OTT is not trading Stone to a divisional rival for trash, if you wants stone is starts with nylander or Marner ++

Stone has one more year left on his deal and it sounds like he's leaving. Marner and Nylander are worth more than Stone by themselves. Both are 60+ point players with big upside and a lot of team control left.

It's possible that Ottawa could get a better deal, but a couple decent prospects, a 3rd usable piece and a 1st and a 3rd are hardly trash. Johnsson has torn up the AHL the past two years and is ready to make the jump to be a quality middle six winger, maybe even better. Timashov is a good prospect as well who has looked pretty solid in the AHL at age 20 and 21, he prob. needs one more year to be ready.

LOL Stone is better than both and he has not played with a C like Mathews in his career.

Stone may be the better player, but he's not worth more in a trade. Its not even close. He's got 1 year of control remaining, at 26 years old. Nylander (who is also a center mind you) has 4 years of team control remaining at the age of 22, he's already put up back-to-back 60 point campaigns. Marner is even younger at 21 with 5 years of team control remaining and followed up his 61 point rookie season with a 69 point performance.

To say Stone is the best player of the 3 currently is fair, but it's already pretty close and Nylander and Marner are 4-5 years younger with the same amount of control. That is worth so much more in the trade market that really it's not that close.