Weekly Takes - Monday, November 10th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, November 10th Edition 

1. My three stars from the Leafs much-needed comeback win over the Penguins on Monday…

1. Anthony Stolarz

2. Auston Matthews

3. William Nylander

Lifeless for 40 minutes. The type of performance that gets a coach fired. Their best players were their best players in the third and avoided a massive firestorm.

Suddenly, the Leafs have won four of their last five.

2. My three stars from the Leafs win over the Mammoth on Wednesday…

1. John Tavares

2. Nick Robertson

3. Nylander

The Leafs best players were their best players. Three wins in a row, five wins in their last six, and just two points out of first place in the Atlantic.

Everyone can breathe, maybe.

3. My three stars from the Leafs sloppy loss to the Bruins on Saturday…

1. Matthew Knies

2. Matthews

3. Nylander

Bad goaltending, costly turnovers, and overall, just a poorly played game. A disappointing performance against a depleted lineup.

4. My three stars from the Leafs awful loss to the Canes on Sunday…

1. Nylander

2. Tavares

3. Bobby McMann

Not much to say. The Leafs got thoroughly dominated over the weekend, ruining all positives that occurred earlier in the week.

They are getting outplayed in a vast majority of the games they play, with turnovers and transition defence being horrific. 

With little assets to spend, internal improvement is the only path forward.

5. Shane Bieber opting into his player option is a shocking and massive, positive development for the Jays.

Having a starter with ace upside making just $16M for 2026 is wild.

Coming into the offseason, the Jays needed to bring back Bo Bichette, get two starting arms, and another reliever.

Now they just have three items on their to-do list, with lots and lots of money to play with.

Get excited.

6. With that, here are free agents I would like to target, based on their needs…

Starting Pitching…

1. RHP Dylan Cease

2. LHP Ranger Suarez

3. LHP Framber Valdez (I am a tad lower on him than most)

4. RHP Michael King

5. RHP Zac Gallen

6. RHP Brandon Woodruff 

Relievers…

1. RHP Edwin Diaz

2. RHP Devin Williams

3. RHP Ryan Hesley 

Outfielders… (should the Jays not re-sign Bichette, but rather land an outfielder. Or better yet, get very aggressive and add an outfield to go along with retaining Bo)

1. Kyle Tucker

2. Cody Bellinger 

3. Harrison Bader 

7. My Super Bowl Power Rankings, after Week 10…

1. Kansas City (- since last updated in Week 5)

2. Buffalo (-)

3. Rams (+8)

4. Detroit (-1)

5. Philadelphia (-1)

6. Green Bay (-1)

7. Seattle (Was an HM)

8. Indianapolis (Was an HM)

9. New England (Was not on my list)

Honourable Mention: Ravens

I had the 49ers sixth, the Bucs seventh, the Broncos eighth, the Chargers ninth, and the Commanders as an honourable mention after Week 5, but the 49ers simply cannot stay healthy, the Bucs cannot stay healthy, Bo Nix is not going to compete with Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen in the AFC, despite a stacked roster around him, the Chargers offensive line is decimated, and the Commanders are just… not good.

The Seahawks and Colts have simply been too great to leave off, even if it is tough to believe in Sam Darnold or Daniel Jones against elite quarterbacks come playoff time.

3-7 in the NFC… you can convince me that the order I have should be changed in so many different ways. 

I still feel like New England is a year early, but they have two massive wins this season, on the road, against Super Bowl calibre teams. Tough to leave them off, more so given they have the MVP favourite and may be the one seed.

As for the Ravens, I am not going to write them off quite yet. They have a very easy schedule coming up and with the Jaguars loss, they now have a path to make it as a Wild Card team and not just as AFC North champions.