Schwartz is very good defensively, Thomas was dominant at shot suppression in the second half last year, and then guys like Steen/Sundqvist/Sanford are good as well, but then Matthews, Schenn, Tarasenko, and Perron are pretty much all offense. Dermott would move the needle for sure, it just seems like in general a trade like this is pretty far-fetched. Still, it’s kind of a fun idea to talk about.

Definitely fun, especially when I am trying to come up with something subjectively fair (obviously, because no Leaf fan, apparently can be objective about their own players :P) that I do not believe has ever been proposed before. I appreciate your candor and your input.

So you think the Blues trading a legit 1st pair right D (cap Friendly contract) and a 60 point average player(who is always on team Canada and plays against top line players his whole career) for for a 70 point player is a good trade, lol NOT. I do think Mathews will score 50 goals one year and will be the leagues best goal scorer, but the blues have team cohesiveness and Tarasenko already who puts up the numbers. If I am GM of the Blues, never would I do this deal. The 2 guys in this trade play exacly the way the blues want to play and Austin seems to be a bit of trouble!

Who exactly do you think the top 5 centerman in the league are? Matthews isnt even the best centerman on his team!

What's the criteria for ranking, because you will probably get a different answer solely based on that. If it was purely offensive, I'd think Matthews would be top-5 forsure. If we somehow formulated some sort of idea or support in reference to what truly "top" meant, I still believe Matthews would be a top-10. In addition, you'd have to add in his age as a factor, plus contract (however you view the AAV in comparison to the term), etc. so there are a lot of factors. Speaking purely offensively, once again, when you also consider that Matthews, as young as he is, still has room to grow and develop, he would be the #1 center on the Leafs, and probably top #5 in the league. Again, this is all subjective until there were a more analytical way of classifying and determining such a ranking. When I thought of this deal, I honestly believed that there was no legitimate #1 center on the Blues; that was done by committee between Schenn and O'Reilly. Only, that because of O'Reilly premium defensive game, he gets the tougher assignments. I would not, in general, consider O'Reilly a top #10 center, unless that was solely based on top defensive centers that are top-6 players. Again, this is hard, but that is my thought process sort of laid out for you.

I guess he’s more in the 7-10 range now that I think about it

Build a team that plays one season and what is your center depth with on extra guy to fill in, how is that! When a person said top 5 in the league, that usually means right now, not 3 years ago or 3 years from now when a guy coulld be injured and never play another game!

I appreciate you taking a second to think it over. According to the NHL, at least the ranking they tweeted preseason, Matthews is #6 and O'Reilly is #12. Just to be fair, the NHL ranked Pietrangelo #11 and Parayko #19 for top D in the NHL. I am not exactly sure how they came up with the ranking.

Based on that criteria, which I think is extremely short-sighted if you are "playing" GM here, I would still say Matthews is a significant upgrade to O'Reilly, even if most of that "Upgrade" is coming from that offense and minusing the lack of defence.

ROR just won the conn. Matthews and ROR are both rated somewhere In 10-15 beat centers in the nhl. Getting ROR and para for 1 asset doesn’t seem fair

Oh he is definitely an upgrade, but to throw Parayko in as well, is a loss for words, I know so far Ceci is having a good year, but this is the easy part of the year, that guy is not very good, I mean look at the Oilers, they will not make the playoffs this year and they are first in the league IMO, no way I want Ceci on my team ever or in the playoffs, that is why I said i will take the 2 blues guys, they will bleed and play and are built for playoff hockey

Trophies are great accolades, but you could just as easily say that Matthews won the Calder in a year where it could have probably gone to 4 or 5 other rookies. I guess the question remains, would St. Louis be prepared to make such a drastic change in light of the fact they just won the cup with these players, and by and large, the same iteration of the team they have currently, or does their current team compliment an addition of an elite offensive player who could be the fact of the franchise for the next however many years. There are additional factors here that are hard to quantify.

Just to clarify, I included Ceci for cap reasons. This deal does not happen unless St. Louis is prepared to take on another contract and Ceci seemed like the ideal target. He's not necessarily just a throw in, because I do think he has some value, but this is more about Matthews = O'Reilly + Parayko. At least that is the equation in my mind.

Ceci is done after this year, contract up, so that is a minus for him

The center one isn’t too bad, but I would probably have AM behind McDavid, Crosby, Mak, Tavares, Barkov, Bergeron, and then maybe Malkin. O’Reilly at 12 is fair although they had him behind Seguin which was kinda dumb. The defenseman list was super whack though, not even gonna get into that.

MVPs are better than rookie of the year .... terrible comparison. Also ROR and PARA contract equal Matthews. Imo Matthews is overrated. He directly benefits from being on a powerhouse team and would struggle to carry a team. Swap him and McDavid and Matthews has maybe 50 points a year. Obviously my opinion. That’s all.

Interesting. Let me ask you this. If Matthews won the Hart Trophy this season, and the Blues did not go back-to-back, would you then consider this deal as fair?

The way the NHL does things sometimes, like these lists, leaves a lot to be desired, and up in the air, as well, because they don't really tell the fans how they arrived at this list. I would also agree that the D list is bit wacky. Neverless, I was trying to look at each team's wants and needs. Based on assessment, which again, cannot be completely objective because I am a Leafs fan, I would say that the deal I proposed, in both the short and long-term (which I think any reasonable GM would need to consider) benefits both teams equally, or as close to equal as possible considering that there are usually always a winner and loser in a trade, eventually.

Matthews will never win the hart for a few reasons

1) he’s on a stacked team and you can’t be the mvp of a stacked teaM
2) he’s not the best player on his team
3) the nhl still has Crosby Ovechkin McDavid Kucherov mackinnon In it. He’s not better and will likely never out preform these guys

No I wouldn’t trAde for him. He’s not good enough to earn the money he’s making and that contract is why the leafs has a 1 year window now 2 elite players > 1 elite player

Haha I appreciate the feedback even though I disagree on a number of points. I was just trying to add in an factor to a situation that might make you reconsider your position. Clearly, you weren't up for trying it out. That's okay.

If Matthews were to win mvp his value would be extremely high. For him to win let’s say he scores 110 points and has 54 goals. (41 points more than his career high 14 more goals than his career high) teams can just wait 4 years and sign him for free since he’s going to be a UFA. His term and contract aren’t very attractive imo. But if your going to shoot for the stars and trade for a true #1 center why not go Barkov ? He’s way better 2 way player and puts up a ton of points.

I don't agree with that point total equation because it's always the guy with the most points that gets the Hart Trophy, but I certainly hear you. I would only add that 4 years is a long-time to wait in professional sports.

Lmfao... the leafs hate is so strong on this site....

The trade proposed is stupid on so many levels. Matthews is the franchise centre of the leafs and one of the best goal scorers in the league. You don’t move that guy... ever. You certainly don’t move him with the best elc defencemen on your team either.

Ah yes the leafs have a better shot at winning the cup with a top 5 RHD and one of the best two way centers in the game than a one dimensional center who has 50 goal potential. What a subjective take, my bad!

This is a very subjective take... by you. Don’t believe I even mentioned anything about the cup either.