GCn20

In theory, what you are saying is sound. In practice clubs will not and cannot devote enough of their time away from the main roster to slowly develop anyone. Practice time is limited in our league. Actual players need every rep they can get and giving them up to half timers. they will not be in pads for all but a couple practices a year. Rubbing shoulders with vets, and practicing on their own is not development. Being token rostered players that don't play won't help anything. Sure the odd guy might break through to a full time job but making peanuts on a PR for a shot a couple years down the line is not going to be appealing to many. You are thinking these guys coming out of CIS don't know how to weight train or how to play the game? They know. There are very few late bloomers that come along and break out after a couple of years. If you wanna add 3 spots to the roster for NATs you might be able to fine tune a few guys to specialist roles on teams. That's about as good as it will probably get for guys of the developmental level you are talking about. I really don't feel that 1 or 2 out of 6 would ever develop into a starting role in this scenario. 1 in 20 maybe. Take a look at the drafts, how many drafted guys end up as starters and these are the guys that have demonstrated an ability to potentially play pro ball either thru their game tape or their physical attributes. Maybe 1 in 10 draft picks end up as a starter another 2 out of 10 as teamers or specialists and that is in a couple of good draft years. Thinking that with some extra time that undrafted guys will attain the same success is pretty wishful thinking. By the time each team gets into the 7th round of the draft there isn't much hope for that draft pick let alone picking up the scraps after that.

Toffoli is fine, so is Ehlers. What is killing us is our back end is slow and not moving the puck well at all vs their forecheck. Stanley is simply too slow to play in this series, Samberg and Dillon are both struggling at getting the puck out of the zone. If lineup changes need to be made, I would start by putting in Nate for Stan. We need a defenceman on each pairing capable of beating their speed on the wing back to the puck in our zone. It's killing us right now. Love Big Stan's physical game right now but he can't skate with Mackinnon/Rantanen et al. He is getting turned around way too much and they are getting our zone too easily. Dillon, Samberg, and Pionk are all struggling against the forecheck as well but it is more fixable for them. Our forwards need to be bogging down neutral ice more as well. We can't let the lanche come with speed. They have elite team speed and that is what is turning this series right now.

What is delusional about a young twenty something kid following his dream? Not everyone is driven by the almighty dollar, particularly early in their adulthood. There are a ton of guys who come into every team's TC every year that are undrafted. Are they delusional? However, in the context of what is being discussed the number of people who would agree to such terms would be limited. Not because it is delusional, but because it just isn't a very sound path to development and eventual playing time.

The whole city of Toronto is reeling from the sound of walking on eggshells. According to Friedman, Matthews could not skip his club fitting appointment today because if he did there was no way his clubs would be ready for early next week.

Adam Proteau is a Leafs fan. In order to be a Leafs fan the prerequisite is that you must have really poor takes on what it takes to be successful in the playoffs with just a touch of obliviousness. Therefore, I take his opinion with a massive amount of skepticism. As others have said, he also thinks Matthews will lead the Leafs to the promised land. That is delusional.

Then him and Simoni could get into a fist fight over who really deserves the award. Now that's some solid gold TV right there.

There's danger any time you have the football in your hands. I agree on that. Did we need to put JG in harm's way on a gadget play? No. Is it more dangerous than what we hired him primarily to do? I don't think it is inherently more dangerous. Football is football. Get the ball in your hands and you are a target. Up the middle, on a punt return, all the same degree of risk imo. However, I do agree with your premise that it was a bit of a waster of a play to have JG in that position.

I get what you are saying, but this was no more dangerous than the vast majority of punt returns imo. Was it necessary? Probably not. Was it excessively dangerous situation? Not really.

Yea...for sure. Depends on price, of course, but if a team gets an injury to a returner during the season he would be my first phone call.

He has missed big portions of the last 2 seasons to injury and was kind of average last year when he returned from one. I'm thinking teams just want more reliability and Grant's is questionable.

So we left around 75k on the table....damn...that would have given us a good upgrade somewhere. Oh well, hopefully we go 99,999 over this year. I don't mind if we pay the luxury payroll tax as long as we win doing so.

If they are it's because 2 days later we end up signing them.

Hopefully no one....but likely someone. We'll find out I guess, although we aren't getting the heavily opinion based TC reports proclaiming the next big thing anymore.

Don't succumb to the pork snobs. A nicely grilled pork butt can be a great meal.

Willie Jefferson says your are wrong about pot use in the CFL. It was second hand smoke....honest....lmao. Ronnie Reagan had to make sure he had some reason for the "war on drugs".