Edited Jan. 6, 2022 at 4:24 p.m.
Quoting: larter232
yep all good points the only part i dont super agree with is (Ridiculous to move valuable pieces to "upgrade" at G.)
Price is different he just is its not the same as doing this for like matt murray or robin lehner or jonathan quick or thatcher demko, the only reason its a consideration is because of who it is
If hes healthy and i mean as close to 100% as he can get yeah i would trade this package for him(mostly cause in reality its knies+1st for price 40% retained) if they retained more i would trade maybe 1 additional piece, hell if you could get a third team involved somehow to retain another million or 2 it would be insane(super unlikely though)
Price at 5.25 is gross at even less its even more gross
But i can understand why someone might not want to do that, hes older and the contract is quite long so its completely understandable
You don't gamble Matthews, Marner, etc. prime on Price staying healthy. And you really don't when it would actually cost something to acquire him. Look at how they found Campbell. Trevor Moore and a pick, and he'll be in Vezina contention if he keeps playing at his pace.
Montreal 3 years ago brought in keith kinkaid to be a "Curtis McElhinney" type backup,and that cost them the season. They needed to trade decent assets for a 1B goalie as between Price annual injuries, or his poor play they needed a reliable 1B type goalie. That was 2 years ago. Leafs wouldn't have that luxury. They would have to have J. Woll types, or L. Domingue, or Hutchinson types to back him up, they can't afford to pay their combined G over $6M.
He wouldn't all of the sudden become a 65 game starter again the instant he got to Toronto.
It's not a risk worth taking, it's not a risk worth even considering. And given the Leafs real life cap situation, it would never be an option in reality anyways.
Additionally, the more Knies and top picks that are tossed away year after year, the harder it is for the Leafs to have actual decent depth. They've done well this year but for every Bunting, Kase, and Kampf there is five Thorntons, Veseys and Lindholms. Dumpster diving year after year to fill out the bottom 6 is pretty big risk, and is avoided by having a decent prospect cupboard.
A future LW group of Bunting, Robertson, Amirov and Knies all playing on affordable deals would be a huge competitive advantage for the Leafs.