Mike Babcock certainly is a confident coach.

Asked, as he passed the mark for 1,000 games coached, if he could get to 2,000, he suggested he would give it a try.

"Well, I’ve got this year and seven more, and then I’m gonna stay for two more after that because the team’s going to be that good,” said Babcock said.

And we get quickly to the mailbag.

QUESTION

Hi Kevin,

On the topic of where the best place is for Mitch Marner to develop next season, is there a rule preventing the Leafs giving Marner's agent a nudge to work out a short (1 year, or 2 with an opt out) deal with a particular European club of the Leafs choosing? Maybe Modo, where they seemed to get along well enough to get Viktor Loov over to the Marlies a couple years back? Then Marner (and his agent) could make a little money on a pro deal, Marner gets to play against men, but not quite at the NHL level, and he could hopefully develop a little more physically in a schedule with fewer games. They might even release him to play in the World Junior tournament, no?

You couldn't be sure of how much ice time he'd get (although you'd think you could get some assurances beforehand).

Is this against the rules, somehow?

I assume it's against the rules for the Leafs to use some of their loose cash to buy a Swedish Elite League (or other Euro-club) team to use for such purposes when developing players - so they control ice time and coaching direction for the European prospects, and the odd 'tweener like Marner.

Take it easy,

John in Rockwood

ANSWER: Yes, as you assumed, there is a rule. Marner has a contract with the London Knights. The only ways out are to quit hockey, go to school, or make the NHL.

Now, could a good lawyer get around this? Could a union -- if one existed -- acting on behalf of teenaged hockey players do something? Maybe.

But then it's a free-for-all. The CHL doesn't poach from European leagues. Euro leagues don't poach from the CHL.

(Auston Matthews was in a different situation. He was graduating high school. He was a free agent. As was William Nylander.)

QUESTION: There's some optimism about the next generation of Leafs with the Marlies. But there isn't much depth behind them. If Josh Leivo is a borderline player on this Leafs team, he won't be on the roster if and when the team is good. Frederick Gauthier is going to be the next Nik Antropov not the next Joe Thornton, thanks Brian Burke. So my question is, will we see more trades that move out Marlies like we did when they acquired Grabner for non-roster players?

And if I can get a twofer - do you have any insight on how Luke Schenn is doing in LA? It's been a good trade for Lecavalier, it would be nice to see it work out for Luke as well.

Barry.

ANSWER: We love two-fers. Are you saying Gauthier is going to get hurt a lot early in his career? Antropov played 788 games over 12 seasons. Not bad. Gauthier doesn't have Antropov's offensive talent. (Where did you get Thornton from? Who ever said Gauthier was Joe Thornton?) And Burke was gone when the Leafs drafted Gauthier.

Gauthier is going to be a solid checking centre his entire career. Coaches will love this guy. Don't worry that he was a first-round pick. That means nothing. He was a 21st overall pick. That's not where you get franchise, cornerstone players.

But to answer your main question, yes the Leafs will clear out their deadwood. All teams do. The Grabner trade was just a little more dramatic than most. They probably won't do it until the draft though, when teams are trying to get the cap space settled heading into free agency.

I doubt there's a team out there that has five roster spots available to take on AHLers. (You can only have 50 players in the pros under contract.) And the Leafs won't want to mess with the Marlies chances in the playoffs.

As for Schenn, he's averaging about 17 minutes for the Kings, a bottom-pairing defenceman, but the kind of hard hitting player loved by Darryl Sutter.

QUESTION: I wasn't very clear in a recent question. Yes, all 30 teams will be considering buying and selling role players and rentals. What I meant to ask was, at the trade deadline, how many teams have both the cap space and the willingness to pursue significant players who either have hefty existing contracts, or whom they would be interested in re-signing long-term? Depending on how loosely associated the person posting on-line is with the planet's gravitational field, there is talk about Phaneuf, Loui Eriksson, Eric Staal, Ladd, Byfuglien, Bernier, have even seen references to Kessel? People here seem to think there is a long lineup of teams offering packages of picks and prospects for Ladd and Byfuglien, who would then re-sign them to six-year deals. (And of course Stamkos.)

Nick Martin

Winnipeg

ANSWER: At the risk of not answering your question directly again, the most important part of your wording was "willingness to pursue." If you're willing, you'll find cap space.

There are a handful of teams who will have a lot of cap space at the deadline while at the same time feeling pressure to do something (contracts from generalfanager.com):

-The Minnesota Wild can add contracts adding up to an average annual value of $4.9 million.

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-The San Jose Sharks can add $5.6 million.

-The Flyers can add $6.8 million.

-The Stars can add $11.9 million.

In the cat-bird seat: the Washington Capitals, who should also be able to take on contracts worth about $5 million annually to add to their depth.

The most interesting team to watch is the Bruins, who have 10 picks in the draft, including two first-rounders. They are doing better than expected and can add contracts with an average value of $5.8 million.

Also the Oilers can add up to $13 million worth of contracts. They'd be a team interested in players under long-term deals. And if they go on a push with Connor McDavid back, they may feel the need to push.

Counter to that, the Winnipeg Jets (who have more cap space than anyone) are another team that wouldn't be scared to acquire players under long-term contracts, and could use their bait -- Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien -- to do just that.

QUESTION: I have an inquiry. Why aren't the Leafs not playing Frank Corrado more instead of giving his potential ice time to Martin Marincin?

Rick P

ANSWER: They're playing Corrado a little bit more now. There are entire Twitter debates about this. Marincin is a darling of the Corsi crowd. If you went strictly on Corsi For Percentage, Corrado and Marincin would play ahead of Morgan Rielly and Matt Hunwick.

I would imagine we'll see a lot more of Corrado down the stretch.

QUESTION: I've posed this question to some very intelligent hockey people. It does not usually elicit an intelligent reply. I'm very interested in your thoughts... "What is the purpose of the blue line offside rule?" (Not an explanation - the purpose)

ANSWER: I believe it goes back to 1911: The elimination of the rover, the introduction of three zones (defined by the two blue lines) and the allowance of the forward pass to boost offence. Until then, hockey was very rugby-like, only laterals and back passes were allowed. But those that governed the game insisted that the puck enter the offensive zone first. Why? Well, I suppose in homage to its rugby-like roots. But today, it keeps the goal sucks in the neutral zone. If it didn't exist, you could ice the puck to the Phil Kessels of the league. I don't think we'd want to see that.

QUESTION: Hi Kevin. So I find myself wondering how it is that the number of shots taken from the point in most any NHL game are significantly off target. Surely it isn't a skill issue predominately, these guys are the best at their sport. As is possible at any time I may be missing something really obvious but I watch the shots as they are taken and about the only thing that looks funky to my eye is the amount of flex in today's hockey sticks. (Sherwood PMP's didn't tend to have much flex back in my day, I kind of predate carbon fibre hockey sticks). I would have to think that if, in fact, overly flexible sticks were a demonstrable contributor to the number of pucks sent wide and over the net that some savvy statistician would have flagged this and encouraged a move to something more stable.

Considering both the possibilities of more pucks on net and safety issues of those players that stand in an 180 degree arc off the point improving point shot accuracy has to be worth something.

I am having something of a difficult time with this being THE 40th anniversary of Sittler's 10-point night. By some complete fluke of happenstance I was sitting in the first row of the second deck of seats behind the net at the Garden's that night, my one and only really significant Leaf game to have witnessed first hand. In any event while geeking out over watching the replays of the 10 points I couldn't help but notice that Reese's goalie padding looks like a couple of rolled up towels in comparison to today's 'keepers.

Thanks for what you do

Doug from B-ford

ANSWER: No mailbag is complete without a question from Doug that isn't actually question.