Leafs are done on the D core for now.
Also dont like that pick leaving, regardless of trade value.
Zaitzev's contract is his biggest issue, followed by his (somewhat forced) role. He is a NHL player, and should not be taken out by Gudas of all people.

True but not. Gudas is better in every statistic including GA/60, hits, blocks, penalty killing, corsi, fenwick, PDO, and gets about the same dZs% as Zaitsev. I think Hainsey is the odd man out. I absolutely love that D if you have Zaitsev, Gudas, Muzzin, Reilly, Dermott, and Gardiner. That’s elite. Check out Gudas’s advanced stats on hockey reference. He’s a whole lot better than most people think.

Look at his season where he is not nursing an injury/sick for half of it and not being buried like he is this year and his adv are fine. I think this Muzzin pick up will really help his perception.
That being said he is still overpaid.

Not sure where you are getting your stats from but I know zaitsev is ahead in blocked shots so I’m willing to bet there are some other mistakes in there as well.

Yes zaitsev May be overpaid but you trade for Gudas and he sits next to ozhiganov in the press box...

Many much better Dmen that we might make a move on but It certainly seems much more likely to happen in the off season.

What’s more shocking to me is that Gudas’s numbers are even better than Pesce’s. He’s been incredible with Hagg this year. Zaitsev is one of the most underrated players in the game. If he was in a proper role, than he would be a solid #4 D. Now that Muzzin can take a hunk of the ice time and defensive matchups, I think Zaitsev could start to get on track. Muzzin will also relieve Zaitsev of his heavy PK workload. I honestly think that teams should bid for Zaitsev this offseason with his value being decently low. He could easily emerge as a 30 point two way guy.

Nope. I adjusted to blocks per 60, and adjusted based on the role. Hagg shares the defensive role evenly with Gudas. Zaitsev is the shutdown man in his pairing, thus being heavily relied on to compensate for Gardiner’s errors. He makes up 66.1% of the blocked shots in the duo. If Gudas were relied on in his duo to compensate for an offensive partner’s offensive tendencies (like Gostisbehere) and had just 50% of the total blocks in the duo, he’d be at 99.4 projected blocked shots, barely topping Zaitsev’s 99.

Idk what games your watching but Zaitsev is a defensive liability, Jake Gardiner needs tp play with someone who plays more of a defensive role like Gudas who would bring much more physicality as well.
You definately can't put him in the same category as Ozhiganov who does virtually nothing.

I watch the actual game and all the subtle nuances that people like you miss. Zaitsev breaks up the cycle blocks shots and covers both his responsibilities and gardiners. He has also shut down countless odd man rushes covering for Jake. Last I checked zaitsev and gardiner had let in less goals than any top 4 pair in the league... not too shabby for a liability. Zaitsev is also our most physical Dman, maybe not as physical as Gudas but he also has 1/4 of the penalty minutes... whi’s Gonna kill those penalties when Gudas is in the box?

This is how he is being used this season, to be honest I didn’t think he could be this good in a shutdown role.

The fact that you think ozhiganov does nothing tells me what I’m dealing with here...