Buyout TJ Brodie?

What a laugh. I hope we all enjoyed that while not giving the clickbaiters the oxygen they crave.

I wondered if the Leafs offseason was going to be wild – and I think guys hunting for impressions for money or clout are doing their hardest to share wild ideas – but the reality is the Leafs summer is going to be pretty boring. Apart from the new GM, no one is going to be sacrificed and thrown off a cliff, and there's only so many ways you can say Matt Murray won't be back. I don't think he'll be bought out, for the record, because buyouts are dumb wastes of money and all goalies are tradeable. But it's hard to just say that same thing over and over again because it's the only thing to talk about.

The Draft is in a week, hopefully that will tith y'alls appetites. Until then, don't believe everything you see on the internet.

Various Leafs and Branches

Something far more interesting than buying out top pair defenders is seeing which restricted free agents don't get qualified or get traded because their team doesn't want to pay them.

RFAs to watch out for
The Leafs don’t have a lot of assets to trade to add players, and the free agent market means older, and more expensive relative to player worth most of the time. Getting a good, young, cost-controlled player is the holy grail, but is it possible?
Cathy SquiresPPP Leafs

If I'm being honest, seeing who will step behind the Leafs bench will give important information on how Brad Treliving sees Sheldon Keefe, but also what kind of coaches he wants to hire.

3 Possible NHL Assistants
In Monday’s 32 Thoughts, Jeff Marek named three possible hires for the Maple Leafs open coaching slot. Two were names he’d heard as possibles, and one is just a rational guess everyone has made by now. Let’s start there.
Cathy SquiresPPP Leafs

The headlines write themselves.

2023 NHL Draft Profile: Matthew Mania | PPP Leafs
Looking at the underrated defenseman Matthew Mania and why he is a perfect later round swing for the Maple Leafs if he falls that far.
Brian SPPP Leafs

Travis Green was highly thought of before having to coach some highly dysfunctional Canucks teams. He has head coaching experience. Hearing the Leafs were interested in him is compelling in case coaching changes are needed at some point next season.

The AHL Calder Cup Finals are going to an always-exciting Game 7 in Coachella Valley on Wednesday night! The home team has won every game so far in this 2-3-2 series format. Coachella gets home ice in the last game.

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FIREBIRDS FORCE GAME SEVEN WITH 5-2 WIN OVER BEARS
The Firebirds defeated the Hershey Bears by the score of 5-2 to force a game seven this Wednesday at Acrisure Arena.
Gina RotoloCoachella Valley Firebirds

Micah has a new xG model where, as he says, "the range of goaltending talent is much smaller (per-shot) than the range of shooting talent and setting talent, around six times smaller."

From The Branches