Briesbois says NO !!!!!

Brodie>Pesce

Interesting new players but an disimprovement cap and pick wise. Nothing left for the deadline. You have to resign Rielly and or Campbell. Conor Brown is great and I like him very much and would love to see him back in TOR - but this CAPtured Leafs team can not afford a 4th line player with a 3.6 M caphit. I miss Spezza and Simmonds and I would not trade Robertson: he will have a bright future and is one of the wildcards. Like Kase.

Leafs lose every trade by a good margin except for the Graves trade. The roster itself looks worse and you traded away picks/prospects

Haha

Rather just keep Pesce

Not a horrific trade by any means but OTTAWA DECLINES. They can sign Batherson, who is 2 years younger, long term for less than Nylander who is UFA in 3 years.
I mention this because I feel like 3 years from NOW is when Ottawa will be at their strongest with guys like Sanderson, JBD, Greig, Boucher ++ becoming part of the established core.
I also think Connor Brown, if Ottawa does not extend him, would get a very nice return at the trade deadline in the final year of his contract so unless there's a real overpayment happening there's no need for Ottawa to move such a valuable player who can anchor a less experienced line.

That Devils trade is dumb....they just got Graves

Pesce was 17th in Norris voting my guy. Brodie is a 2nd pairing D man

Keep dreaming.Frankly I would rather not downgrade our defense, which Brodie and liljegren are. Don’t know who that other player is, and there is the magic beans of the picks. Yeah I think I would rather keep one of the most underrated dmen in the league than trade him for that crap show of a package.

Sure, Pesce is probably better than Brodie, but Brodie is still a top pairing guy for sure. He's the leafs best defensive defenseman.

Brodie I don't think is a top pairing defenseman on a cup contender. I'll put it like that. He's not first pair in Tampa, not in Colorado, or Vegas. He's not in Carolina, or on the Islanders. He's a great defensive defenseman, and he's a very good player, do not get that wrong. I would absolutely love him in Carolina, that's for sure... not at the expense of Pesce but if you guys undergo a rebuild, prospects and picks... hell yea. But I still think there would need to be an upgrade there for the leafs to truly become cup contenders.

Brodie burner…only way someone legitimately thinks this

A heck of a lot of moving parts for a team who’s fate still rides on Mrazek and Campbell.

EVERY

SINGLE

TEAM

SAYS

NO

Fair point. He's not "elite" or anything, but still, he's a top pairing guy on 70-80% of teams. And I think you canes fans are overrating the difference between him and Pesce, Pesce is better but I think it's close.

A pretty ironic statement coming from a canes fan...

Pesce is better and it's not particularly close. Pesce was voted by the PHWA as a top 20 D man in the NHL this past season. Brodie wasn't top 50. I think Pesce is better in all three zones, and has to carry Skjei will playing how he does, while Brodie gets to play with Morgan Rielly.

Connor Brown is not a 4th line player. Even on Leafs he wasn't back then (14-16 mins per game and 0.4 PPG = 33 pts per 82 games). Since he went to Ottawa, his game has grown even more. He is the posterboy for the "coach's dream". His work ethic, his defensive awareness, his energy, his speed, his PK ability, his scoring touch, his passing. He just does everything well. So while being a premier defensive player and a constant PK threat in Ottawa, he has produced at a 0.61 PPG (50 pts per 82 games) and 0.29 GPG (24 goals per 82 games). He's pretty much a top-6 forward

NO MATTER HOW GREAT you think the Maple Leafs are, saying Connor Brown is a 4th liner with a 3.6 M caphit is kinda ridiculous. Not sure if it was your call or the OP



yeah, it's funny that it kinda reminds me of Bobby Ryan, as he was a skilled finesse player scoring about the same. Injuries destroyed him but as much as I'd like to have Nylander, Batherson is going to be much better than Silfverberg, Brown is a known commodity in another stratosphere than Nick Ritchie and a 3rd is even more valuable than a damaged goods prospect like Noesen... So would be ready to pay significantly more than we did to get Ryan?

Double post

The Lightning are $6mil over the cap. To add to that is the outrage from around the league on what they pulled in the playoffs. The NHL is keeping a stern eye on them and they MUST get under cap. Picking up players that will be cost effective for a while plus a draft pick is a wise move on their part. They also are not giving up much in the grand scheme of things in this trade. So I firmly disagree

I disagree. Especially when you consider cap hit and age.

Actually if you double check there is about $2.2 mil in cap space total when you consider there are 2 extra defence-men on the roster as shown (which I did just to show depth and adaptability)

While I agree that playing Brown on the 4th line at $3mil is a waste of money. Brown is easily a 3rd liner. He is on the 4th line due to Appleton and Batherson having higher potential. He is also a much better option then Kase who is an injury magnet and I do NOT see that changing. Come the trade deadline Brown could be a tasty piece of trade bait again if it comes down to it. Freeing up another $3 mil in cap space.

Spezza and Simmons are both still with the team. They can be plugged in when/where needed as well as help some of the younger players on the Marlies as they move up and down in the system.

Yes, Robertson will more than likely become a good to great player. But Colton Ross and Cal Foote are both promising players that are more NHL-ready and we want to win NOW.

Please give suggestions on how you would tweak the trades to be more balanced. Consider in some cases,, like Pesce, they would have to over-trade to get the deal done.

Trade has been updated.