Hey maybe Toronto can sign Crawford. He's an UFA too. 2 time Stanley Cup winner. Could be he wants to close out his career getting one more with the Leafs.
- boilermaker100

No No No I would spew across the room to see Crow in a Leaf uniform .Please no no no . .hawks Should resign Crow he was great for the most part all year ,2 years at 5 or maybe 6 mill should do it .Then dart the Russian kid in the draft if we are picking around 8 or 9 ,he should be ready in two or 3 years to bolster our young D .

Hey RaleighHawk - how's everything on your end these days? You and the fam safe and sound?
- Tyler Cameron

Yes--all good so far. Thanks for asking and for keeping the blogs coming. Hope all is well on your end!

I got very tired of Lehner quickly. He's good, not great. Slow most times. Shootouts ... I don't like his presence & throwing his teammates under the bus constantly. I think he wants more than what he made this year at a longer term. Too much term for him is a bad idea in my opinion. I don't think Lehner will win a cup as 1a.
- I Am The Breadman

Hey Breadman nice to here you chipping in .Hope all is well .I agree Lehner had some great games and huge saves .At crunch time though he was not up to par ,and to me anyway Crow had won the job back .

Hey Breadman nice to here you chipping in .Hope all is well .I agree Lehner had some great games and huge saves .At crunch time though he was not up to par ,and to me anyway Crow had won the job back .
- oldduffman

Yeah, I'm hanging in here. "Living" with social distancing. Thank God I can work from home. I hope you are doing well.

I agree, Crow's net to lose & he can come back for another year or two, 4 mil or right around there, is fine by me.

Yeah, I'm hanging in here. "Living" with social distancing. Thank God I can work from home. I hope you are doing well.

I agree, Crow's net to lose & he can come back for another year or two, 4 mil or right around there, is fine by me.
- I Am The Breadman

That good to here Breadman .I am doing good little stressed at times , got to stay away from the 24 hour news .

I got very tired of Lehner quickly. He's good, not great. Slow most times. Shootouts ... I don't like his presence & throwing his teammates under the bus constantly. I think he wants more than what he made this year at a longer term. Too much term for him is a bad idea in my opinion. I don't think Lehner will win a cup as 1a.
- I Am The Breadman

Top 3 NHl goalie past 2 years.

Top 3 NHl goalie past 2 years.
- RogerRoeper

So he performed well in contract years? I've seen that mistake many times by teams to pay for those performances. He won cups in those top 3 NHL year performances, also? You can have him.

Move Andersen? How about that...

And while Lehner won't be cheap, he won't cost more than Andersen in terms of cap hit. He doesn't play enough games to get more than 5-5.5 per. The Nhl is going with a 2 goalie system now anyways.
- RogerRoeper

I like a lot of players on the Leaf's, i just think it's so hard to win like the Oilers did when they would just outscore teams. If there was no hard cap, maybe, but with it, it always comes down to matchups in a 7 game series, and those AHL dmen will always struggle against top 6 forwards, always.

I would suggest that the most likely buy-out candidate for the Canes would actually be Ryan Dzingle.

Nothing against him, he just hasn't been the fit they needed and to be honest, there's really no room for him with the roster as constructed.

Gardiner could go but I think he has more value in a trade if necessary as he really has seemed to be finding his game of late.

Dark horse buy-out candidate: Jordan Staal. Love the guy, and he brings a lot to the table still, but with Aho a full time 1C and Vincent Trocheck in the fold, $6 million becomes a hefty price for a 3C.

Serious questions for the Canadians here. What's the COVID 19 situation like up there? Stay at home restrictions in place? Restaurant and other businesses shut down? Number of deaths to date and any projections?

Serious questions for the Canadians here. What's the COVID 19 situation like up there? Stay at home restrictions in place? Restaurant and other businesses shut down? Number of deaths to date and any projections?
- boilermaker100

Varies from province to province.

Where I'm at we have only had 2 deaths, 190~ cases total.

Most places they've shut down retailers that aren't selling groceries or construction/agricultural stuff. All hair salons shut down, no visitors in hospitals, that sort of thing.

Serious questions for the Canadians here. What's the COVID 19 situation like up there? Stay at home restrictions in place? Restaurant and other businesses shut down? Number of deaths to date and any projections?
- boilermaker100

Yup. At least here in Toronto and surrounding areas. They say that the only time you should be leaving your homes is if it's necessary.

Restaurants are takeout only, pubs are closed. Most nonessential work places are/should be shutdown.

All social gatherings (5 or more people) are banned for a long while.

poop sucks.

I'm not positive on the number of deaths or anything, though.

Serious questions for the Canadians here. What's the COVID 19 situation like up there? Stay at home restrictions in place? Restaurant and other businesses shut down? Number of deaths to date and any projections?
- boilermaker100

Hi I'm just east of Toronto. I have been tracking this daily, seeing as I don't have much else to do. Having endured, and learned from SARS in 2003 our government has done a pretty good job. As of this moment there are 9005 cases and 105 deaths in Canada. But the better number are the recoveries, 1397 people have recovered from the Disease.

I'm not a Blackhawks fan so I wouldn't know as much as you guys would but, I honestly think the criticism is over-the-top. Every time I watch him he still looks like a very good player.
- GreatGigInTheSky

Very good yes but not worth 10.5mil per. He used to be GREAT. He’s still a legit 1C, but no longer one of the leagues top 1Cs. His attitude and leadership has also been warranting criticism these past few seasons. Takes a lot of dumb penalties and whines like a baby every time.

Very good yes but not worth 10.5mil per. He used to be GREAT. He’s still a legit 1C, but no longer one of the leagues top 1Cs. His attitude and leadership has also been warranting criticism these past few seasons. Takes a lot of dumb penalties and whines like a baby every time.
- SimpleJack

Which brings up a great question. Do you pay for what a play may do or what they did? Matthews and Marner's salary is better than what Toews and Kane are getting and they haven't won anything.

Which brings up a great question. Do you pay for what a play may do or what they did? Matthews and Marner's salary is better than what Toews and Kane are getting and they haven't won anything.
- paulr

But in all fairness the cap was higher when they inked their deals, they are much younger, and i would expect them to produce at a level that warrants that $ over the majority of their terms. But 2 contracts of that magnitude going to forwards is enough. Adding a 3rd in Tavares was silly.

Hawks @ Vancouver game 6 2010 just started on CSN aka NSCH aka Chanel 200 if you have Comcast.

But in all fairness the cap was higher when they inked their deals, they are much younger, and i would expect them to produce at a level that warrants that $ over the majority of their terms. But 2 contracts of that magnitude going to forwards is enough. Adding a 3rd in Tavares was silly.
- SimpleJack

That wasn't the question. How is the best way to compensate, for what they did do or what you hope they do?

I would suggest that the most likely buy-out candidate for the Canes would actually be Ryan Dzingle.

Nothing against him, he just hasn't been the fit they needed and to be honest, there's really no room for him with the roster as constructed.

Gardiner could go but I think he has more value in a trade if necessary as he really has seemed to be finding his game of late.

Dark horse buy-out candidate: Jordan Staal. Love the guy, and he brings a lot to the table still, but with Aho a full time 1C and Vincent Trocheck in the fold, $6 million becomes a hefty price for a 3C.
- BINGO!

That's a deal! The Hawks are paying $10.5 million for their 3C.

Hi I'm just east of Toronto. I have been tracking this daily, seeing as I don't have much else to do. Having endured SARS in 2003 our government has done a pretty good job. As of this moment there are 9005 cases and 105 deaths in Canada. But the better number are the recoveries, 1397 people have recovered from the Disease.
- paulr

Thanks for all the responses. You folks and your families take care.

Which brings up a great question. Do you pay for what a play may do or what they did? Matthews and Marner's salary is better than what Toews and Kane are getting and they haven't won anything.
- paulr

NEVER pay for past performance. That is ridiculous even though many on here see it differently. That is why I never understood Seabrook's contract. Give a 29 yo, who only has one direction to go, a 1M raise for 8 years? Ludicrous.

How many 29 yo signed to long term high dollar extensions have ever worked out? A couple of outliers maybe but 99/100 times it fails.

NEVER pay for past performance. That is ridiculous even though many on here see it differently. That is why I never understood Seabrook's contract. Give a 29 yo, who only has one direction to go, a 1M raise for 8 years? Ludicrous.

How many 29 yo signed to long term high dollar extensions have ever worked out? A couple of outliers maybe but 99/100 times it fails.
- tyweb69

I don't disagree but I'm not sure paying a 21 or 22 year old who hasn't won anything the max salary is a good idea either.

Why was your goalie able to put up such better stats with an even worse D?

Andersen was one of the worst starters in the NHl this year.
- RogerRoeper

Our goalies are better than Andersen. I hardly watch the Leafs, so I was asking a legitimate question. Lehner and Crawford were able to stop high danger shots, Andersen isn't. My question was simply whether or not the Leafs D helped put Andersen in a position to fail.

I don't disagree but I'm not sure paying a 21 or 22 year old who hasn't won anything the max salary is a good idea either.
- paulr

Not paying players the quality of McDavid, Matthews, Barkov, Marner, Draisaitl, etc the $ they deserve just because they haven’t won a Cup yet is extremely silly. You can’t wait for championship success before locking down that caliber of young talent.

Not paying players the quality of McDavid, Matthews, Barkov, Marner, Draisaitl, etc the $ they deserve just because they haven’t won a Cup yet is extremely silly. You can’t wait for championship success before locking down that caliber of young talent.
- SimpleJack

Well silly or not I am glad the Hawks were able to give bridge deals to their young talent because they would never have won more than one cup. The Hawks were already in cap hell in 2010, imagine if they had Kane and Toews playing with $8M plus cap hits? Toronto is flirting with cap hell, Edmonton are top heavy. I like how the Hawks handled it.