Nolan wrote:http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=369879John-Micheal Liles is heading to Toronto.
The Avalanche sent the defenceman to the Maple Leafs in exchange for Toronto's second round draft pick in 2012.
That draft pick was acquired when the Leafs dealt Tomas Kaberle to the Bruins last year.
Liles has been with the Avs for all seven of his seasons in the NHL.
Last year, he posted six goals and 40 assists in 76 games.
It is the pick they got back in Kaberle deal but I feel like they might of overpaid for Liles. He'll help out their powerplay and give them a little extra scoring, but he's pretty horrible defensively and his contract isn't exactly cap friendly. I don't know maybe i'm wrong about this one but a 2nd just seems like too much.
Thoughts?
He's got one year remaining on his deal so no there's no long term commitment, so we avoid having to do a bigger deal with a UFA. Guys like Pitkanen, Wisniewski are going to be looking for big $$ + the term, so with Liles we have the flexibility to move a guy like Gardiner or Blacker into the lineup if they're ready. Yeah he's a bad positional defender, but he blocked plenty of shots last year so that's something. The bottom line is offensively this guy's going to produce at a similar rate to Kaberle, so picking him up for a late 2nd rounder next year is not an issue for me at all, especially since prior to the start of the Stanley Cup Finals, it wasn't even an asset we had.
