I really don't understand the Minnesota trade. Gardiner had 14 more points than Spurgeon and similar possession numbers. Yes, he's LHD and Spurgeon is RHD which Toronto needs, but I think you're undervaluing Gardiner. Brown for Ennis is a loss for Toronto IMO, and throwing in the first seems absurd. Not saying its stupid, but I'd be interested to hear your rationale.

From everything I was told Spurgeon had an off year, and I know Gardiner had a special season, usually not even close in value, also Leafs would get an extra year of Spurgeon at only a mill more roughly. Gardiner and Rielly don't (and in my opinion can't) work will on the same pairing where I think Spurgeon would and that would be the Leafs top pairing. That leaves Dermott to play with Hainsey and Hainsey can do to Dermott what he did with Rielly, and then Borgman and Zaitsev can do their thing on the bottom pair. Borgman looked REALLY good on the Marlies, Zaitsev I think was getting the Rielly treatment from last year and Kadri the year before from Babcock. He pushed those 3 to their limit.

Rielly-Spurgeon
Dermott-Hainsey
Borgman-Zaitsev