Trades & Free Agency Thread: 2024-2025 - Trade Deadline Approaches

[Mess]

Hard to argue against his position.
This would be 3rd. year in a row over 100 points.
View attachment 962980


Over his contract he's:
9th. in NHL points
6th. in goals


Next year how much more will Kyle Connor be looking at?
Over his contract he's Top 15 player, Top 4 in even strength goals.

I'm ALL-IN on Rantanen.

Never-mind 100 point regular season, lets talk playoffs when it REALLY counts.

Mikko Rantanen

Mitch Marner

& Auston Matthews [combined]

Summary

Mikko Rantanen 34 goals vs. AM @ 23 goals + MM 11 goals = 34 goal total.
Mikko Rantanen 101 points total vs. AM @ 48 points + MM @ 50 points = 98 points total.

Mikko isn't just 3 X the goals and 2 X points >> UFA Marner he is also more productive than Matthews and Marner combined come playoff time.

 

[uncleben]

I'm ALL-IN on Rantanen.

Never-mind 100 point regular season, lets talk playoffs when it REALLY counts.

Mikko Rantanen

View attachment 963646

Mitch Marner

View attachment 963647

& Auston Matthews [combined]

View attachment 963648

Summary

Mikko Rantanen 34 goals vs. AM @ 23 goals + MM 11 goals = 34 goal total.
Mikko Rantanen 101 points total vs. AM @ 48 points + MM @ 50 points = 98 points total.

Mikko isn't just 3 X the goals and 2 X points >> UFA Marner he is also more productive than Matthews and Marner combined come playoff time.

I don't disagree that Rantanen is the better playoff performer
But can't just say "3 X the goals and 2 X points" while ignoring he's also played 40% more games than Marner.

Pointing out a 1.25 PPG and 0.42 GPG over a 0.88 PPG and 0.19 GPG says enough already

 

[stats1]

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

 

[ER89]

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

Yeah Morgan is absolutely cooked.

He's too shite defensively to play this poorly offensively. Having said that i doubt being a new dad is helping his performance on the ice.

Id trade him if there's a legit hockey trade to be made but i doubt it.

 

[ACC1224]

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

Conversation has been going on for months.

 

[SprDaVE]

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

Yeah Morgan is absolutely cooked.

He's too shite defensively to play this poorly offensively. Having said that i doubt being a new dad is helping his performance on the ice.

Id trade him if there's a legit hockey trade to be made but i doubt it.

People said the same thing about Tavares last year. Sometimes a player has a tough stretch or even a tough season. Just because they are not having a good season doesn't mean they can't bounce back. Rielly has done a lot for this team on and off the ice and generally does well in clutch situations... give him time.

This market/message board always turns on players so fast, especially defensemen.

 

[Stephen]

get Reaves off the team and work on getting Domi off too. Brutal contract.

Setting aside the general enforcer debate for a moment, Reaves isn’t even that. Just the definition of half hearted and half assing your job.

 

[Stephen]

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

We’ve been roasting him for months now.

 

[Legion34]

People said the same thing about Tavares last year. Sometimes a player has a tough stretch or even a tough season. Just because they are not having a good season doesn't mean they can't bounce back. Rielly has done a lot for this team on and off the ice and generally does well in clutch situations... give him time.

This market/message board always turns on players so fast, especially defensemen.

I largely agree. His skating has looked slow for a while. Everyone says he is a great skater. I don’t see it personally.

If we could do mo&do for miller I would.

Knies. Matthews. Marner
Mcman. Miller. Willy
Robby. JT. Patches
Lorent. Kampf. Dewar

McCabe. Tanev
Oel. Xxxx
Benoit. Timmins.

Just need one D.

 

[SprDaVE]

I largely agree. His skating has looked slow for a while. Everyone says he is a great skater. I don’t see it personally.

If we could do mo&do for miller I would.

Knies. Matthews. Marner
Mcman. Miller. Willy
Robby. JT. Patches
Lorent. Kampf. Dewar

McCabe. Tanev
Oel. Xxxx
Benoit. Timmins.

Just need one D.

His skating definitely has slowed down from what we've know of him. His elusiveness was his best attribute in his skating, being able to use his agility to create offensively and defensively.

I'd keep Rielly over Miller personally. Miller looks like crap as well for the record.

 

[nuck]

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

When everything does get "on the table" I could see it. Once Shanny is gone, Mo can be evaluated based on his contract and his usage rather than his history (which is one of post season mediocrity but also of tenure and popularity). I have no idea why his feet don't move anymore but he doesn't seem to move with any urgency or hustle until after he gets beat. In any case that is a summer move if it were to happen.

I remember what a gazelle he was when he came up and compare that to now. I thought it was too much bulk but you can see in recent pictures with him and the Mrs he has no upper body thickness so it must be the lead in his ass. 16:27 last night though. It makes more sense to play him lower in the lineup for a while and make him push his way up with some strong play. Being bitched at by fans is no motivator at all, but reduced ice time is something else. However my guess is he will be 22:00 next game.

 

[TMLAM34]

Wonder if Carlo could potentially be available for the right price.

 

[stats1]

We’ve been roasting him for months now.

No I mean the team. Like we’re once again talking about finding him a partner. Honestly getting tiring trying to get this dude to play up to his potential. Or is it he’s just not as good as we make him out to be. I can take his offensive numbers taking a hit if he played solid D but he doesn’t even do that anymore. I’d seriously look at trading him in the summer

 

[PromisedLand]

Domi is currently playing 2nd line center, we need the guy and he's a good RW

Reaves is God awful, so I'm with you on that one

Domi was pretty good with Matthews last season. I really think Leafs brass have gotta ask their high AAV players to carry lesser players and make them productive

We can't just keep loading lines and when they get shutout expect mediocre depth to produce. If we want quality depth then we gotta pay. We don't have that cap flexibility. In this scenario we MUST ask the high AAV players to be productive and maker lesser AAV players like Domi productive.

its a TEAM game somethings gotta give here IMO

 

[PromisedLand]

I'm ALL-IN on Rantanen.

Never-mind 100 point regular season, lets talk playoffs when it REALLY counts.

Mikko Rantanen

View attachment 963646

Mitch Marner

View attachment 963647

& Auston Matthews [combined]

View attachment 963648

Summary

Mikko Rantanen 34 goals vs. AM @ 23 goals + MM 11 goals = 34 goal total.
Mikko Rantanen 101 points total vs. AM @ 48 points + MM @ 50 points = 98 points total.

Mikko isn't just 3 X the goals and 2 X points >> UFA Marner he is also more productive than Matthews and Marner combined come playoff time.

between marner and rantanen if they cost about the same in terms of AAV I am taking Rantanen no doubt about that. But rumor has been that Rantanen is looking for Drai's contract in that case I'd stay away from Rantanen

 

[PromisedLand]

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

Yeah Morgan is absolutely cooked.

He's too shite defensively to play this poorly offensively. Having said that i doubt being a new dad is helping his performance on the ice.

Id trade him if there's a legit hockey trade to be made but i doubt it.

I am not too worried about Mo. He will rebound I have zero doubt. He has been THE BEST D-Man in playoffs for every series we've played.

it kinda sucks that every season Rielly has to play with a "new" partner, there hasn't been any stability for Mo since he has been drafted with a same partner for at least two years in a row.

Now that McCabe and Tanev are taking tough match ups it will free up Rielly to get going. I think he is still figuring it out with Myers (assuming he sticks with Mo).

I have zero concerns with Rielly as soon as playoffs roll in. My concerns when it comes to playoffs is Marner, Matthews and Tavares going absolutely quiet in games that matter!!!

 

[ToneDog]

between marner and rantanen if they cost about the same in terms of AAV I am taking Rantanen no doubt about that. But rumor has been that Rantanen is looking for Drai's contract in that case I'd stay away from Rantanen

Both probably asking Drai money. We know Sakic is not paying that and we know Leafs not willing to go over $13m yet. They will cave for a guy on pace to score 24.4 goals. 6 goals 5on5, good for 7th on the team behind Robertson and ahead of Patches Take away his hat trick vs the Red Wings and he's on a 20 goal pace. Does not scream $13m to me. But then again, I am not here to sell jerseys.

 

[leafsfan5]

Agents are licking their lips at the escrow news today. The AVS can talk about internal team caps until they're blue in the face, but it's not going to matter much

Genuinely some insane luck for Toronto that the 2 times their superstars are up to sign extensions, the cap is set to spike significantly

 

[WTFMAN99]

Hall doesn't make any sense. He's another one dimensional mid line winger and we have plenty of those. Even at 50% he's got a 3M cap hit, which is more than half of the cap space we have to spend on. Murphy would obviously be a good upgrade.

I feel like we don't have a lot of offense coming off LW

Knies
X
McMann
Lorentz

Probably need something there, centre for 3rd line is the bigger need and defense is emerging as a problem too now with Rielly becoming basically 3rd pairing quality at best.

I know all the talk is about getting a center and that's obviously a real priority but I also think we really need another defenceman if we're going to seriously think about winning a cup. The left side looks strong but after Tanev, I just don't see this configuration of RHD holding up through 4 rounds of playoff hockey. You get a decent RHD to pair with Rielly and you could have two strong pairings with OEL playing third pairing minutes and that's probably where he should be playing on a legit cup contender.

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

Rielly is so done at this point, I said JT/Rielly at the end of the playoffs last year because JT looked so slow and then Rielly was responsible for the PP faltering...people didn't seem to want to have that Rielly conversation then though.

 

[Stephen]

His skating definitely has slowed down from what we've know of him. His elusiveness was his best attribute in his skating, being able to use his agility to create offensively and defensively.

I'd keep Rielly over Miller personally. Miller looks like crap as well for the record.

Rielly’s skating looks really sluggish, very heavy footwork to the eye.

Haven’t cracked open the telemetry stats to look at top speed and speed bursts, but I would venture to guess that acceleration is a problem and so is top speed. How many times does it look like he’s getting beat on a defensive foot race?

On the agility side, do you ever see Rielly with the lateral mobility and footwork of other D? Last night vs Lane Hutson, or two nights ago vs Luke Hughes? It’s a different animal.

 

[Mess]

I don't disagree that Rantanen is the better playoff performer
But can't just say "3 X the goals and 2 X points" while ignoring he's also played 40% more games than Marner.

Pointing out a 1.25 PPG and 0.42 GPG over a 0.88 PPG and 0.19 GPG says enough already

True, however that essentially punishes Rantanen for having playoff round success annually including winning a Stanley Cup, and benefits Leafs players in direct comparisons for early exists over the same time period (the last 8 playoff seasons) as to why they produce less in the playoffs. Bowing out early as the reason for the lower point production by Leaf players.

However, if one compared Marner's 57 career playoff games & Matthew's 55 games = 112 playoff man games in their playoff careers combined to Rantanen who has only played 81 total playoff games in comparison and has as many goals and points combined as Leafs 2 X players added together in 31 less games played. . That to me is very impressive and makes Rantanen a money player come playoffs.

If I said over the course the last 8 playoff seasons Mikko Rantanen has scored 3 X goals of Marner and 2 X points is comparing actual results (not in terms of games played but playoff years being equal) which is accurate in that sense.

 

[PromisedLand]

 

[The Podium]

I know all the talk is about getting a center and that's obviously a real priority but I also think we really need another defenceman if we're going to seriously think about winning a cup. The left side looks strong but after Tanev, I just don't see this configuration of RHD holding up through 4 rounds of playoff hockey. You get a decent RHD to pair with Rielly and you could have two strong pairings with OEL playing third pairing minutes and that's probably where he should be playing on a legit cup contender.

I think Tre really dropped the ball not going all in on Matt Roy (instead of OEL) just to keep Liljegren only to trade him a month into the season. He is exactly what we needed, young, signed to a great deal now in Washington.

McCabe - Tanev
Reilly - Roy

Could’ve been one of the better top 4s in the league.

People said the same thing about Tavares last year. Sometimes a player has a tough stretch or even a tough season. Just because they are not having a good season doesn't mean they can't bounce back. Rielly has done a lot for this team on and off the ice and generally does well in clutch situations... give him time.

This market/message board always turns on players so fast, especially defensemen.

I think both Tavares bounce back and Reillys tough year are related to Berubes system. Tavares thriving with the slower pace while Reillys main strength generating off the rush is a complete non-factor now.

 

[SHANNYPLAN]

At what point are we going to have the Morgan Rielly conversation? Dude looks cooked at 30.

Always been a big fan of Captain Morgan.

This season, its hard to argue that he's one of our top 3 defensemen though. Is it the new kid? Does he not work under Berube's system? Is he hurt? Guess we'll never know for sure.

Hate to say it, but he may be our DeRozan.

 

[Mess]

between marner and rantanen if they cost about the same in terms of AAV I am taking Rantanen no doubt about that. But rumor has been that Rantanen is looking for Drai's contract in that case I'd stay away from Rantanen

Leon Draisaitl playoff stats to earn $14 mil AAV.

vs.

Mikko Rantanen playoff career stats

Mikko's 101 career playoff points (in 7 more games played) is not that far off of Draisaitl 108 points.

Considering Rantanen has been on a Cup winner asking for a contract like Leon is not that outrageous of an ask. IMO ..

With the expected Salary Cap increase of $5 mil or more this upcoming season, both players will have similar Cap Hit % figures when the smoke clears.

Both players are playoff warriors and produce at high levels.