Resting Leafs, the importance of home ice, and what’s up with Sam Lafferty: Leaflets

Today marks my first Leaflets in several years as a contributor to The Leafs Nation rather than as the Managing Editor. The change probably doesn’t mean much to any of you reading this, but the move should allow for a future opportunity for someone new to come in and run this site with a level of commitment I never could as someone working a full time job in addition to managing this site. I want to thank a lot of people at The Nation Network like Jay Downton, David Quadrelli, Baggedmilk, Cam Lewis, and so many others who were huge supports to me in my time in the role, but I especially what to thank the writers of TLN for all their hard work over the past three years. I had the joy of stepping into the role right as the pandemic paused hockey and coming out of that I was given the opportunity to build my dream team at TLN and we’ve been going strong ever since. Now the site is ready to take another leap forward and the 2023-24 season will be an exciting one for not on the Leafs, but TheLeafsNation.com
All that preamble out of the way, here are my wee …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Home run from Blue Jay Otto Lopez leads Canada to huge win over Colombia at World Baseball Classic

Canada and Colombia faced off earlier today in an important contest for Pool C, one that was going to help the winner on their quest to advance in the World Baseball Classic while the loser is likely advancing out of the round-robin stage.

Team Canada was coming off a demoralizing loss to the United States last night, losing 12 to 1 through seven innings, while Colombia dropped their contest to Great Britain yesterday 7 to 5, an upset that gave the country its first win in World Baseball Classic history. Both teams earned a win earlier in the week however, Colombia upset Mexico in extra innings while Canada scored 18 runs in their opener over Great Britain, mercying them in the seventh inning. 
For Canada, Phillies prospect Noah Skirrow was given the start while Colombia sent southpaw Adrian Almeida to the mound. The right-hander put forward the best start for Team Canada so far in the tournament, going 5.0 innings without allowing an earned run with two hits and one walk while striking out five, including Angels infielder Gio Urshela. Skirrow was able to avoid any damage from the walks by getting catcher Jorge Alfaro to ground into two separate double plays while also getting some help from Bo Naylor, with the two combining for a strikeout/throw-em-out double play, nailing Oscar Mercado at second base.
Canada Earns its Second Win of the World Baseball Classic – Shuts Out Colombia
At the …

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Author: Tyson Shushkewich / Blue Jays Nation

The desire for the Leafs to add talent vs. the reluctance to trade a top asset

Today brings an end to The Leafs Nation midseason writer’s survey content. I hope people have found reading a flood of opinions this week and feel that we are closing it out with subject matter that will drive the discussion for the next couple of months and that is what the Leafs should do heading into the trade deadline. The general consensus is the Leafs should add someone really good, but they shouldn’t give up their best assets to do so. If only it was that easy (it was when Peter Chiarelli was a GM) but I think some of the nuances of the situation have been captured below and the numerous caveats that go into these tough personnel decisions are laid out.
The biggest deadline need for the Leafs
Jon Steitzer:
It has to be a 3rd line center that is capable of being a 2nd line guy if called upon. Holmberg has absolutely cemented himself as an every day player, and Kampf is still a steal, but neither of those guys work as replacements if Tavares or Matthews are hurt. Kerfoot, Jarnkrok, and Nylander are all poor substitutes in that role too. They need a legitimate option for the first time since Nazem Kadri and Holmberg can either play the wing as needed or be the 1 …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Seravalli: Kerfoot has generated interest but Leafs still see his value

Frank Seravalli joined the SN 590 Morning Show today to weigh in on amongst other things, Alex Kerfoot.
Seravalli states that there’s 100% a market for Kerfoot. They could move him today, and the number of teams is significant. The feeling is that his production is exceeding what he is getting paid and that he’d be a $5M on the open market, and because he’s exceeding his value the Leafs will want to keep him and are comfortable with letting him run out the last year of his contract.
This followed a statement that the Leafs are in fact actively shopping Justin Holl and that moving him today would give them a lot of flexibility.
So here’s the thing with all of that. Now that the draft has passed and there isn’t an immediate rush to use the futures that a trade for either a Holl or Kerfoot trade would produce, the Leafs are best waiting until some teams miss out on their target UFAs before reassessing the value of either Kerfoot or Holl.
It’s something that hasn’t been discussed much on this site to this point, but there is still the 10% summer overage on the salary cap that will allow for the Leafs to explore what they want to do on their way to cap compliance. They can go after any target they want as long as there is a clear path to cap compliance by opening night.
It’s in that spirit, that …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Rumours: Dubas speaks and the Draft Day roundup

The trading floodgates should be opening today. Or it could be like last year when every GM quietly makes their scheduled pick and we turn off our televisions feeling unfulfilled five hours later. Still, there’s the hope of trades and that’s what we’re in the business of selling you. There was a Dubas availability yesterday, and we’ll start with some of his quotes from that.

#Leafs GM Kyle Dubas on the state of talks with pending UFA Jack Campbell. pic.twitter.com/qjqEjGR3Mf
— David Alter (@dalter) July 6, 2022

It seems that Kyle Dubas is viewing Jack Campbell as a bit of a safety school when it comes to goaltending options, and that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. The goal is to either upgrade or get cheaper. The status quo isn’t an option because the status quo is about to triple in price. It’s probably best to make peace with the fact that Jack Campbell won’t be a Leaf next season if that was something you wanted.

#Leafs GM Kyle Dubas on negotiations with Ilya Mikheyev. It’s a bit more ominous here. pic.twitter.com/9MMAG0S87x
— David Alter (@dalter) July 6, 2022

Dubas was far blunter when it came to Mikheyev and reiterated how much the Leafs love the player and how he is likely due for a raise, but that raise has him priced out of Toronto. The communication channels are open but don’t hold out hope here.

Dubas on any concern about Sandin getting an offer sheet: “If there’s going to be an offer sheet, the sooner the better so we can make our decision and move on.”
— David Alter (@dalter) July 6, 2022

This follows a lengthy quote about how the Leafs view Sandin and Liljegren to be very similar, and it doesn’t take a genius to read into the fact that the Leafs see Sandin as needing to take a contract identical to Liljegren’s. The offer s …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation