FerrisRox
"Wanna go, Prettyboy?"
They traded a 1st to have arguably the best Leafs team of the salary cap era and take a run at the cup.
Do you really think trading say one of Nylander or Marner would have been the smarter thing to do than move a late 1st? Come on now...
I'm not criticizing trading the 1st to dump Marleau, just pointing out that, as was long suggested, it was going to cost to free up the cap space required.
That being said, if Nylander could have been traded for a young blue liner and the Leafs could have saved cap space and added a piece that could have been used on their back end, then yeah, I think it might have been smarter.
However, I think that ship sailed before Nylander was signed to his current contract.