Quoting: exo2769
Nothing of major value... Jeeze. Gus has as many points and Nylander's...career best…as a defenseman...that costs $1.2M. Nylander's on a BLISTERING pace for 52 points this year. He's a playmaker that doesn't make enough plays. It's like calling Bob's contact good to date. He's a goalie that's having a hard time stopping the puck from going into the net. I don't care how good his glove side is...if his 5 hole is wide open. I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall throwing out facts and stats and you're just saying forget all that! Who needs facts?! Nylander's a Beast because I say so! Let's blame literally everyone else. Tavares is hurt, Babcock, blah blah blah. You get what you earn. He hasn't earned it and here we are year freaking FIVE...still no sign of living up to that $7M contract. Then the idea of trading him to a team with LESS talent...Surely that'll help him out!
If Gus is so good why don't you keep him? If Saad is so good, why not keep him? Especially if Nylander is so bad. Gus scored a tonne of PP points off the back of Kane's skill last year and has nothing else to offer. He's an NHL player sure but where would he fit in TO? Rielly and Muzzin are superior players. As is Barrie. And since Gus is a lefty, he'd be on the 3rd pair. He won't get points on the PP and would get caved in defensively like he does for Chicago on a nightly basis. No thanks.
Saad? If he was so awesome why does literally every Chicago fan try and trade him daily?
I don't ever consider trading Nylander because he's a great player and I doubt the Leafs could get fair value for him. Kapanen I'd trade cause I think he's overrated but I wouldn't want any of the players Chicago has to offer. Anything worthwhile in Chicago is either too old, or too expensive.
Say whatever you want about how much I overrate Leaf players, it doesn't matter. I am not wanting to trade them and neither does Dubas. The one fact you just can't spin in any logical way is this. If you truly think these players are so much better than the players who are trading them for, you'd never make the trade. So obviously Chicago fans don't think much of Gus and hope they can maximize his value based of his one good offensive season (He was terrible defensively like the rest of the team, 3rd most goals allowed in the league last year) and they don't think much of Saad either because they are always trading him. What does that say about these players?
Now I am sure the next argument point is, we need to move them to give young players a chance to shine. That essentially means these guys aren't long term pieces for your rebuilding team, which means one of 2 things, their salary is going to be a long term problem (Both are likely in that case) or currently they aren't better then younger options. In either case, why would a team that is leaving their rebuild want players that aren't good enough to be long term pieces on an inferior team?
Just to clear it up, for every reason you want to move these players, those exact reasons are doubled for why TO has no interest in these players. Saad is not an improvement over either Nylander or Kapanen. And Gus is just a 3rd pair guy in TO because as I have mentioned both Muzzin and Rielly are much better players. So from a team need perspective, TO would have zero interest in any trade along these lines. On top of all that, what team in this day and age moves out two 23 year old high value offensive players for 2 older players that don't improve the team? I'll answer that one for you as well. Maybe Chiarelli but thats about it.