Trade Deadine

[hobster]

The conventional wisdom seems to be TO needs better d-men and/or a 4th line center but I disagree.

I think that Borgman, Holl, Carrick and mostly Dermott are very capable of improving the roster or at least being adequate depth.

We have 4 reasonable centers in Matthews, Kadri, Bozak and Nylander so I think TO should take Nylander off of Matthews line, replace him with Kapanen or Brown and let Nylander center his own line.

What I feel TO needs is one or more wingers with attitude and talent, no more Martins, something like Simmonds.

Get err done Lou!!

[hobster]

Gardiner and Rielly are currently tied at 33 points each which is tied for 14th in the d-man scoring race. They're 2 points behind Ryan Suter, 3 points behind Seth Jones and Karlsson and 4 points behind Hedman and Pietrangelo. No other team has 2 d-men in the top 15, points wise. Offensive/mobile capable d-men TO has and according to the offensive stats TO has 2 #1 quality d-men which no other team can match. In the group of d-men that have scored more than Rielly and Gardiner I doubt TO could trade for them without starting with Nylander or Marner, maybe both.



I still feel TO's forwards don't properly support the d, they're not possession oriented enough because they don't have the jam to get and keep the puck, quality muscle would go a long way to improving this.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Plekanec for Valiev, Rychel and this year's 2nd. I really like this for the Leafs. Now we don't have to pretend Kadri is our "shutdown" C anymore. Not that he was terrible, but he still has a long way to go and this reduces his workload.

[Inklink]

Plekanec for Valiev, Rychel and this year's 2nd. I really like this for the Leafs. Now we don't have to pretend Kadri is our "shutdown" C anymore. Not that he was terrible, but he still has a long way to go and this reduces his workload.

There was no pretending. Kadri actually does a pretty good job against the opposition's top lines. Apart from the Bruins game and the Pens game, I don't recall his line having bad nights against the opposition's best night in night out. That said, I agree, the centre depth is now terrific. I don't know how good Plekanec is defensively, but I think he played PK in MTL pretty regularly, so it must be somewhat decent.

[BramptonYute]

a 2nd is a little too expensive, but its not that bad. Especially since we still have another one.

[ATLTimekeeper]

a 2nd is a little too expensive, but its not that bad. Especially since we still have another one.

Might factor in that they ate half his salary so that we can potentially add someone else. We're just three years into Mark Hunter taking over the draft, and have just graduated our first non-lottery pick (Dermott) taken in 2015. So, the pipeline is just getting started.

[hobster]

TO needed a 4th line center last year so used a 2nd for Boyle which was alright for me because I expected TO to sign him and that need would be fixed for years. TO didn't resign him and it looks like TO didn't even try to resign him.

TO needed a 4th line center this year so spent a 2nd plus for Plekanec and all the talk is about him being wanted and possibly resigned by Mtl next year.

Dermott was a 2nd so in the right hands a 2nd could end up being a good NHLer.

TO had in house solutions to their 4th line center needs such as Leo, a 1st line center in the KHL, Hyman, center before playing for TO, and others.

Ultimately TO's center lineup could have been:

Matthews
Nylander
Bozak
Hyman

TO is rebuilding, still, and decisions made now will have consequences in the long run.