Maple Leafs have succeeded at playing low-event hockey, but should that be their goal?

The Maple Leafs are playing the type of game their coach and GM want them to play. But, given the results, is it the right style for this roster? Justin Bourne weighs in.

• Will injured Drew Doughty still make Team Canada?
• No panic around Auston Matthews’ injury
• How the role of The Situation Room could change

Lars Eller is the first, but won’t be the last. 

The Penguins have let teams know that they are open for business. According to a couple of sources, their preference is young NHL players, followed by already-drafted prospects, followed by picks. The return for Eller — a third-rounder and a fifth-rounder — is typical for an unrestricted-free-agent-to-be. But, by clearing his salary (they did not have to retain), it opens flexibility to explore other options.

Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor are among those to follow. Pettersson deservedly gets a lot of attention, but O’Connor’s low number ($925,000) and flexibility makes him attractive, too. Last summer, Pittsburgh added. Months later, trading Jake Guentzel was the wakeup call, the sign Dubas felt it was time to follow a new path. What did Bill Parcells always say: “You are what your record says you are.” 

That’s not easy in Western Pennsylvania. In the Crosby/Malkin era, the Penguins never concede. Jon Snow does not bend the knee. 

Pittsburgh’s got good pieces with one more year — Noel Acciari, Michael Bunting and Alex Nedeljkovic — and other GMs know Dubas would like to take a few upper-deck swings, but is limited by both hard-to-move contracts and no-trade language.

If Sidney Crosby wished to go anywhere else, he wouldn’t have extended with the Penguins. The only way I could ever see it changing is if reality hit him harder than he expected. I don’t see that right now. I don’t believe Pittsburgh wants to trade Evgeni Malkin, and I don’t believe he wants to go anywhere else. 

Kris Letang has a no-move for three more seasons. Even if he wished a new address, it’s not going to be easy. No one disrespects Letang, fiercely prideful and determined. But his history of injuries and ailments make trading for the 37-year-old a gamble. And, it is difficult to know exactly how it all works, but NHL contracts can be uninsurable for pre-existing conditions. That’s a worry with him.

Erik Karlsson? Again, he’s got control. So it’s going to be up to him. Look at his contract structure, though. The salary drops from $11M now to $9M (2025-26), then $7.5M (2026-27), and San Jose has a bit of retention. A big chunk of next year’s money is a $5M signing bonus. He was traded from the Sharks to Pittsburgh on August 6, 2023, so, if a similar blueprint is followed, that’s even less of a financial commitment for an acquiring team. 

Karlsson is taking a lot of heat locally and internationally — longtime Swedish league and National Team GM Johan Garpenlov told Radio Sporten the defenceman’s play is too much of a risk for the 4 Nations Tournament — but, as the salary drops, it’s not wrong to believe there would be interest. He’s still very, very talented.

Again, though, it is up to him. 

As for Mike Sullivan: This is a coach who would be coveted elsewhere, is a huge favourite of ownership and maintains a strong relationship with Crosby. Dubas is against giving coaches the dreaded “vote of confidence.” He thinks it is counter-productive. 

It’s fair to wonder if the time has come for Sullivan in Pittsburgh — that happens to all coaches — but, in the meantime, he’s taking no shortcuts. He’s just as committed as ever to solving the Penguins’ problems. If they fire him, they’re not doing it because he’s a bad coach. They’re doing it because they believe the Penguins need a new voice and someone else can do a better job with Pittsburgh as presently constructed.

What does this all mean? There are no quick fixes. Moves may not be as seismic as people hope — at least in the short term.

THOUGHTS

1. Pettersson’s value increases with every defenceman who re-signs (Adam Larsson, Jake McCabe, etc). We’ll see how this evolves, but there are a lot of teams expecting Los Angeles to keep Vladislav Gavrikov, which would further shrink the free-agency pool. He’s off to a great start, playing a team-leading 23:22 per night for the Kings. 

2. As Team Canada’s braintrust meets to cull the herd (rosters due Dec. 2, to be announced Dec. 4), Drew Doughty’s timeline remains early January. LA’s done a good job keeping afloat without his massive presence. Canada’s stayed on top of Doughty’s timeline, very much interested in his health. That’s cutting it close. Would be hard to name him, even though he’s very much wanted. 

3. Heard a great Matvei Michkov story. He was so mad at losing in table tennis to one of Philadelphia’s other Russians that he refused to talk to whoever it was for a day or so. He’s super-competitive and wants to do the right things, so you wait to see how a young player handles being sat — and more importantly, how his teammates react. He had a goal, an assist, the shootout winner and a brief scrap with Macklin Celebrini in Monday’s’ 4-3 win over San Jose. Erik Johnson, who praised Michkov for “having the right attitude,” fought Givani Smith in the rookie’s defence in that game, which says a lot about how the other Flyers feel. That’s the second time I’ve seen it happen on his behalf, the other coming from Sean Couturier.

Michkov’s brief removal apparently had something to do with an exchange on the bench the Flyers wished to address. It wasn’t anything enormous or concerning, more like a “let’s deal with it now and move on” teaching moment. 

4. Something else about Philadelphia: a couple people credited associate coach Brad Shaw for his work with Rasmus Ristolainen — and Ristolainen for accepting the teaching. His stick, in particular, is much improved.

5. Dante Fabbro’s 19:17 in his Columbus debut was the most he played since last Nov. 18 — 50 games (including playoffs). He needed a fresh start, and gets it with the Blue Jackets.

The Law of Conservation of Energy states “energy is neither created nor destroyed,” so increased ice-time for Fabbro affects someone else. The situation to watch is now with David Jiricek, who played 9:15 and 8:50 his last two games, then sat out Fabbro’s first. There were rocky waters between player and organization last season. And, while I don’t believe new GM Don Waddell would automatically move on from a player he didn’t draft, he wouldn’t have the same attachment as Jarmo Kekalainen. (By the way, congratulations to Kekalainen on being named to Finland’s Hockey Hall of Fame. Great honour.)

6. Don’t think there is a player in the NHL more secretive about injury information than Auston Matthews. We didn’t find out about one of his wrist surgeries for a year. So, as guarded as the Maple Leafs can be, it will be even tighter because Matthews wants it that way. One thing you do recognize is concern and/or borderline panic. Not seeing that right now. If anything, Toronto feels good that it has extra players, because the injuries are mounting or potentially worse than expected (Calle Jarnkrok). 

7. One ex-Blue, seeing Craig Berube giving it to the Maple Leafs, said, “If he’s doing that, he’s saying, ‘You aren’t working and you aren’t competing.’”

8. Didn’t realize Andres Athanasiou was paid a $2M bonus earlier this season, so he’s cash-under-cap ($4.25M hit). Interested parties always love that, although the overall number is still pretty big this early. Chicago’s used one of its three retained-salary slots (Jake McCabe) and teams are always careful about maintaining that flexibility. Athanasiou scored both of Rockford’s goals in his first AHL game since clearing waivers: Wednesday’s 5-2 loss at Grand Rapids. The first was 28 seconds in.

9. Anaheim’s John Gibson confirmed a rumoured story to The Athletic’s Eric Stephens: that his need for appendix surgery was only discovered when he went to the hospital after being hit in the groin by a shot during practice. Otherwise, he didn’t have any idea there was a problem. He’s got to stay healthy. The term on his contract is down to two years, and he’s made it very clear he will consider more options than his trade protection states. But he’s got to stay in the lineup. 

10. Carolina’s 5-2 victory in Vegas on Monday was as good a performance as I’ve seen this season. It was 4-0 after two, and there was a point late in the second period where shots were 26-11. When someone beats Vegas like that in Nevada, it’s very impressive.  

11. One NHL executive who spent time in Toronto’s Situation Room is among those who believes it should be given more power to make in-game decisions. “They have to ability to review play live, even before the game itself stops,” he said. “By the time (on-ice officials) are even in-place to put on the headsets, they’ve seen the replays several times.” He reached out after last weekend, when a review during Philadelphia/Florida took 5:13 in real-time, only to be judged inconclusive. Colin Campbell asked the GMs to consider how they view the future of replay, and this will be one of the questions: Should the Situation Room — recently renovated — have even more say than it does now?

12. One of the delicate dances will be with the officials themselves, who will want to maintain say over how games are called. When the coaches’ challenge arrived, the Situation Room did not have final say over both offside reviews and goaltender interference as it does now. (There is a retired on-ice official in the room to represent those in the rink.) The initial on-ice call matters, because Gary Bettman’s insistence is not to overturn unless it is “dead wrong.” Also, in that crazy Seattle/Colorado double-review last week, it was one of them who got back on the headset to say, “The Avalanche insist we are wrong,” which turned out to be correct.

Aside from the technology advantage in Toronto, the counter-argument presented to me was, basically, more consistency. In the Situation Room, it is one of four people — Campbell, Kris King, Rod Pasma and Kay Whitmore — who make the final call. Obviously, there are many more referees and linesman, so greater variance in what they rule. At the end of the day, GM’s will make their input. But I’m curious to see how far they want to go.

13. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly didn’t give much about CBA negotiations, because there’s not much to say, yet. While GMs were asked for a wish list, several admitted they are well aware this is a “peace-time” negotiation. The NHL and NHLPA desire to get a deal done, there are no fundamental core issues to send negotiations off a cliff. So, they know that if the players seriously object to something like shorter contract term limits, it’s probably not happening. If there’s one thing they’d like (at least the ones I’ve spoken to) it’s something along the lines of: when you submit your lineup for a playoff game, it should be under the salary cap. No problem with carrying extra bodies. But once the puck drops, the ceiling is the max.

14. As for players, obviously they’d love to get a piece of expansion money, but I don’t believe that’s feasible. What is important to them is having more say and control in growing revenues. That’s a very reasonable ask, especially since the new generation is willing to push more and more. 

15. The tampering warning was interesting. As a player, I’d see it as a necessary evil if you’re not going to have the free agency dating period. If I’m going to be making a decision about what’s best for my family and career, I’d rather stealthily make it with some preparation as opposed to a flood of information and take-it-or-leave-it offers on July 1. What it says to me is the league is looking to punish someone who is overly blatant or not careful (and let’s face it, many teams are just as guilty as the agents). But, the league doesn’t need a complaint to act. When Toronto signed John Tavares, they were investigated — and cleared — without the Islanders asking.

16. As one manager said, “No topic is taking up more air than the CHL/NCAA ruling.” That’s because there are still so many unknowns, and the right answers aren’t coming next week. The NHL is determined to stay out of it, aside from things that directly affect it, and those will be dealt with in CBA negotiations. The big one is how long teams keep draft rights. Right now, it is four years NCAA, four years Europe, two years CHL. 

17. A few sources in the junior world said there are already conversations between some NCAA schools and some CHL teams about “partnerships.” A kind of “scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours” setup where, say, a school will advise commits to go to a certain CHL team as long as that team agrees to send back the players when eligible to enrol.

18. NCAA hockey fans were disappointed to hear yesterday that American International College dropped the sport from Division I to Division II, effective next season. Eric Lang, in his ninth year as coach, has a bright future and we’ll see what he does. One scout, angry at AIC for making this switch, referred to it as “Almost in College” and “Applied in Crayon” during a text exchange. Tough crowd.

19. Ironically, it came days after I attended a fundraiser for Western’s team, but one CHL executive was not at all sympathetic to Canadian University hockey and the challenges it will face as part of this rule change. I have a long love for U Sports (as it is known) because my career started covering that, but he said those leagues happily take the players but do nowhere near enough to promote and support themselves. 

20. On the pod this week, Kyle and I joked a bit about how much other teams are jealous of Hershey’s success — back-to-back Calder Cup championships. One ex-AHLer texted to say, “Everyone wants to beat Hershey but they also wanted them going far so the playoff bonus pool grows.”

21. Every year at the Hockey Hall of Fame introductory media conference, I ask the inductees who gave them the most memorable compliment ever received. This exercise was a complete failure with Shea Weber, who couldn’t name one. “I have trouble accepting compliments,” he said. “I get defensive.” 

22. Not far from Weber was Colin Campbell. “I’m not used to getting compliments, so this is really awkward,” he laughed. “The best answer would be that I’ve been connected to the game some-way, some-how for the last 50 years.”

Two responses were family-related. Krissy Wendell said it is when “my mother tells me what a great mother I am.” David Poile explained that it came from wife Elizabeth, not in what she said, but what she committed to. “You share your journey,” he said. “To raise a family, where, in a lot of situations, hockey takes you away from them.”

Two were fan-related. “When someone says, ‘My daughter looks up to you,’” Natalie Darwitz answered. “Or say they idolize you more as a person (than a player). Or that you took time to talk to them, took a photo or smiled at them.” Jeremy Roenick was similar: “When fans would say, ‘No one is as accessible as you.’ You made the game fun for us.”

23. I did not get a chance to ask Pavel Datsyuk, who escaped when I was not looking. So we’ll go with the respect he receives from current players. Datsyuk is a YouTube sensation among today’s newer generation of NHL stars. He went into Toronto’s dressing room after last Friday’s morning skate. While most of the game-day players were gone, Auston Matthews was among those who remained, and was happy to meet him. 

24. Good luck to the Selection Committee in 2025 with the four-male inductee limit. Newly eligible: Zdeno Chara, Ryan Getzlaf, Duncan Keith, Carey Price, Joe Thornton. All deserving of immediate induction. Someone’s going to be offended. Not to mention those still waiting: Curtis Joseph, Alexander Mogilny, Keith Tkachuk (who was shouted out by Roenick). Maybe they can induct Tkachuk as a Builder for adding Brady and Matthew to the NHL. As always, I advocate for former teammates (Cassie Campbell-Pascall) and current ones (Jennifer Botterill, who last week went into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame).

25. One other note about Jeremy Roenick: years ago, when I was unhappy with my weight, I complained I wanted to get in better shape, but didn’t have the time. You know when someone grabs you, firmly but powerfully around the elbow, to deliver an important message? He did that, and said, “If it’s really important to you, you will make time.”

It took longer than it should have, but he was (and is) right about that. I’d also say this: I’ve met people who say they are afraid or intimidated to go into a gym when starting to get in shape. Don’t be. Almost everyone in there understands and respects you are trying to take care of yourself, and will, unsolicited, give you help or a tip if they notice form is off. You won’t regret it. 

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