Weekly Takes - Monday, June 26th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, June 26th Edition

1. Free agent options I would like to see the Leafs pursue, equating for their cap space situation…

1. LD Ryan Graves (to push Mark Giordano down the depth chart)

2. LD Carson Soucy (to push Mark Giordano down the depth chart)

3. LW Tyler Bertuzzi (if Calle Jarnkrok moves back to RW to replace Noel Acciari)

4. RD Dmitry Orlov (if they do not re-sign Luke Schenn)

5. RD Scott Mayfield (if they do not re-sign Luke Schenn)

6. RD Connor Clifton (if they do not re-sign Luke Schenn)

7. LW Ivan Barbahsev (if Calle Jarnkrok moves back to RW to replace Noel Acciari)

8. LW Max Domi (if Calle Jarnkrok moves back to RW to replace Noel Acciari)

9. LW Max Pacioretty (if Calle Jarnkrok moves back to RW to replace Noel Acciari)

10. LW Tomas Tatar (if Calle Jarnkrok moves back to RW to replace Noel Acciari)

11. C J.T. Compher (if they do not re-sign Ryan O’Reilly)

12. C Jonathan Toews (if they do not re-sign Ryan O’Reilly)

13. RD Radko Gudas (if they do not re-sign Luke Schenn)

14. RD Erik Johnson (if they do not re-sign Luke Schenn)

15. RW Garnet Hathaway (to fill vacant 4RW hole if Sam Lafferty moves to 4C to replace David Kampf)

16. RW Corey Perry (to fill vacant 4RW hole if Sam Lafferty moves to 4C to replace David Kampf)

17. G Joonas Korpisalo (if the Leafs cannot come to terms with Ilya Samsonov)

2. No matter the direction the Raptors plan on going in, Gary Trent Jr. opting into his contract is a win for Toronto.

You cannot let a 24-year-old sharp-shooter with plus on-ball defence walk for nothing.

He is the kind of player you want to keep around regardless if you are rebuilding or not.

3. You should never draft for need, but Gradey Dick is a home run of a pick if Toronto decides to “run it back” with their core.

Of all their issues last season, their biggest one was they had no one on the bench to create his own offence.

Dick can.

4. We can debate whether or not the Raptors should trade Pascal Siakam due to the fact that they may not be competing for a championship while he is still in his prime, but it says something about him and the Raptors that he wants so badly to be a long-term Raptor to the point where he will do everything he can to nix a potential trade.

These are not your older sibling Raptors.

5. Free agent options I would like to see the Raptors pursue, should they keep the core intact and thus have very little money to play with…

1. PG Gabe Vincent

2. PG Dennis Schroder

3. PG Dennis Smith Jr.

Basically, the Raptors should be in the market for a backup point guard and that is it. I do not want them to bring in a backup centre as I see no need to block playing time from Christian Koloko.

6. The Warriors made out like bandits in the Chris Paul for Jordan Poole swap.

For as clutch as Poole was during the Warriors 2022 title run, his contract was very bad, while I truly believe Paul still has something left in the tank.

He can run the bench offence for Golden State in his sleep.

7. For as much as I love Marcus Smart, the Celtics look like geniuses by landing the best player in a blockbuster three-team trade (Kristaps Porzingis) while also landing the most draft picks back.

There was no way that Brad Stevens could have ran things back as things were currently constructed in Boston. And he is not.

8. Toronto FC had no choice but to fire Bob Bradley, who in the end, wanted to go out his way, rather than adapt, pulling a page out of Mike Babcock's playbook.

I love the hiring, albeit in the interim, of Terry Dunfield as well.

He knows the market, he knows the academy, and he is young enough to the point where he can grow with this group.

The next step is going to be determining who on the field is worthy of sticking around beyond the summer transfer window. It is no longer a coaching problem if the struggles continue.