And in one year, you're back in a similar situation because Keller will get close to $10 million or more depending on how many points he produces. Matthews is the guy you keep. Marner is the guy you trade. Matthews is all-world talent that makes everyone better. Marner is just all-world talent.

Seems like fans of other teams are trying to be so helpful in getting rid of Matthews for us, he must be a terrible player. Think my favourite part is they all keep sending him to a team that can’t afford him.


Just a PSA: Matthews and marner are both re signing with the leafs and they will be a good team for years to come... please try and take that in and deal with it. Thank you.

Or.... you keep both... does Tampa have to choose between kucherov or point? Nope... just silly leaf haters that put standards that only apply to Toronto.

Yes. I agree. Keep both and make it work. I was just going with the OP's thought of trading one of them. Chicago made it work too...for a while.

Chicago and Pittsburgh both made it work. Most teams that win the cup do it with star power backed up with cheaper talent. Leafs have the stars and they have the cheaper players to surround them with so everyone can be successful. Just need smart asset management. Chicago and Pittsburgh were both power houses for a long time, Pittsburgh could still win a cup this year. When you have a player like Crosby anything is possible.

Yeah... Chicago totally made it work. Where are they in the standings again? They made it work until they had to put 21m in two players. The leafs are about to have 30m+ in three and none of those three are a d-man. Reilly is good n all but he's no Victor Hedman when it comes to actually playing defence. They have no depth on the backend which is why they always sputter down the stretch and fizzle out in the playoffs. Teams tighten up the backend as the season goes on and it becomes very hard to out-score your problems. Doesn't help that they've got 7m tied up in Nylander who brings that number to 37m-ish in 4 forwards. Someone is getting traded or offer sheeted. There was a report today that multiple teams are monitoring the situation and considering an offer sheet. They don't happen often, but when they do it's usually because the team really doesn't think it'll get matched and it's at a price they can handle. A few teams would give Marner 10m on an 7 year deal and the Leafs would only be able to match it because of the 10% over-cap spending allowed during the offseason. Gardiner is gone which means even less depth on the backend, but hey, maybe they can teach JT to play defence lolol

Our defence has been fine all year, it’s our offence that is sputtering, but I’m about as concerned with that as I am with salty oilers fans comments...

You have them backwards. Marner makes players better, Matthews just finishes.

lol well you should be, the Oilers and Leafs have the same problems. The Leafs just have more depth up front which masks the problem better. Hockey is a transition game, you can't transition well against good defensive teams without good defence. The reason you guys are struggling up front is because nothing is happening on the backend and as teams tighten up the forwards have less room to make the transition for the d-men.

Tampa is good because they have a strong and deep backend who can transition the puck to some very strong talent up front. Chicago had a great transition game which is why they won cups, they've simply lost it as Hjalmarsson is in Arizona and their top pairing left their prime. You guys have one decent pairing like we do, we were winning until the better half of that pairing got hurt. We have the best player in the world and nobody to get him the puck, our transition game is terrible and we don't have Freddy in net to bail us out all the time. You guys are just about to put the nail in the coffin by tying up all your cap in 4 guys whereas we, because we have a few promising D prospects on the cusp of NHL readiness, are about to finally be relevant. Leafs are the definition of a glass cannon and will be until they deepen the backend. No cups until that's done.

Strong deep back end? Nope, same issue as the leafs, in need of a good RHD. Hell most teams would like to upgrade their D. I think with the addition of muzzin we have the tools we need.

I'm a little confused, you posted "it's Canadas team" to explain why the Leaf trade the Yankee Matthews, yet did you not notice the 2 main pieces you have coming back to the Leafs are also Americans? If you are going to trade Matthews send him to Vegas (kind of close to his home) or NYR (America's Big Apple) or LAK (Hollywood) or Flo (fun and sun). Though trading Matthews would have to wait until his 5-8 years of living in the center of the universe!!!! by than he'll hate LeafLand and all Canadians.

Salty no. Not knowledgable yes. It's going to gone forever, that all Leafs Dmen are bad. Some will believe if Matthews signs with Arizona for 16m, the Coyotes better sign Marner too, so they can get to the cap floor.

You're kidding right? They've got Hedman, Mcdonagh, and Sergachev. You'd have to be out of your mind to think that isn't a solid blue line. And you're right, most teams would, which is why most teams aren't contenders (i.e. the Leafs).

Sergachev??? Since when does his name get mixed in with Hedman?

And again all you did was list their lhd.... for all the talk of Tampa they have the same amount of goals against and their defence surely wasn’t manhandling the leafs during our two meetings.

and yet they're a far better team

They certainly weren’t in our first two meetings. Defensively they are right on pace with the leafs... offensively is a different story.

They’ve got a great team, no doubt the best in the league but they’re defensive core is not top in the league. They have some great young players and prospect on the back end but could certainly use a boost on the right side. Could you imagine them acquiring petro at the TDL? It would be insane. They would most likely need to move him in the off season though.