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Opinion | Leafs mailbag: St. Patrick’s Day Con(n)or roll, Morgan Rielly’s no-fan club and Rasmus Sandin trade remorse


Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Where would hockey be without the Irish?

From the Conachers to the Quinns to the Shanahans and more, they got off their boats and planes over the last century or so and saw hurling on ice and a sport that encouraged fighting. So, we were in. All in.

Some believe the word puck comes from the Gaelic word poc, as in “poke,” which is what hurlers do to the sliotar (pronounced slit-hur) — the sport’s hard, leather-covered ball.

The Maple Leafs were the St. Pats and will play as them again on Friday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Montreal Shamrocks won the Stanley Cup in 1899 and 1900.

In the spirit of the Irish legacy in hockey, here are my Connor power rankings.

1. Connor McDavid

2. Connor Hellebuyck

3. Kyle Connor

4. Conor Garland

5. Conor Sheary

6. Logan O’Connor

7. Connor Clifton

8. Connor Murphy

9. Connor Ingram

10. Conor Timmins

Honourable mention to Connor Brown, hurt most of the season. Connor Bedard will shake up this list next year.

Remember, if you’re enough lucky to be Irish … you’re lucky enough.

If you have a question, email me at askkevinmcgran@gmail.com and I’ll answer it in the next Mailbag. Now to this one, where Matt Murray and Morgan Rielly take some heat while we talk about Wayne Gretzky’s office, the Rasmus Sandin trade and more.

Hi, Kevin. Thanks for taking questions. Getting your take on them is always interesting and appreciated. I hope you and your family are keeping well.

I read this week that the Leafs may choose to buy out the somewhat brittle Matt Murray in the off-season (if he doesn’t end up on Robidas Island before then).

If they buy him out, are the Leafs on the hook for some portion still against the cap, and if so, since Ottawa retained some salary, is it the entire amount or just the portion of salary the Leafs pay?

Cheers!

Steve in Pickering

Ah, a Robidas Island reference, one of my favourites. If the Leafs buy out Murray, the Senators are on the hook for their quarter share. These are interesting numbers, by the way. For the Leafs, the cap hit in 2023-24 would be $687,500 (U.S.), a significant savings off his average annual value of $4,687,500 (for the Senators, $229,167). For the Leafs in 2024-25, when the cap is expected to rise significantly, the buyout hit would be $2 million (for the Senators, $666,667).

Hi, Kevin. I wouldn’t have made that Rasmus Sandin trade. That first is likely the very last pick in the round, No. 32. I’d have preferred to see Sandin/Timothy Liljegren as a top-four pair for years to come. I find it troubling that Liljegren is getting jerked around now. That’s a mistake. He’s earned a spot in the starting lineup. Pair him with Mark Giordano in the bottom pair. He won’t take the next steps until they give him the ice time and again, he’s deserving of it. If that means Justin Holl and/or Erik Gustafsson are in the press box then so be it.

If Sheldon Keefe is going to keep rolling out this 11F/7D lineup (at least until Ryan O’Reilly is back) then what do you think about giving Rielly a few shifts a game at LW?

Thanks, Bill L.

I like the Sandin trade. He was a late first, and they got a late first back plus a player with the same skill set who might be useful in the playoffs. Sandin was going to be a healthy scratch. “Years to come” don’t matter; this year matters. To that end, ditto with healthy-scratching Liljegren. Coach Sheldon Keefe does not trust young players in the playoffs, especially young defencemen. Liljegren’s had a great year. He played two playoff games last year. I’m happy for Sandin, too. He’s going to get a chance in Washington that he wasn’t going to get in Toronto. And the Leafs are flush with smallish but skilled defencemen (Mac Hollowell). And can we all please stop with the Morgan at left wing questions. It ain’t gonna happen.

Kevin, is it reasonable to suspect that Morgan Rielly and Auston Matthews have been playing with injuries? I expected more of them this year.

Gary A.

It’s reasonable to suspect just about every player in the NHL, especially the high-end ones, play through injuries at some point in the season. And when they say they’re 100 per cent, they’re not; they’re just competitors who want to play. Matthews sat for a knee injury. He has a history of back and wrist problems. He said this week his hand injuries are behind him. Just watch how many slashes and cross-checks he takes in a game and tell me he doesn’t have aches and pains. Same is true for any forward who stands in the slot, and the defencemen who battle them.

Hi, Kevin. If a team retains a portion of a traded player’s salary, can it be offset by cash?

Example (which only examines cap hit and not all the other parts of the deal that would have needed to happen to get Patrick Kane to Toronto): If Toronto had made a deal to get Kane, who has a cap hit of $10.5 million, but Toronto only had room for a $5-million cap hit, could Toronto have given Chicago $5.5 million in cash for Chicago to retain that portion of his salary?

Thanks in advance for the response.

David W.

No, no cash can be traded anymore. Teams use bad contracts or players injured and never to return (Shea Weber) as a way around it. That’s how the Arizona Coyotes stay afloat.

When was the last time a Stanley Cup winner won without an all-star defenceman?

David M.

By all-star, I presume you mean end-of-season all-star (the real thing) not All-Star Game appearance. I also think this is a passive-aggressive slight at Morgan Rielly, since that seems to be a big thing this Mailbag. Fans are never happy. So here goes: The Blues managed to win in 2019 without any of their defencemen among the first or second all-stars that year. Ditto the Capitals in 2018. And the Penguins in 2017. The Blackhawks in 2013 and ’15. The Kings in 2012 and 2014. So apparently you can win the Stanley Cup even if your best defenceman is not having an all-star year.

A question was asked why more players don’t play behind the net like Wayne Gretzky did. When Wayne moved into the league, they moved the nets forward giving more room behind the net. I’m not sure, but I think they moved them back after he retired.

John D.

The short answer to your question is: For most of his career, Gretzky had less space to operate behind the net than today’s players (who have seven-feet, eight-inches between the back of the net and the boards).

Gretzky played from 1979 to 1999. Until 1990, the goal line was 10 feet from the end boards. That meant about 6 1/2 feet of operating space in his record-setting years of 92 goals (1981-82), 163 assists (1985-86) and 215 points (1985-86).

Starting in 1990-91, the goal line was moved to 11 feet and nets were standardized at 44 inches deep, meaning he had seven feet, four inches of operating space. The goal line moved to 13 feet from 1998-99 to 2004-05, giving Gretzky one season of more space. Across the league, goal scoring (remarkably) dropped through that era. The league went back to 11 feet coming out of the season-long lockout. Then in 2013, they narrowed the depth of the nets to 40 inches, giving today’s player seven feet, eight inches of space, far more than Gretzky had in his heyday.

People are fed up at being told “it’s my way or the highway” — not you, but many journalists seem to be jumping on the cause for the sake of showing people that they support the LGBTQIA community. Just because people have religious beliefs and therefore don’t wish to go against their beliefs doesn’t mean they are homophobic. In years gone by, Pride Night was celebrated in the NHL with players taping their sticks in the rainbow colours. This year, the problem arose with wearing the shirt, whereas before a number of players never taped their sticks in warm-ups and it went unnoticed. Alex Ovechkin was one of them.

Mark F.

Thanks for your letter, Mark. I don’t think anyone from the LGBTQIA community is saying it’s “my way or the highway.” They just want basic human rights, to be who they are in public like everybody else. But homophobes are, if you look at what is transpiring in places such as Texas and Tennessee, with laws banning drag and books being banned. Pride Nights have been going on for years, with teams wearing rainbow jerseys without incident. They were more marketing campaigns than political statements, much like teachers night or military night. Until this year. To me, the noxious politics of our neighbour to the south has leaked into the NHL, and a league which is trying to diversity and grow its fan base is caught in the crossfire.

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