
It's in the slang category of our dictonary :thumb:
But it doesn't take much to see that our team is going to be out of contention this year, you guys get a break because there are going to be a lot of depressed Leafers this winter :(
I don't see why there are so many gloom faces here. What really has changed all that drastically besides those two old timers heading down to the retirement capital now? It frees up space/cap room to sign some players that could be great veterans for this team. And there is speculation of Thornton going to T-dot so I would not give up on this team if I were a fan of them just yet.
The Insider
8-02-05, 8:51 PM
I don't see why there are so many gloom faces here. What really has changed all that drastically besides those two old timers heading down to the retirement capital now? It frees up space/cap room to sign some players that could be great veterans for this team. And there is speculation of Thornton going to T-dot so I would not give up on this team if I were a fan of them just yet.
It's the simple fact that looking at our team right now here are our lines:
O'Neill-Sundin-?
Tucker-Stajan-?
Ponikarovsky-Antropov-Belak
Kilger-?-Perrot
Klee-McCabe
Berg-Kaberle
Pilar-?
Belfour
Tellqvist
That's not going to to cut it I'm afraid, and with only 7 million left to spare, I challenge anyone to find a players to fill in the blanks and turn the team around.
I don't see why there are so many gloom faces here. What really has changed all that drastically besides those two old timers heading down to the retirement capital now? It frees up space/cap room to sign some players that could be great veterans for this team. And there is speculation of Thornton going to T-dot so I would not give up on this team if I were a fan of them just yet.
Yeah. This is the first good GM'ing Toronto has seen in years. Quinn, being the idiot that he is, would've matched those offers for Gary and Joe and then likely would've gone out and totally out-bid Atlanta for Holik, a man he has coveted for years. Then we could all be here bashing the Leafs. Man I miss Pat Quinn as Toronto's GM...... how sweet it would've been to see him run this franchise into the ground under the new CBA.
Congratulations to JFJ for finally pumping some class, and more importantly for the sake of the Ontario rivaly and the Toronto faithful, some brains into the Toronto organization. :thumb: The fish rots from the head down and for a while that head was pure garbage (most of that garbage going by the name of Quinn).
Bob burns
8-02-05, 8:55 PM
It's the simple fact that looking at our team right now here are our lines:
O'Neill-Sundin-?
Tucker-Stajan-?
Ponikarovsky-Antropov-Belak
Kilger-?-Perrot
Klee-McCabe
Berg-Kaberle
Pilar-?
Belfour
Tellqvist
That's not going to to cut it I'm afraid, and with only 7 million left to spare, I challenge anyone to find a players to fill in the blanks and turn the team around.
Yeah you're right, I didn't realise it looked like that. Then I retract my earlier statement and agree that youth should be the focus of JFJ. Maybe a veteran defensement would help, but now that Foote is gone I wonder who that could be. Maybe the Leafs will have to make a trade or two as well. But like Manu said, it's good JFJ didn't keep all the old timers.
The Insider
8-02-05, 9:03 PM
Yeah you're right, I didn't realise it looked like that. Then I retract my earlier statement and agree that youth should be the focus of JFJ. Maybe a veteran defensement would help, but now that Foote is gone I wonder who that could be. Maybe the Leafs will have to make a trade or two as well. But like Manu said, it's good JFJ didn't keep all the old timers.
Scary huh? It's tough for me to admit it, but we are the first victims of this new system and it's time to face reality. Like Man U. said it is nice for us to have a lot of cap space open next season, but in a year where hockey is making it's return, the center of the hockey universe is going to be a little quiet this year(barring a miracle or epic proportions) I do enjoy the idea of landing some big fish in next years frenzy, but it's going to be a long winter for us and I don't know how the team is going to react to the media blitz that will bash this team till their blue in the face, but if we are rebuilding, we mightaswell go full blown, which makes you wonder why we kept Belfour??? More questions then answers in T.O. :confused:
It's the simple fact that looking at our team right now here are our lines:
O'Neill-Sundin-?
Tucker-Stajan-?
Ponikarovsky-Antropov-Belak
Kilger-?-Perrot
Klee-McCabe
Berg-Kaberle
Pilar-?
Belfour
Tellqvist
That's not going to to cut it I'm afraid, and with only 7 million left to spare, I challenge anyone to find a players to fill in the blanks and turn the team around.With 7 million we could fill those spots and at least win the battle of Ontario, I mean after all that is our stanley cup. 3 guys that come to mind. 1 is almost a sure fire thing, Allison, 2 is almost a forgone conclusion, Lindros, and 3 is Anson Carter. Could just be enough to win the Stanley....errr the Battle of Ontario ;)
The Insider
8-02-05, 9:57 PM
With 7 million we could fill those spots and at least win the battle of Ontario, I mean after all that is our stanley cup. 3 guys that come to mind. 1 is almost a sure fire thing, Allison, 2 is almost a forgone conclusion, Lindros, and 3 is Anson Carter. Could just be enough to win the Stanley....errr the Battle of Ontario ;)
I agree with Carter, I pegged him for the team in my post earlier, but with Lindros and Allison we are seriously rolling the dice, if they stay healthy and regain their touch then we have an outside shot, but this is Toronto and nothing ever goes right for us :cry:
I agree with Carter, I pegged him for the team in my post earlier, but with Lindros and Allison we are seriously rolling the dice, if they stay healthy and regain their touch then we have an outside shot, but this is Toronto and nothing ever goes right for us :cry:Oh there is definatly more downside to this, but if these guiys can play to their past abilities and stay healty, at least we can slow down on the ativan this winter ;)
scorpionn
8-02-05, 10:27 PM
I don't think Jay Harrison was given a qualifying offer, at least it didn't list him in the TSN report.
As for a vetran defenceman, I think someone like Roman Hamrlik would be a good fit and in our price range... lets face it, we aren't going to be adding a #1 defenceman to the mix, but Hamrlik is solid.
Things really aren't looking that good for us so far. Perhaps if we sign Allison and Lindros things may look better...
Things really aren't looking that good for us so far. Perhaps if we sign Allison and Lindros things may look better...
Allison is apparently all but a Leaf, he just needs to pass a physical tomorrow. Rumour has it he can earn as much as 4M in bonuses alone (Sportsnetnews).
Newfie John
8-03-05, 8:08 AM
Allison is apparently all but a Leaf, he just needs to pass a physical tomorrow. Rumour has it he can earn as much as 4M in bonuses alone (Sportsnetnews).
I'm sure he'd be worth it if he hits those bonuses.
bluemeanie
8-03-05, 9:10 AM
They have $10 Million to spend If they want. Although, I agree with everyone that we're not going to see a contender in Toronto this year, I think that we can see those blank spots filled with at least some exciting players. The problem is, some of them are coming cheap because they're damaged goods and how much they'll actually play will be up in the air. Not that I'm counting my chickens yet...
If the pieces fall into place the way we're expecting them to, Toronto will be a fast, fancy, passing around the perimeter type of team... no net crashing = no cup. We won't be winning any B.O.O. either... Ottawa is still the team to beat in the east. :conspire:
Leafs_Fa_Life
8-03-05, 12:54 PM
I don't like the idea of Toronto giving Allison up to 4M in incentives. If he hits all those bonuses JFJ will look like a genious in the short for picking up a PPG center at such a low base, but next year the Leafs will have 4M dollars of dead money that'll greatly reduce their cap number. If guys like Lindros and Mogilny are also brought in on similar injury contracts then we could be in trouble next season (assuming these guys hit their bonuses).
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