Trades and Free Agency - 2022/2023 Trade Deadline Edition

[trellaine201]

Nobody with injury concerns please!!!

 

[X66]

O'Reilly is a better fit because he can replace one of the centers if they go down.

I've been simping Kane in the trade forums because I think he can get back to where he was last year better than O'Reilly can, based on nothing but gut feelings lol.

 

[MSZ]

Nobody with injury concerns please!!!

That's exactly what Kane is dealing with.

If he is healthy he will be a force in the playoffs. But that's a big IF.

 

[Nhlpowerweek]

Would take some otha sucka cause ROR cant play anymore than simmonds anymore. And kane is going under the tunnel. We need more thugs.

Jeannot, henrique, schenn, mccabe, Rinaldo, Steve thomas, Owen nolan and them types of Chris Simon types

 

[Oscar Peterson]

Getting Kane is my dream. If the reports are true that he’ll only waive his No-Trade for TOR or NYR then Chicago might not have a lot of leverage either.

That being said, if ROR was who we targeted, I’d still be pretty happy.

 

[MAB1]

If the Kane reports are true, NYR or TO, the price should be less for him and provides the ability for the Leafs to put him or Nylander on the 3rd line. I think a healthy ROR should be the target though. He can be the center-piece of a shutdown line that matches up against Bergeron or Stamkos/Kucherov in the playoffs and keep them off Matthews or Marner's line.

 

[DopeyFish]

i don't mind the gamble on either ROR or Kane to be honest

i'd be happy with either at a reasonable price

they both service different needs

 

[Morgs]

Mentioned this before, a deal for Bertuzzi and Rasmussen would be a great addition to this team. Deal probably starts with Robertson and our 2023 2nd round draft pick +.

Bunting - Matthews - Marner
Bertuzzi - Tavares - Nylander
Knies - Rasmussen - Kerfoot
Engvall - Kampf - Jarnkrok
Aston Reese + Holmberg

Then look for an upgrade on the blueline.

I don't care for Bertuzzi, but Rasmussen is interesting. Guy is finally having his first good season since like junior and he's been in a shutdown role per Dom's model on pace for 41 points.

 

[Morgs]

Lol @ Barbashev return being pegged around a 1st. This market is ludicrous, but go figure that when the Leafs are contenders it's a sellers market and when the Leafs were tanking it was a buyer's market. Remember when Lou couldn't even trade PA Parenteau despite him scoring at a 40 pt pace on a cheap 1 year deal?

A bottom-6 rental having a meh season, that's had one good/great season in his career.

These rumoured prices are absurd. Gavrikov? McNabb? Let these f***ing garbage ass teams keep their average ass players.

 

[Leaffan1991]

You can't put together a competitive team with Matthews taking up 15M, Marner will ask for the same and if he doesn't get it, he walks.

So 2 players eating 30M of 95-100M cap?

Greed.

If Matthews wants 15 M I would say trade him to Arizona since they will probably give him whatever he wants.

Cooley
Crouse
Guenther
1st round pick 2024
1st round pick 2025

And go hard for McDavid when his contract is up.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Between these two, Kane. We’ve already seen how an O’Reilly level player helps us in the playoffs and the end result was the same. If one of the Big Four goes down again who do you want to have as insurance? The scoring winger who’s produced at an elite level before or the gritty forward with injury problems? We chose the latter when we picked Foligno over Hall and I’d rather not relive that mistake.

Kane has injury questions too but his game is not as reliant on physicality and his numbers are far more awful this year than last but Chicago is also a worse team than last year. There’s also the potential of getting Kane for a song if Colaiacovo is accurate and he will only play for us or New York. And if the Leafs really wanted they could get McCabe in there as well and kill two birds with one stone.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

All good points. Still, just seems to me like it maybe should be happening more often than it is, but what do I know.


+1

I think Niemela is similar to Knies in that he might be worth more to us than other teams. Knies because he brings an element we lack, and Niemela because he's our only D prospect who has some hope of being a top 4 guy some day.

It's most likely that Kral and Villeneuve won't become top 4 guys but it wouldn't surprise me either

 

[Buds17]

-A winger (or C/W) that can play in the top six, but not necessarily on PP1 (unless the idea is to split the two units)
-Perhaps someone that already has a contract/can be re-signed in the event that Bunting leaves
(particularly if the trade price is a top pick or prospect)
-I'd even be fine with upgrading the third line instead if the ask isn't a top pick or prospect

The player's name is...TBD???

I prefer ROR's all around game over Kane's skill set. Adding ROR might not make nearly as much sense though if the idea is to play him at 3C (and the price paid is that of a top sixer).

 

[Martin Skoula]

In 17-18, Bozak was our 3c. 18-19 was the single year of Matthews-Tavares-Kadri, then 19-20 and 20-21 were both years of Kerfoot as our 3c. Kampf came last year. If the Oilers want to give Kampf 5m or something stupid, then yeah we're going to let him walk, but the point remains that if we just let quality depth walk out the door every year we're just going to bleed assets replacing them. Forgive me for not caring about the analytical darlings when our team has been a graveyard of their careers for most of the last decade. The good ones, like Kampf, stick, while the Petans, Malgins, and Lindholms of the league just fade out.

If you want better production out of the bottom six, replace the wingers. The centre is the guy who's job it is to be the defensive engine of the line, and while you are keen to point out our bottom six can't score, the great news is that our bottom six is terrific defensively and our third line can go up against any matchup and hold their own. As for Kampf's role, he's the everyday 3c on a top5 team in the league.

We're struggling to get production out of our bottom six because our fourth line don't even make full ELC money and our 3.5m 3rd line LW can't score to save his life this year. If we had any money to spend on fourth line depth rather than just shoestring budget rookies and dumpster projects that's where you'd start to see actual bottom six production. This is why adding yet another highly priced top6 winger is the exact antithesis of what you supposedly want this team to be. You seem to want scoring depth, so why is the goal to spend as much money on as few players as possible?

Good teams run cheap fourth lines, I really don’t understand where the narrative that you have to spend more than a million on your fourth liners if you want them to be good is coming from. Which contender has a fourth line making more than 4 mil? Their depth money is spent on the middle-6.

Colton, Perry, and Maroon/Namestnikov are a shoestring ELC and two dumpster projects, you just have to identify the right ones. McMann-Holmberg-Perry would be perfectly fine, the problem was picking Simmonds over Perry. The depth advantage Tampa/Boston have over us is guys like Hall, Killorn, Coyle, Cirelli that are in a completely different paygrade and level of impact.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

A bottom-6 rental having a meh season, that's had one good/great season in his career.

These rumoured prices are absurd. Gavrikov? McNabb? Let these f***ing garbage ass teams keep their average ass players.

unfortunately it seems like the league is hurt by having too many mediocre teams that may compete for the playoffs, so they don't want to sell. This lets the extra shitty teams have more leverage and sell their players for unreasonable prices

 

[Ziggdiezan]

You can't put together a competitive team with Matthews taking up 15M, Marner will ask for the same and if he doesn't get it, he walks.

So 2 players eating 30M of 95-100M cap?

Greed.

Agreed that 2 players making 15 million absolutely destroys a team.

 

[Kiwi]

i don't mind the gamble on either ROR or Kane to be honest

i'd be happy with either at a reasonable price

they both service different needs

I think the problem here is the reasonable bit, asking prices are insanely high right now

 

[WTFMAN99]

Agreed that 2 players making 15 million absolutely destroys a team.

I am hoping that Marner and Matthews can acknowledge that they were paid pretty much UFA money immediately without the max term.

I also think they want to win...and I think both disliked Babcock.

I'm hoping something like 12.5-13.5M tops x8 is something they'll be on board for.

I'd be working to get a handshake deal in place with both Nylander and Matthews so that I know I am announcing it July 1st. If the draft rolls around and they won't sign and you're going to your limit, blow it up and rebuild again.

 

[The Management]

I'm not sure where I stand on Patrick Kane, but you'd have to think that even with 50% retention, the asking price should be pretty modest. Kane holds the cards in where he gets traded, he's dealing with a not insignificant hip injury that will make clubs think twice, and he's set to be a 34 year old unrestricted free agent.

The Blackhawks moving on from Kane and Toews will probably be less about recouping assets for their rebuild, and more about giving their legacy guys an opportunity to compete somewhere else out of respect.

 

[Ziggdiezan]

I still can't see Matthews going 20% over the league. There is no precedence for a jump that big....his current cap hit had all those projections built in - he is being paid for what he is doing now, as that was the expectation based on his AAV (second at the time). So he is at his peak now and for the next few seasons. He didn't break out and force a much higher salary this time around. I will be surprised if he goes beyond $14 million. And Nylander @ $8.5-$9 is ballpark - he has no awards, nor all-star selections. So he has very little leverage as compared to a lot of his contemporaries.

I see the same issue in Sandin. You can be smaller if you have speed to match, or you can be slower if you have the size to compensate and play a safer game. Being smaller and slower is just not a good recipe.

There is only one season to worry about as far as the cap goes, and that is 2024-25. The rest is in very good shape.

It will be up to the team, but I see a clear pathway to adding Meier, and then retaining him - if the Leafs choose to go in that direction, they can definitely make it work.

Hopefully your right as I mentioned It was rumored his ask on a 8 year deal wasn't too far from 15 anyways. That was before his actual accomplishments etc. I would also say multiple rockets, a Hart etc will increase his value even if it was somewhat expected and build into the previous AAV, it has now been accomplished. I really hope your right about 4 million covering both those raises but I guess I'm a pessimist.

Agreed on Sandin.

Ya its definitely a good cap situation now but add in Meier and I'm not a fan of the big hit to the depth, in particular the 3rd line etc. They can make it work, I just don't think it will make them a better team. It will be doubling down on an idea that hasn't exactly brought playoffs success (i.e. stacking the majority of the cap into the top 6 forwards)

 

[Sypher04]

Between these two, Kane. We’ve already seen how an O’Reilly level player helps us in the playoffs and the end result was the same. If one of the Big Four goes down again who do you want to have as insurance? The scoring winger who’s produced at an elite level before or the gritty forward with injury problems? We chose the latter when we picked Foligno over Hall and I’d rather not relive that mistake.

Kane has injury questions too but his game is not as reliant on physicality and his numbers are far more awful this year than last but Chicago is also a worse team than last year. There’s also the potential of getting Kane for a song if Colaiacovo is accurate and he will only play for us or New York. And if the Leafs really wanted they could get McCabe in there as well and kill two birds with one stone.

Say what you will about going for players who are not garaunteed healthy, we’re in same page there (both Kane and ROR have been hurt by most accounts) but O’Rielly is absolutely not Foligno.

 

[TMLAM34]

I don't care for Bertuzzi, but Rasmussen is interesting. Guy is finally having his first good season since like junior and he's been in a shutdown role per Dom's model on pace for 41 points.

Rasmussen started playing well last season. He’s big, physical, decent on the draws, etc. Could be a good add to play alongside Knies.

 

[Sypher04]

Hopefully your right as I mentioned It was rumored his ask on a 8 year deal wasn't too far from 15 anyways

I don’t remember anything of the sort. I recall reports being that his 8 year price was in the McDavid territory. There’s simply no way his 8 year ask was more than $2M per higher than McDavid one offseason later

 

[Ziggdiezan]

I am hoping that Marner and Matthews can acknowledge that they were paid pretty much UFA money immediately without the max term.

I also think they want to win...and I think both disliked Babcock.

I'm hoping something like 12.5-13.5M tops x8 is something they'll be on board for.

I'd be working to get a handshake deal in place with both Nylander and Matthews so that I know I am announcing it July 1st. If the draft rolls around and they won't sign and you're going to your limit, blow it up and rebuild again.

That could be a decrease in AAV for Matthews so I wouldn't expect that. Hopefully they realize that they won't get to play together (and are good friends) if they both go after every dollar.

Can't really move Matthews with his contract clause in the last year so how that negotiation is handled will effect the franchise for the next like decade

 

[Magic Man]

I don't think you can go wrong with either Kane or O'Reilly. They're both early-mid 30's and they have been a little banged up. They are both having off years. But, they are legit 1st line talents with a great history of playoff success. Considering his defensive game, ROR's playoff numbers are very good.

I like the way ROR fits. He can either transform line #3 into a matchup line or bump ROR into the top-6 LW position to make it harder for teams to shut down. He is probably the closest comparable to Bergeron in the league before this season. It would be nice to walk into a series with Tampa or Boston with O'Reilly in our jersey and not theirs.

Kane should give you more offense than ROR. PP #2 would become more of a threat. He brings the type of offensive potential and playoff experience that could make the difference in those tight 1 or 2 goal elimination games.

I think they should land someone on that level. I won't be as pumped about our chances with a Barbashev/L.Schenn deadline.