Leafs should say NO - Kapanen should not be for sale.

Habs would most likely say yes to that trade! Wild fans have been valuating Brodin very high, and I think this is more down to earth (although, I think some teams would give up more to get him)

I'd imagine Habs say yes to that trade. Juulsen really isn't needed because of the emergence of Brooks.

I think the value is very close. This trade is also dependent on the Wild acquiring Nurse (or another LHD).

How is Juulsen's development coming along?

Wow hilarious you posted this since I logged in with intentions to post an extremely similar thread with that exact title.

MTL trade is fine if we add another LD (as you've done here), although what would be the plan with Belpedio next year if we added Juulsen?

Apparently Dubas is unwilling to part with Kapanen... Otherwise I really like the trade. Kapanen's speed is something we really need with how slow Rask and Koivu are.

I don't hate the Vegas trade, but again what would we do with Belpedio and Juulsen in this scenario? I'm assuming you'd trade Pateryn in the offseason but we'd have a ton of RD after this move.

I think you could probably get more for Granlund. Last summer I bashed RNH and said he's not a fit, but now I'm going to eat my words and say I wish we would have swung at a deal for him over Rask. Draisatl would be another target to go after, and possibly Puljujarvi.

Overall, I'm not sure if we really need help defensively, and it seems like most of these moves address our D. The Wild have perpetually had scoring consistency issues, and I'd rather Fenton addresses that by getting more/different forwards than by adding a bunch of D. I get you traded away some of our D here and we need to fill those holes, but Seeler showed last night that he could be a capable top 4 D in the next year or so and we have a lot of RD prospects in the system.

I wouldn't (necessarily) trade Pateryn this summer in this scenario. I really like his game. Plus, I'm a long ways from sold on Belpidio, so he isn't even a concern of mine. Juulsen is still only 21 and another year in the AHL and as an injury replacement guy certainly wouldn't hurt him. And...as the saying goes...you cannot have enough depth on the blue line. Most of the Wild's prospects on D appear to have fairly low ceilings and I am looking for Juulsen to develop into a top 4 guy. His development would dictate the future of Pateryn with the Wild.

Mostly, I was moving players I am not huge fans of for returns that are fair, and help replace them with players I like more. Basically - Nurse for Brodin, Miller for Spurgeon, Kapanen for Zucker, and Granlund for futures. This roster got younger and more versatile. I probably should have addressed the meek future of Wild centers here, but that will have to wait for my next effort...

why would leafs trade kap for zucker? kap is younger (27 vs 22), will be cheaper, and is probably pretty equal talent wise right now. That's a brutal trade for the leafs. Spurgeon is even older, and has less control, but fills a need, so maybe, but the issue is still with the cap hit.

For all the talk about the leafs not having cap room everyone is quick to sell off their older players with bigger contracts to them awfully quick.

I retained $2million of Spurgeon’s salary

Let's put aside the speculation about whether Kapanen is available. This deal makes almost zero sense for Toronto because by your parameters, it is a summer 2019 transaction, which means Spurgeon's contract expires after only one season with the Maple Leafs. I think you'd have a hard time persuading Dubas to make this trade even if the pick involved was Minnesota's first and not Toronto's second.

Juulsen has been injured for the past month, but before that, he's shown a lot of growth. We sent him down to Laval (like Mete, to help give him confidence but also cause of our roster size situation at the time - since he didn't need to clear waivers). I think he's proven to be NHL ready and 10-12 games in the AHL would do him good just to get back into the action after the injury. He's a tough kid and plays a very smart two-way game. Not afraid to get dirty and is good at passing/cutting lanes. He's not a big producer on the offence side of things but in a year or two, he can be a very reliable 2nd pairing RD. His only caveat is his skating. It's not bad but it's not good enough to make him join in on a rush.

I much rather keep him on the team but considering Brook/Fleury are also knocking on the doorstep and our need for a stable 2nd pairing LD, I would be okay letting him go for this return.