As expected, business has been picking up across the NHL over the past fews.
That being said, things remain very quiet on the Leafs front. Over time, that will change, but right now, there’s not much going on. Obviously, there’s a lot cooking behind the scenes —that’s for sure.
That’s where the conversation started on the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take as we continue to get set for this weekend’s festivities.
What are the Leafs up to? Truthfully, that’s a loaded question. From Tavares and Knies to others, there’s a lot of moving parts to all of this. Brought to you by Charm Diamond Centres, we attempted to tackle that massive question head-on off the top with The Sheet’s Jeff Marek. We hit on everything from the draft itself to Marner’s future to if Marek thinks Tavares will end up re-signing in Toronto. Over and above that, we talked a bit about free agency. For the record, Marek thinks the Leafs will take a legitimate swing at Brad Marchand —provided he gets to market, of course.
After we let Marek go, we got into Treliving and Mark Leach’s media availability ahead of the decentralized draft being staged in Los Angeles. The most newsworthy stuff coming from that was Treliving conceding that Marner’s most likely headed to market. Additionally, he intimated that things are moving on the Tavares front, too. All in all, we expect the Tavares thing to get done in short order here. Honestly, it would be surprising if it didn’t. Furthermore, we discussed some of the possibilities out there. After seeing the big Utah and Buffalo trade involving J.J. Peterka, we debated whether the Leafs should dangle Brandon Carlo out there. Everyone’s always looking for a top-4 right handed shooting blue liner. Without question, it’s an angle we think the Leafs should look at. Unfortunately, they don’t have much trade capital, so suffice it is to say, Brad Treliving needs to be creative in order to be able to pull something of significance off here.
Then, we got into a lengthy conversation about the new CBA, which is expected to be officially announced on Friday. Of note, it looks like the regular season schedule will be going from 82 to 84 games. Sigh. Now we’ll have to wait two extra regular season games on a yearly basis to find out if the Leafs are a different team. There’s tons of little nuances to pick apart from the new CBA, but most importantly, it means more hockey. As hockey fans, that’s all that matters.
At any rate, the big day is finally here. Be sure to join us on Friday at Noon ET for our draft day show. Talk then!
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