GDT: Trades & Free Agency -- Off-season edition

[Torontonian]

Chychrun, Pesce, Montour are all good options to explore in the offseason.

I think Toronto has some good options in the off season to acquire d-man in free agency. (IMO They need two of these d-man to fix their problems on the back end, or 1 and trade for another d-man).

And then you ship out Lilligjren for a draft pick or use him in a trade.

1. Chuchrun
2. Montour
3. Pesce
4. Roy
5. Skjei
6, Zadorov (as long as the contract awfully stupid)
7. Demelo
8. Walker

 

[Torontonian]

Thankfully I’m not the GM.
But, how can you actually say Defense and Goaltending is the playoff issue with this team?

Sure, we need our starter to be better and/or healthy.
Sure, we could use a weapon from the point.

But we basically played flawless defensive hockey for 3 straight games. (The forwards are apart of that defensive success)

It’s quite clear that getting a top end goalie and high end blue liner will make this team better. (It would make any team better who lacks in those areas). But we’re still glossing over the fact that our 11M+ core ain’t scaring a single team into line matching issues.

The reason we need better defense is because Boston clogged the neutral zone really well against us and it forced the forwards and d-man to shoot it in and forecheck against them and as you know, Toronto isn't built to do this nonstop.

We lacked the personal in the back end (good skating / puck moving d-man that can absorb a forecheck good). When you get d-man that can skate the puck out and get speed through the neutral zone or have a d-man that can make a good first pass/breakout pass then it forces that team to backup and not clog the zone.

But yes, like you said -- It really means nothing if two 11m forwards taking up 22m of the cap can't play or do anything.

 

[SprDaVE]

Chychrun, Pesce, Montour are all good options to explore in the offseason.

Problem with Chychrun is you're going to pay a premium to get him out of a rival and he's left handed. He's not very expensive on the cap and plenty of teams will go after him. I think if you're looking for a young-ish dynamic left handed defenseman, you might as well just chase Skjei.

I think for me Montour fits most of the check marks. Roy, Pesce or Tanev as well for the veteran defensive d-man that can play big defensive minutes. Re-sign Lyubushkin, look to flip Liljegren, and you have a good top 8. More offense but with the same size + physicality.

 

[horner]

You guys comfortable paying Saros around 8m in a Marner for Saros trade? Awfully risky for goaltenders these days. On paper it seems like a good idea for both sides, Saros + 1st + d-man or forward.. but look at Sorokin/Hellebyck this playoffs, both paid terribly and both just start their 8m contract this October.

I don't think Saros is the answered until we build our defence
Except for Domi up front to resign the rest of the money should be spent of defense and a quality backup.
We need dman with a good shot from the point not a muffin.

 

[ToneDog]

I think Toronto has some good options in the off season to acquire d-man in free agency. (IMO They need two of these d-man to fix their problems on the back end, or 1 and trade for another d-man).

And then you ship out Lilligjren for a draft pick or use him in a trade.

1. Chuchrun
2. Montour
3. Pesce
4. Roy
5. Skjei
6, Zadorov (as long as the contract awfully stupid)
7. Demelo
8. Walker

If you are trading Lily and I expect that will be the case and you do not resign Boosh, those two dmen need to be right handed. That reduces your list.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Bring Greig home to Toronto.

Embrace the hate. Let it flow through you.

 

[4thline]

If you are trading Lily and I expect that will be the case and you do not resign Boosh, those two dmen need to be right handed. That reduces your list.

Not necessarily, can do 1 and 1 with McCabe staying on the right.

Still need another RHD partner for Benoit, but not at the same level as the list

 

[Torontonian]

If you are trading Lily and I expect that will be the case and you do not resign Boosh, those two dmen need to be right handed. That reduces your list.

Perfectly okay with resigning one of Boosh/Edmondson, my only thing is I think 44 needs a better option for him to help bring out his best game, or you do what another poster said to do and put McCabe on the right side on the 2nd pair so you have the ability to sign a left shot d-man.

Rielly - xxx (Pesce/Walker/Roy/Montour/Chychrun)
McCabe - Pesce/Walker/Roy/Montour/Chychrun)
Beniot - Boosh/Edmondsson

 

[Commander Clueless]

I would do it in a heartbeat but Ottawa is not trading their young, tough, cost-controlled captain for a pouty playoff choker who likely wouldn't waive his NMC to go to anyway

Tkachuk can't lead his team to the playoffs and Marner can't lead his team IN the playoffs. Swap em and see what happens! Could be win-win!

But obviously this would depend on:

a) Brady wanting out
2) Brady being okay staying in Canada
III) Mitch waiving for Ottawa
and of course
b) Toronto and Ottawa being willing trade partners

So totally a realistic scenario and definitely not a trade straight out of NHL 24

 

[TheShape]

Honestly, I'm kind of over trying to find a D man to babysit Rielly every year. Rather find a pure upgrade over Mo instead and move him to 2nd pair if we're not going to trade him. I'd approach all of Marner, Tavares, Rielly about their NMCs.

 

[Amadeus]

Seth Jones and 2nd overall for Marner?

 

[mydnyte]

Lol maybe - but the team we have now isn't gonna win the cup... (we've tried it 5 different ways - with the same guys - they don't have the stuff)

So I think I'd rather watch these guys

Matthews + Marner = 95 goals + 97 assists

Reinhart + Cooley + Guenther = 95 goals + 78 assists

(and Cooley + Guenther are only gonna get better) plus this is reuniting Cooley and Knies's dominant college line)

the issue has always been the same ...the 'core' is strong, and the supporting cast has been tweaked to death, BUT, what has never been addressed is the below average Defense.
Rielly is our best d-man but, should be a #2 at highest, and i have only Lil as a drafted d-man on the team. Brodie was done 2 seasons ago, Gio was nothing more than a mentor, Timmins couldnt make the Yotes (because he cant defend and is always injured)
McCabe is a decent mid-pair D
We basically have 1 top line (arguable) D man 2 2nd pair D in McCabe & Lil (again arguable) and the rest are all bottom pairing D-men, and over the entirety of the 'Core' (except for when Muzzin was healthy, but, he was already in decline) this has been as good as its been.
We complain about the core 4 not scoring in the playoffs, but, when there is ZERO threat from the Defense, its pretty easy to just smother them, as there is no threat from our defense.

We need to address the Defense. If it means asking Rielly to waive, so be it, if it means we need to trade McCabe & Lil (and Kampf & Jarn) to get extra $$ to sign the defenders we 'want' then so be it.

With a proper defense, we would have been top seed, and still be playing. and a better defense can make an 'average' goalie look like a star

 

[mydnyte]

Saros probably looks for $8-9 mill on a 8-year term and he’ll be 30 when that deal kicks in.

I don’t know if Saros makes sense for a Marner trade.

and also, Soros (like Helly) always sucks in the playoffs behind a much better defense than we have

 

[TheShape]

Saros will be 30 when his deal kicks in and he’s smaller goalie that relies a lot on reflexes too. No interest in giving Saros term, that’s an anchor waiting to happen.

 

[Folignos Helmet]

Perfectly okay with resigning one of Boosh/Edmondson, my only thing is I think 44 needs a better option for him to help bring out his best game, or you do what another poster said to do and put McCabe on the right side on the 2nd pair so you have the ability to sign a left shot d-man.

Rielly - xxx (Pesce/Walker/Roy/Montour/Chychrun)
McCabe - Pesce/Walker/Roy/Montour/Chychrun)
Beniot - Boosh/Edmondsson

If you dont go big game hunting with a Marner deal, I would go for...

Rielly - Whitecloud (trade with Vegas)
McCabe - Montour
Benoit - Chatfield/Carrier

Every pair has size and puck moving.
Montour can take over from Rielly on PP and have the point shot we sorely miss
Whitecloud/ Chatfield/Carrier can all PK

 

[mydnyte]

I think Toronto has some good options in the off season to acquire d-man in free agency. (IMO They need two of these d-man to fix their problems on the back end, or 1 and trade for another d-man).

And then you ship out Lilligjren for a draft pick or use him in a trade.

1. Chuchrun
2. Montour
3. Pesce
4. Roy
5. Skjei
6, Zadorov (as long as the contract awfully stupid)
7. Demelo
8. Walker

Add Chatfield to this list, I think he's a sleeper and is looking really good for Carolina

 

[Tony Romo]

I feel like we should be looking for 1 defensemen that's the best fit. I assume Trev is going to sign Tanev/Zadaorv. So just look for the other one.

 

[Amadeus]

I feel like we should be looking for 1 defensemen that's the best fit. I assume Trev is going to sign Tanev/Zadaorv. So just look for the other one.

I think we need a more two way guy than those two. Montour is ideal!

 

[VanW27]

A lot of people are going to be really disappointed in the return when/if Marner is traded.

Best we are likely to do is trade him to a bottom feeder who likes the low real salary and has the cap space to not care much about that. A team like Anaheim could pick him up, staple him to Carlsson to boost him up for a season and then either flip Marner at the deadline to recoup whatever they gave up for him, or just maybe see if they can convince him to sign something reasonable if it's a good fit.

 

[TMLAM34]

A lot of people are going to be really disappointed in the return when/if Marner is traded.

Best we are likely to do is trade him to a bottom feeder who likes the low real salary and has the cap space to not care much about that. A team like Anaheim could pick him up, staple him to Carlsson to boost him up for a season and then either flip Marner at the deadline to recoup whatever they gave up for him, or just maybe see if they can convince him to sign something reasonable if it's a good fit.

Marner also has a NMC, he’s not going to a destination that will just flip him at the deadline. If Marner waives, which I think he should, it’ll be to a choice of his destination and somewhere where an extension is almost certain.

 

[57special]

I don't think the Tavares contract is going to be moveable without substantial value added to it, so instead, I'd rather just push him down the lineup into a full time 3C role. After next year he'll either be on a sweetheart contract or he'll be shipped out of town.

For me this is what it would look like.

Moving out...
Brendan Shanahan
Sheldon Keefe
Mitch Marner ($10.9 million)
Ryan Reaves ($1.3 million)
TJ Brodie ($5.0 million)
Ilya Samsonov ($3.55 million)
David Kampf ($2.4 million)
Connor Timmins ($1.1 million)
Mark Giordano ($800k)
Illya Lyubushkin ($700k)

2024-2025 Leafs

Forwards
1C Auston Matthews ($13,250,000)
2C Addition ($5,000,000)
3C John Tavares ($11,000,000)
4C Pontus Holmberg ($800,000)

1LW Tyler Bertuzzi ($5,500,000)
2LW Matthews Knies ($925,000)
3LW Bobby McMann ($1,300,000)
4LW Nick Robertson ($1,200,000)

1RW Max Domi ($4,000,000)
2RW William Nylander ($11,500,000)
3RW Calle Jarnkrok ($2,100,000)
4RW Connor Dewar (1,000,000)

13th Forward ($800,000)

Defense
1LD Morgan Rielly ($7,500,000)
2LD Addition ($3,000,000)
3LD Simon Benoit ($1,300,000)

1RD Addition ($6,500,000)
2RD Timothy Liljegren ($3,000,000)
3RD Jake McCabe ($2,000,000)

7th Defenseman ($800,000)

Goalies
Joseph Woll ($767,000)
Addition ($2,500,000)

Total Cap Hit: $87,700,000

The reason that Dewar was traded from MN(extremely cap strapped) was that they thought he wouldn't be re-signed for such a small amount.

 

[TheShape]

People need to pump the brakes on Montour, dude looked like Cale Makar this time a year ago but has been far from that level since. Panthers fans aren't all that crazy about re-signing him, he's also 30 years old. He had the breakout season a year too early imo.

My biggest issue with some of these UFA targets isn't so much the AAV, it's the term they're going to command.

 

[Fogelhund]

I think Toronto has some good options in the off season to acquire d-man in free agency. (IMO They need two of these d-man to fix their problems on the back end, or 1 and trade for another d-man).

And then you ship out Lilligjren for a draft pick or use him in a trade.

1. Chuchrun
2. Montour
3. Pesce
4. Roy
5. Skjei
6, Zadorov (as long as the contract awfully stupid)
7. Demelo
8. Walker

Noting Chychrun isn't a free agent.... Your list looks like you are trying to list free agents, apologies if I misinterpreted the intent.

Also, I'm not a fan of bringing in Chych anyway. He's basically like Rielly. He has some offensive talents, but he's needs the right partner to make up for his defensive deficiencies. We've spent years trying to find the right guy for Rielly., and now we need to do the same to make Chych somewhat passable? Ottawa fans are basically trying to give the guy away.

 

[TMLAM34]

Montour would be a nice addition but he does scare me a little. Outside of his season last year, he’s basically a 30 point player. He’s surprisingly gritty for his size which is nice but he’s not great in his own end though he is solid. Paying this guy 6+ million would be a mistake.

I would go after Chabot, seems like Ottawa will be willing to listen and his trade value might be at its lowest it’ll ever get.

Chabot - McCabe
Rielly - ________
Benoit - ________

 

[Fogelhund]

People need to pump the brakes on Montour, dude looked like Cale Makar this time a year ago but has been far from that level since. Panthers fans aren't all that crazy about re-signing him, he's also 30 years old. He had the breakout season a year too early imo.

My biggest issue with some of these UFA targets isn't so much the AAV, it's the term they're going to command.

16 even strength points this year, 17 points on the PP. Is he going to put up that kind of production if he isn't on PP1 here? Chances are no.

Timmins put up 10 ES points, in 25 games... at a fraction of the cost.

Forsling put up a ton more ES points... though he's a lefty.

Roy put up more ES points, and brings a better game overall, more physicality.

I agree with you, there are better options for us.