Well zaitsev does play D and quite well. It’s not a bad idea though. Wonder if this could work with retained salary for picks/prospects. My only concern would be Tanev’s health.

As a Canucks fan i would agree. Tanev is on a team friendly deal

Rather keep Tanev he's so much better and he has a leadership role over here

Thats why back to @Jamiepo u throw in picks and prospects and help the rebuild

Problem is one guy is a pending UFA soonish and can be traded for picks and prospects at the TDL and the other is signed to a long contract that hasn't been able to live up to since signing it.

Hmmmmmm which one would I prefer to have........Let me think about this one and get back to you...................................

Leafs will also hit cap crunch in next couple years and will need all the cap space that they can get

Zaitsev is actually so bad. I’ll take Brett kulak Over him. Nice add by Habs had no idea how well he was doing

That's exactly right. Zaitsev is not worth his contract so one-for-one is a very bad deal for Vancouver. Need to add a 2nd round pick.

More than a 2nd imo

Vancouver could easily get a first round pick+ without a cap dump like zaitsev. No Bueno for Vancouver

Yes, you're both correct!

I wouldn't go that far. I think everyone looks at his cap hit and then judges. Judge him as the player only and he isn't a terrible player. he's just not worth his contract. If he were 1.5-2M, I'm sure plenty of teams would be fine with him.

Kulak is playing good right now but I wouldn't go and put him on a pedestal just yet. He definitely has his limitations but he is overachieving so it looks good. He won't survive a full year at this pace but I'm glad he's doing what he is. He is a #5 at best on most teams. Habs LHD depth is so bad that he's forced into top pair/second pair for that left side.

I'm pretty sure if Toronto traded for a Zaitsev clone making 700K, there wouldn't be anyone saying anything bad about him.

Drunk?

What I’m trying to say is I’ll take a Kulak at 900,000K over Zaitsev at 4.5 mill. My point is that you can find much better value than Zaitsev and kulak is a great example. Obviously he won’t keep this up, but he’s a great example of a great value player. I mean he’s making next to nothing and costed nothing to trade for. With the leafs cap situation the way that it is, they can’t afford to pay mediocre players like Zaitsev all that money. When pit won back to back cups: Murray, Guzental, sheary, rust, dumo, and maatta (first cup) were all under 1Million, Schultz made like 1.5 mill, Bones was 1.9 mill, Cullen was around 1 million, etc... that’s the type of value you have to find when you have an expensive core. Kulak is a great example of that, Zaitsev is not.

Oh yeah in terms of value for what they're paid, of course. Zaitzev is overpaid. No doubt. I still think he's better than Kulak if they were both paid equally though. That's all I meant.

Yes u r right there but bsck to judging at cap hit no one wants a player who is being overpaid. We can judge Loui Eriksson cause he's getting paid 6 mil when he's playing at absoilye best 2 mil player. Cap hit plays a huge role in a players value

Yeah, leafs should’ve briged Zaitsev after his rookie year rather than give him a FAT 7 year contract

And there's a lot of mistakes GMs make. Oneo f them is giving players big contracts after they have one good year. That year is not enough to judge anything. They need at least 2 or 3 to show that first good year wasn't a fluke

Yeah it was excessive but in hindsight of course. Who would of thought Zaitsev would regress so drastically? Even if they did bridge him, Zaitsev's game has unnaturally deflated it seems. Has his circumstances changed enough for him to not be able to provide what he did in his 1st year?

Of course. A too high contract can outweigh a players value on the ice. I'm simply saying that Zaitsev isn't a "bad" player. He just has bad contract. Matt Moulson for example is not good enough to play in the NHL at his current cap hit. he's overpaid obviously but there is reason to believe that even at 650K he isn't worth it as he isn't even a NHL calibre player any longer. Matt Moulson is this case is a "bad" player. Zaitsev's cap is the only thing holding him back really. If he were making 750K, people would be content with his ability and performance.

Well. Kinda tough to say difinitively.

Last year he started the year great. He got injured and immediately the Leafs struggled defensively. Babcock was rolling him out for full 2min penalty kills and everyone was certain the team would get their mojo back when he returned.

He came back (maybe too soon?) and his workload was right back to where it was prior to the injury. Within a few weeks he got sick and missed some more time.

When he returned he played like a shell of his former self. Personally I think his body shut down under the work load...and given the $4.5m he was eating on the cap...Toronto media tore him to shreds any chance they got.

So that was last year. This year? Not sure. Was his confidence so shook from last year that he’s forcing things a bit too much now? It’s frustrating how it’s still kneejerk reaction to blame him. Anytime the other team scores while he’s on the ice the camera immediately pans to him leading viewers to believe it was his fault. I think he’s be ‘fine’ this year defensively. If anything, wingers are breaking out too early and when Zaitsev goes to clear off the boards, there’s no one there anymore. If he was making $3-3.5m and we didn’t have a pair of superstars to sign this offseason, no one would be barking at him. But that’s my opinion.

Well that pretty much goes to show what i was getting at. Although in more depth. The severity of how much he is overpaid is beyond what i could probably tell as I don't watch him enough. MY only point was to say that he isn't a bad player. simply paid too much for what he has given the Leafs this year.

That would be very accurate, IMO...and at best I think he’s neutral value in a deal....to a team that wouldn’t have issues fitting his cap hit in and are willing to take him as cap ballast in a deal.

I know there’s some people on here that think he’s amazing defensively...and there’s others who think he’s an albatross. For me, he’s not a liability defensively and it makes 0 sense to have to pay another team to take him, only to then have to pay someone else to replace his minutes.

Of the 30 other GM’s in the league, I’m sure there’s at least 2-5 that would be happy to acquire him for a 5th-7th rounder.

Well a contract for that long on a player that is seemingly declining would more than likely be a red flag for most, especially on a good team like the Leafs. Its not so much that Zaitsev isn't worth a 5th rounder, its more on whether there are better options available at 4.5M. Fre agency, trades, etc. Zaitsev is for the long future. Any team taking him on is making the same investment that Toronto made after his year. If you could go back in time and not sign him, would you? Chances are tat applies to most teams.

That's at his current 4.5M contract. If you swap another player with salary back or retain on his contract all of sudden Zaitsev at 2.5M a year is a lot more attractive though.

Absolutely correct. It’s more a matter of determining if he’s ‘declining’ or simply in a rut that...if he gets out of...could be a very solid add. I think the majority of GMs would read the red flags and pass...but a small handful might interpret it differently. Something tells me our GM and Coach are part of that handful and I wonder if they’d even consider trading him for a 5th.