The Honour Roll: Final grades for the whole trade season

It’s final over. The trade season and all the rumours and speculation finished until the 10 minutes after the Leafs (hopefully long) playoff run is over. Exhale. It’s time to talk about hockey.
Before we get all the way back to the business of watching games, we need to grade the work of Kyle Dubas. It seems like there are two sets of grades that need to happen, the ones now based entirely on the optics of the transaction, and the ones that will come later with the benefit of hindsight of whether or not everyone did what they were supposed to do. We’ll see if we remember to do that. For now, here are the final thoughts on the Leafs trade deadline.
Colin Hunter: A-
Taken as a whole, Kyle Dubas’ “trade deadline” – being the moves he made from Ryan O’Reilly / Noel Acciari onwards – was great.
While you can analyze each trade individually, the current roster as a unit feels much stronger. While in my ideal world the team would have added one more scoring forward, the forward group overall has become much more versatile, and the bottom six seems to now have an identity – which it has lacked this season. Defensively, depth has certainly b …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

What could the Jays do with Ross Stripling?

Ross Stripling is in his final year of his contract. What should the Jays do with him? It’s a brand new series!

Sometimes, contenders will trade their main roster players. It sounds weird, but this literally happened in 2020, when the Dodgers traded the Jays Ross Stripling for two prospects.
I’m split on what the Jays should do with the 32-year-old. One half believes the Jays should do everything to re-sign him. The other half of me thinks they should trade him to a contender for a haul of prospects.
Let’s be real, the Jays making the playoffs is not even close to being guaranteed. While they currently sit two games above the next team for the final wildcard spot, there have been signs that point to the team needing a lot of work.
Despite having “one of the best offenses”, when it goes cold, it’s enough to give you frostbite. Whether it be with the approaches at the plate, incredibly streaky hitters, or too many right handed bats in the lineup, if their bats go cold in the playoffs, they’re done.
Surprisingly, starting pitching has been fine, aside from Jose Berrios and Yusei Kikuchi starts. Berrios has been the better of the two (regardless of ERA), and he’s had some fantastic games. Kikuchi, on the other hand, should be a relief pitcher, as he gets a lot of swings and misses.
Which leads me to my next point – the bullpen. Aside from players who’ve pitched under 10 innings, it really hasn …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation