I vote option 3
They certainly aren't terrible. But Andersen is a very good goalie. One of the best moves the Leafs have made

I tend to think that's closer to the reality here as well. They are good and improving. They could use an upgrade over Hainsey though but that can come without losing a Nylander trade.

Option 1, and Andersen certainly helps

Really takes the wind out of the sales for trading Nylander. The defence isn't bad enough to warrant overpaying for a replacement when there will be someone available that can upgrade Hainsey and not cost a huge asset.

Ok well it's one thing to limit L.A or Vegas to 1 goal... But can they do it against the leagues best???

I'd put in the Option 4 - The forwards make them look better than they are. (It's hard to score when you don't have the puck)

That would hold more weight if their possession numbers were better. TO has been on the plus side of the possession game this year but its not elite. San Jose has the puck for around 60% of the time, TO I believe is around 52% so far this season. So they don't have the puck all the time, but they definitely are holding the advantage of high danger scoring chances. If they had Nylander and Matthews in the lineup as well, that would likely improve things even more. I will say though, this season the forwards are so much more committed to playing good defence which is helping the defence in a big way.

Possibly, but I think Babcock likes his vets like Hainsey. I dunno, if the leafs have an opportunity to get a top 4 mid 20's (age) dman. I'd probably do it.

Its possible, but they'll have to overpay which I am against.

Carolina and TO have had some talks and according to TSN, Carolina is fine giving up Pesce but TO has asked for Slavin which the Canes aren't happy about. If they could get Slavin I'd be okay with losing Nylander but if getting a guy like Pesce costs you Nylander, that is a bad trade. Defensive defenceman are not worth young offensively gifted players.

That would be option 1. Part of the system.

And that would be my Answer too Oliver, and part of that system is having solid goaltending. Keeping the puck out of our net is a team job. This is why jvr and bozak were let go. We need forwards who are good the D zone and Dmen that are good in the offensive zone.

Option one! Andersen does help though. Then again as one hears from this site Zeitsev is the worst D-man on a horrible contract and that Gardiner couldn't get the Leafs a bag of pucks( Yet, they would sign Gardiner as a free agent on their team for 6x5 ) Goodtimes!

Totally, fans on here take 20-40% off a players skill level and worth on here if that player has a Leaf on his jersey. Zaistev has argueably been the best defenseman in his zone this season for TO. Rielly is the current front runner for the Norris and Gardiner has trimmed his really bad blunders by about 50% so far this season. Dermott after a rough start has started turning things around and Ozhiganov has looked both good and bad, but he's getting there. Hainsey is looking better than the start of the season but he could be upgraded.

Not as bad as I thought. Andersen is making them look better than they actually are.

They are 13th best for shots against as well, so Andersen isn't getting a tonne of work. Plus the majority of the shots he faces he's getting a clean look at and they are coming from further out.

I said it before and i will say it again...D is pretty much average, which will be enough to reach Playoffs again but that will be it. Unfortunatelly time didnt play well cause at the moment TBL, BOS and TML are top Eastern Teams and they are all in same Conference, so hard clash in first round of Playoffs is inevitable.

Andersen will help a lot, but heaven forbid he gets some injury.....

As for the D per se...offensivlly great, but still slumpy in defensive tasks, will take a huge blow next Season with Gardiner gone....and Heinsey will die again in the middle of the Season with all TOI he needs to work out.....so im kinda doubtfull....

btw...GAA is mainly Goalie merit...you should check SAA for comparisons and estimating....

I never thought they were that bad. Leafs fans just needed something to complain about since there isn’t much to complain about else where.

Although I will say another good defensemen certainly wouldnt hurt.

Next year they may have problems.

Option 4. The forwards do a much better job supporting the D than they did last year.

So far this year, it is much rarer to see an opponent left completely alone in front of the net, as it used to happen frequently. Clearly the coaching staff worked on that, and it helped. Forwards will back their defensemen and check the players in the slot if a D chases someone behind the net. The addition of Tavares probably helps as well.

They actually give up a lot of chances from the high slot. Andersen has 83.3 hdsv% and 5.28 GSAA (both are really good) and Toronto as a team is 5th in sv% at 93.17%

Hainsey's icetime is being limited a lot more. He doesn't play the whole PK anymore and I'd even say that Zaitsev could be the best penalty killer so far. As for them being Lumpy in the d zone, maybe at the beginning of the year, they've been pretty solid for the past 10 games or so. Andersen hasn't allowed more than 2 goals in 8 games or something like that and most of those games he hasn't had to stand on his head. I'd even say the only game I can remember in the last while where he had to stand on his head was against Vegas.

As for the playoffs, I think whichever team between Tampa and TO is healthier will win the division. And then whoever finished 2nd and 3rd will have a really tough 1st round. Losing to one of Boston, Toronto, or Tampa in the first round isn't a huge disappointment, its not like you'd be losing to whoever ends up in a wildcard position.

For some reason, I couldn't see your graph until after I submitted my comment. Yeah they are still allowing a bit too many slot chances, but Matthews will reduce that further when he's back in the lineup. As will Nylander when he resigns.

Andersen certainly makes this team look better, and the defense isn't as bad as it's made up to be. A lot of it is the emergence of Rielly as a high end #1 defenseman. However, it would be stupid to think that the Leafs shouldn't add another defenseman. While the Nylander for Pesce idea has been floated around a lot, adding someone like Pesce makes a lot of sense for them. If the Leafs want a better shot at a title, then it makes a ton of sense to add another stable RHD. If it's not Pesce, I think signing someone like Anton Stralman is also a great fit.

No, they don't need to upgrade the D to make the playoffs. But I would say that they need to upgrade the D in order to win the Cup. Does that mean it has to be Nylander to go? No, because then they need another scorer in the top nine. But would it be a worthwhile deal still? I'd say so.

That is where I disagree completely because by itself if you take all the peripheral information away and look at the trade based off just the players involved, then trading Nylander for Pesce is a bad move. Pesce is a good player but he is not as good as Nylander.

That is all the matters in my mind. People like to justify a Pesce and a 3rd for Nylander as fair because TO needs to upgrade the D, clearly that isn't as big an issue as others like to think so if you take that motivation out, it comes down to which player helps the team more and Nylander being the better player helps the team more. He's a possession player with a huge upside and is 22. That is not easy to find, most teams only have 1 of those guys if they are lucky, TO has 3 of them and trading one for a lesser player is just poor asset management.

GAA is mainly a goalie merit? That is ridiculous. Even when I’m looking at a goalie I’m looking at S% and where the shots are coming from. Yes a goalie certainly can affect GAA but it is a better gauge of team Defence than anything.

As far as shots go, the Leafs D is pretty good, but they under perform against playoff teams that they have faced (Boston, Calgary, Winnipeg, Pittsburgh, and Montreal). They allow almost 34 shots against per game. After the first game vs the Habs, the TOR defense is blocking 24.436% of opponents shot attempts. The opposition is blocking in that span 32.526% of shot attempts. Which either the offense isn't taking quality shots, or the defense isn't willing to get in front of the puck. Also, it's worth noting that they have not played 7 of the other nine top ten teams including Nashville and Tampa. The sample size is too small to make any judgements yet. Check in again in the New Year.

Perhaps you should have checked up on some of your statements before responding.

TO has played Winnipeg twice and beat them twice and were the better team in both games.

They were even with Pittsburgh in their first match but Murray stood on his head. Yes it was a 3-0 Pittsburgh win but the shots were even and the play was even, Murray was the better goalie on that night. The next time they played TO spanked them. They came out flat against Montreal in game one but lets be honest Montreal is not a playoff team, they'll fall off and finish well out of a playoff spot. Even the Boston game wasn't as lopsided a game as the scoreboard suggests, the Bruins top line is ******* nuts and went off and Halak was unbeatable in that game.

I don't necessarily care how the goalies did, how good the offense was, or how close the games were. This is about the defense. Which you didn't address in your statement. Do you disagree with the stats?