Not a fan.

Ristolainen ain't the answer to what ails this team.

No thanks.

i swear this exact trade with the most minor tweaks is on here twice a day now.
No toronto doesn't want that defensive black hole

I need some BUF fans to chime in on this. @littlejerryseinfeld @Shibbal18 @SalamiCheese and for good measure @MitchMarnerElite

I don't fully get why BUF is retaining. I also don't understand why picks aren't being sent to BUF either. Andreas is a $3.4M cap dump....for 3 more years!

Last year he got a $3.4M contract for 43 points in 73 games. Fine. He also played 60% of his time with either Matthews or Tavares. In order for him to get back to the whopping .5ppg player he was, he'd be forced to play next to Eichel.

What am I missing? Risto has lead BUF in ice time for 5 full years.... He's got 200+ hits... averages ~115 blocks a season... He's their TOP PK... He's still a 40 point Dman every single year. Doesn't cough up the puck. I mean I know he's not going to win the Norris. I 100% get it, but he'd be TOR top pair RD. No questions. He's exactly what TOR needs. Physicality...an ice time eater...RD...cost controlled.

If Johnsson is a 3.4M cap dump then what is Skinner? Johnsson had better production than Skinner this season.

I think we're in an agreement. They're both cap dumps...$9M for a career high of 63 points (three times) OF WHICH each of those seasons he was on the #1 PP. Yeah he's a cap dump too. NINE MILLION.

he's literally one of the worst defensive defencemen in the NHL for starters.

Oh, And ice time is a dumb way to judge how good a player is. Lots of terrible players get tons of ice time, with risto all it means is "he's out there bleeding chances and shots against alot"

What the ice time tells you is that it's time for a coaching change.

I mean ice time is 1 point out of many. I agree ice time alone is terrible to look at and I can't say enough.... Risto isn't going to get Norris votes..... What I'm trying to say is look at what you're sending. It's less than zero. At least TOR gets $1.5M in cap relief ($7M that 3rd year...TOR just gave up a 1st for losing $6M mind you...) AND he would be on TORs TOP PAIR. At worst...top 4. So we can make fun of him, but TOR doesn't have anything better. Even if this isn't your favorite trade....in the absolute worst case scenario...this is addition through subtraction. I tend to believe he'd be a welcomed changed in TOR once you had him. He'd automatically be the toughest person on the team by the size of the grand canyon.

And why is Buffalo doing this deal?

Our LWs: Skinner, Olofsson, Johansson, Kahun. Even if one of them plays on the right, there is no place for Johnsson.

Kerfoot - probably a good 3C, but I'm not sure that he will be a good 2C, it also seems to be too soft a player, and on the contrary we need more players with grit.

Kapanen would make a lot more sense, since we need RW and it has some grit.

I would trade ristolainen for kerfoot 1 for 1.

Dont care for retention tho, especially when we are adding salary overall

Kapanen's not going anywhere unless you send Jokihariju back.

Johansson is you guys' 2C.

Skinner probably plays the right side unless you guys add a top 6 RW.

You definitely don’t watch Buffalo games and you don’t know who play and where.

Johansson - terrible 2C he is not the center at all and the coach understood this and stopped putting him in this position, he is a wing player. Skinner in Buffalo never played on the right, he definitely always plays on the left.

You're incorrect about Risto, he's a very bad defenceman. Make no mistake, having a ton of hits and blocks does not equate to a good defenceman. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It is an indication that he is always playing without the puck, most likely because his team is always getting outplayed when he's on the ice. Based on the stats, the Sabres are always getting outshot and outchanced significantly when Risto is on the ice. That's why he's always gotta throw bodychecks and block shots. Every player that has shared ice time with him have seen their results get significantly worse than when they're away from him. He is an absolute anchor. The main cause of this is his poor positional play and inability to handle the opposition pressuring him on the forecheck. Statistically, both Dermott & Holl are better than Risto, they have an expected goals against in the 87th and 67th percentile respectively, whereas Risto is a whopping 34. The only reason he scores a ton of points is because he gets top powerplay minutes and shares the ice with Eichel at 5v5. He's basically the same type of defender as prime Jack Johnson, which is the last thing Toronto needs.

Fair analysis. I appreciate getting into the details. It's a big cap hit, but wouldn't you also agree that shedding $1.5M today and $7M in year 3 is worth alot too? BUF isn't getting anything desirable back. The worst player in this deal is AJ.

Neither is Toronto

This is the heart of our disagreement. Kerfoot and AJ can be easily replaced. VERY easily and VERY cost effectively. TOR still needs a Dman and they need one cheap OR they need to swap bad contracts. Suck it up for 2 years...maybe the chance of scenery helps...maybe not, but it's $1.5M less in cap today and $7M in the 3rd year.

***EDIT*** I do appreciate this convo!

please tell me how easily the leafs can get one of the top 15 3c's in the nhl to replace kerfoot easily

couldn't of said it better myself

Is this serious???...

One of the top 15 (half the league) #3Cs...78 centers... I'm not even in agreement that he falls in this category of top 78 centers in the league.

If veterans truly think TOR is a team that can win a cup...Maybe a Miko Koivu signs? He's 37 and probably wants to win a cup. Go sign Brad Richardson for less than $1.5M At least you know he can win a draw and he actually plays some defense. Try Spezza again for gosh sake. There's 1,000 ways to get there. Kerfoot isn't a magician and isn't going to be the reason TOR wins a cup. Kerfoot can be replaced.

What about shedding AJ?!?!?! Robertson or Bracco can fill in and they're probably a better team for it. What's easier to find right now. a top 4 RHD or a #3C.

For me, Ristolainen is the worst player in this trade. He’s one of the worst defenders in the league (probably top 10) making an amount you’d expect from a first pairing guy. That is the true definition of a cap dump.

Johnsson had a poor season that was plagued by injury, like most Leaf players, but he still scored a nearly 0.5 PPG & his underlying numbers are not much different compared to last season. For example, his expected goals for, shots for, on ice expected goals %, on ice corsi % were all above 50. He is still an above replacement level player in terms of generating shots, scoring chances & possession. That’s typically what you expect
From a bottom 6 player.

It could be true that Johnsson is overpaid by about 1 Million, & the reason why he doesn’t have much trade value is because of the flat cap & the fact that Toronto has no leverage given their own cap situation. I think he could fetch a 3rd or 4th rounder with no Retained Salary, but he for sure doesn’t have negative value.

okay so let me get this straight...
you want to give the sabres a shi*ty deal and then as a result of that ****ty deal you want to change up our player's positions which would ultimately make us worse than we already are? interesting.
also joki isn't going anywhere.

The only thing I'd add to AJ...is that he plays 60% of his game with Matthews/Taveres. (EDIT...last year it was 76% with Matthews) There are plenty of ELCs that can do that. In order for him at achieve that .5ppg.....he'd HAVE to play with Eichel. When he doesn't play with Matthews....it's not good. I hear you're point on definition of cap dump. That's what AJ is.

You're saying Risto is like a Scuderi with Chicago next to Keith...or Cristian Erhoff with LAK next to Doughty. I don't think he's THAT bad. And TOR can find wingers easy. Where are they going to get a RHD?

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/linestats.php?fromseason=20192020&thruseason=20192020&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&rate=n&team=TOR&vteam=ALL&view=wowy&loc=B&gpfilt=none&fd=2019-10-02&td=2020-04-04&tgp=2000&strict=incl&p1=8477341&p2=8479318&p3=0&p4=0&p5=0

Buffalo passes. Easy

Name 15 guys who are 3c's who are better than him.

I have not taken a deep dive at Johnsson’s stats away from Matthews. Indeed they are poor, but if you look at Marner’s results away from Matthews & Tavares, they are horrendous as well, yet he isn’t regarded a cap dump.

Based on the stats & on ice impact results, Ristolainen is Jack Johnson level bad. The Leafs have Holl who has played pretty good on the top pairing this season with Muzzin, they are most likely going to try Dermott on the right side with Rielly, he has gotten excellent results over the past 2 seasons & is ready for an expanded role.

If the Leafs are that desperate for a RHD, they will clear cap space to sign DeMelo, or trade assets for Weegar. Both are much better options than Risto at this point.