Peter Puck

Leafs sign Pezzetta for 2 years and under 800K AAV.

Yeah, I hit return too soon. Meant to say upgrade.

Sort of replaces Heineman (with an upgrade).

I hoped to get a 5th but still it's a found draft pick.

Okay thanks. I still think it is worth the risk. I think he still has value. A few teams would be interested.

Can't we walk away if his arbitration award is too high? I forget the rules.

I was hoping they would qualify Primeau. People seemed to think the Habs wouldn't, but I think it is a good move. He had a terrific AHL season and some team may want him. We could still lose him on waivers (which I think is the likely outcome) but we may trade him since lots of teams are seeking goalies. If neither of those things happen he continues to play in the AHL and he won't cost much against the cap.

Yes Draisaitl is a good example. You say he elevates his game consistently. Over the past 7 years he scored 321 goals in 521 regular season games. That's 0.62 goals per game. During the same 7 years he's played 83 playoff games (about a full season). His 46 goals in those 83 games is 0.55 goals per game. Does this show he is better in the playoffs? If we use points instead of goals the numbers shift a little. Over the past 7 years he has 1.43 points per game in the regular season and 1.51 points per playoff game. To me this just says he is a (very) good player who plays at the same level playoffs or regular season. I don't see evidence (in his point totals) that he is much better in playoffs than he is in the regular season. Even if the numbers showed a substantial difference we would need some reason to believe it wasn't just random variations.

People arguing that certain players are clutch don't seem to take luck into account. It seems anyone whose stats are better in the playoffs is deemed to be clutch. If I find a player who has much better stats on even calendar dates than on odd ones does this prove the guy is "clutch on evens"? As Commandant is saying, for clutch to be a real thing and not just statistical variation or luck it would have to be repeatable. It isn't just enough to find someone who always has raised stats in the playoffs since you are searching among a large collection of players.

I don't want to trade Mailloux or either of our first round picks for anyone over the age of 33. I'd rather keep those assets and swing for the fences with them. If we are not getting someone who will be around and effective in 3 or 4 years when we (hopefully) will be serious contenders then we should keep our assets. Helping Demidov's development for 2 years is important but I'm not convinced Malkin is significantly better at that than many others.

I really want to hang onto Mailloux. I would only trade him (in a package) for a young quality 2C that we like. People are always advocating that we swing for the fences. Keeping Mailloux and hoping he develops into a top 4 Dman with decent defence is swinging for the fences. He may fizzle out but we don't really know what he will become. If he busts it won't really hurt us too much.

Of course his offence matters. Just because it is his strength doesn't mean it doesn't matter. The question is are his contributions on offence enough to overcome his defensive difficulties.

I think he has about 1 month left on his contract. But he will get offers for a new one from some team.

He has been one of the best players on the team. He's tied for third in scoring with 5 points in 8 playoff games. More importantly he has been driving a lot of the Rocket's offence. If we insist no one can play in the NHL until they are perfect in the AHL we will have a long wait.

Yes. My comment was more in reply to Don posting part of the list of penalties. I agree that Mailloux needs to cut down on his penalties but I also think he would benefit from some NHL playing time. He needs to learn what works in the NHL and what doesn't.