Then as long as you keep Matthews and Rielly, why would you not want to add Gaudreau at the cost of say Marner + JVR?
Who is proposing you trade all of your depth and prospects? And how you would be right where you were with Kessel when you have Matthews + Rielly and still plenty of complimentary players around them?
Rejecting a trade for Gaudreau on this basis would be insanity lol.
I think the assumption is that we wouldn't get Gaudreau for Marner straight up, so there would be significant adding on the leafs side that would impact our prospect depth. Calgary would be taking the greater risk trading an NHL star for a prospect/prospects, so you would think they would need to have the potential to win the trade - ie if the prospects they get all turn out, they get more value.
From a leafs fan perspective, I would prefer to just wait on what we have and hope that the assets we would have traded for Gaudreau turn out, which would leave us in a better spot than having just Gaudreau
My assumption is that the cost for Gaudreau is in the vacinity of Marner + 2017 1st, if that's about right, then I'd rather have the shot at a Gaudreau-esque winger in Marner plus a top 10 pick to spend on a defenseman. Or as you mentioned, Marner + JVR might make sense, but if Marner turns out to be around Gaudreau's caliber, Calgary wins the trade