July 22nd 2014, a date that will live in infamy.  The Toronto Maple Leafs hired Kyle Dubas, formerly the General Manager for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, former scout, agent, and fancy stats pioneer as assistant general manager. While he rankles at the comparison to famed Moneyball GM Billy Beane, Dubas does have the statistical bona fides to change the way game is being played in Toronto. Here are five key points from the hire: The Leafs will use their analytics budget this year Dave Nonis nearly broke twitter last season when he indicated that the Maple Leafs have had money allocated for...

Rosters are not set in stone yet, but the dust is starting to clear on the summer moves and we are starting to get a picture of what next season’s NHL landscape will look like. For the Toronto Maple Leafs specifically, we still need to find out the fates of James Reimer and Cody Franson -- beyond that, here are some thoughts on what has transpired thus far: 1 - One quietly interesting note and a bit of a strange trend this summer has been depth NHLers getting long-term deals. A few questionable players who got three year deals include:...

James Reimer and the Toronto Maple Leafs will go to arbitration to determine what the embattled Leafs goalie is worth. Hint: he's getting a raise. In my last article, I discussed the upcoming Club-elected salary arbitration of Ryan O’Reilly and the Colorado Avalanche. The flipside of Club-elected salary arbitration is Player-elected salary arbitration, which procedurally is the mirror image of Club-elected arbitration with the Player driving the process and being given the opportunity to present his case first rather than the Club. Yesterday, CBC’s Elliotte Friedman broke the story on Twitter that James Reimer was among the first players to file...

With James Reimer's negotiations settling on Friday, only Jake Gardiner remains of the Leafs' outstanding contract situations, and this contract quietly might be most interesting among all of the Leafs' RFAs this off-season. Do the Maple Leafs bridge him with a 2 year deal or buy some UFA years on a long term contract, pay a little more than they would have in the next few seasons, and hope it pays off down the road? The comparative thinking here being that $4.25 million for James van Riemsdyk until 2018 is ridiculously good value. We could also point out that the...

The Maple Leafs and James Reimer have followed the league-wide theme of arbitration avoidance by arriving at a 2-year contract agreement worth $2.3 million per season. It’s difficult to know how much praise is deserved for signing good-value RFA deals because the leverage is so tilted in favour of the club, but this is another cap-friendly deal for the Leafs and it seems to comes in for less than Reimer would've been awarded in arbitration. Reimer and Bernier will be earning a combined $5.2 million last season and that’s excellent value for a tandem that stands among the best in the...

The final installment of Anthony Petrielli's interview with Toronto Maple Leafs Director of Amateur Scouting Dave Morrison touches a little more on the ins and outs of the scouting process, catches up on the progress of a few members of the 2013 draft class (including Frederik Gauthier), and looks ahead to the 2015 Draft. Here's Part One and here's Part Two. Anthony Petrielli: I’ve noticed a theme in your draft history where you give a late pick or two to Thommie Bergman to use. Has there been any thought in bringing him overseas to pick apart the OHL or the...

Domenic Galamini (@MimicoHero) is a good follow on Twitter for his daily insights and data visualizations, usually with a Leafs focus. Yesterday, he put together an updated chart on the Leafs off-season additions and subtractions (stats encompass the last three seasons): Overall, the Leafs' new additions have had their past linemates own more of the shot attempts with them than away from them. Better than the alternative, but what the Leafs' coaching staff changes or doesn't change about their 5v5 systems is going to be the biggest wildcard in all of this. Newest addition David Booth shines particularly bright in the...

Part Two of Anthony Petrielli's interview with Toronto Maple Leafs Director of Amateur Scouting Dave Morrison focuses on the scouting process, touching on the logistics of running one of the League's larger scouting staffs as well as the role of statistics and third-party information. To read Part One, click here. Anthony Petrelli: How long is your draft process and what all goes into it? Dave Morrison: It’s the whole year. In many cases it’s their underage year. We all start out with a list from the year before which has basically been started by the reports you do on them as...

The online hockey world reacted to news of the hiring of an assistant GM  like it was its own version of the LeBron sweepstakes when the Leafs brought aboard young hockey executive Kyle Dubas yesterday. That’s of little shock given the Maple Leafs had become such a flashpoint in the debate on the role and place of advanced stats/analytics in hockey-ops decisions in the past year and a half -- achieving modest success for 110 games despite ghastly underlying possession numbers and then having the floor fall out from under them when their overworked number one goalie got hurt...

MLHS' in-depth off-season interview with Toronto Maple Leafs Director of Amateur Scouting Dave Morrison—conducted by Anthony Petrielli—will be split into three parts and rolled out over the next few days. Part One touches on the summer prospect development camp, some draft philosophy questions, and the Maple Leafs' 2014 draft class. Anthony Petrielli: How was the development camp? Dave Morrison: Good. I was really happy with the group. I like the mix that we have going right now. We were able to add, as you know, quite a bit more skill over the last few years. We've got a nice mix...

July 22nd 2014, a date that will live in infamy.  The Toronto Maple Leafs hired Kyle Dubas, formerly the General Manager for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, former scout, agent, and fancy stats pioneer as assistant general manager. While he rankles at the comparison to famed Moneyball GM Billy Beane, Dubas does have the statistical bona fides to change the way game is being played in Toronto. Here are five key points from the hire: The Leafs will use their analytics budget this year Dave Nonis nearly broke twitter last season when he indicated that the Maple Leafs have had money allocated for...