Don't see FLA taking that though. Ekblad for Marner is maybe, but moving Hoffman just makes the team worse... They'd lose their best D and TOP3 goal scorer in exchange to a great playmaker...which they already have in Barkov and Huberdeau.

They need to add playmaker for Marner. Maybe Heponiemi instead of Hoffman but they need to. Marner has bigger value than Ekblad. Ekblad was being talked about in deals with Kadri involved and such. he is great Dman but they need to add in swap.

Out of interest would you consider something like this


- Mitch Marner
- Timothy Liljegren


- Aaron Ekblad
- Mike Hoffman (50% salary retained)
- Conditional 2nd round pick (moves to first if FLA reaches the 2nd round in the playoffs)

The deal is that if FLA moves Ekblad they need Liljegren in the exchange, because there's no other RHDs in their prospect system able to take that role...
D-men tend to have more value than wingers.

Thats intriguing offer. I would not want to trade Liljegren.. Im really high on him and I feel like he would be as good next year as Cernak and Hronek were for their respective teams. But if we get young top pairing defensive defenceman who would make great pairing for many many years.. Id take that if I knew Hoffman would stay with Leafs and would re-sign after or during season.

As much as you don't want to move Liljegren, FLA doesn't want to move Ekblad. He's their best defensive D by far. Marner might have higher value than Ekblad when not considering the needs of the teams, but moving Ekblad for FLA creates a bigger hole than Marner would fill.

It's like TOR would move Rielly for a solid winger like Gaudreau. Points wise Gaudreau is higher in value, but the hole that Rielly would leave is massive and extremely hard for TOR to fill.

This is also why I think it's fair from FLA fans to say that Ekblad for Marner 1-on-1 is a fair deal.