A top 4 defenceman (how you are using Muzzin) does not cost the team who holds him anything to move.

given leafs could use some cap space, i erred on the side of not overpaying and having devils fans tell me "why would we give up a 2nd for an aging, injured guy who costs a lot"

I think those Wood and Bogvist contracts are super heavy - you can probably sign both those dudes for $5M combined then have room for 23 skaters and some extra cap for deadline moves if you need them.

If Muzzin waives for Jersey, it's not a terrible idea. That D corps is pretty strong (I'd flip Sieg and Muzzin and have Jake being the veteran paired with the youngster Ty Smith tho). You're not giving up anything of note and he's not killing your cap - you'd still have $23M next summer to extend or replace Graves & Severson, and you have young guys ready to step up and fill the holes Tatar and Haula are leaving. Even without getting Gaudreau I think the Devs are set up to take a big step this year.

Dubas won’t trade Muzzin. That would be too smart a move

No need for Muzzin, he wouldn’t be a top 4 guy with Graves and Siegenthaler there. Not paying a bottom pair d man 5+ mil. If he had one year left, I’d be inclined to accept

What's wrong with depth and not relying on young guys too much?

Nothing wrong with depth, and the devils aren’t relying on young guys for that position. Just don’t want to pay a bottom pairing guy 5 mil

Lol he would absolutely be in your top 4.

Oh yeah? Over who? He’s not better than Graves or Siegenthaler who play the same position. I’m assuming you’ve never watched either play, or even looked at their underlying numbers. You just assumed they stink because they played on a bad team

Do you know anything about Muzzin? Lmao. He's easily better than those two, the only question is health. If he is healthy he is a shutdown, physical defenseman with sneaky good offensive instincts. He hits, he shoots, he clears the front of the net, and he plays smart hockey. You don't have to assume nobody knows anything about the Devils except for you. Those guys are fine players. Decent, nothing wrong with them. But Muzzin is better. He's just older and not quite worth his cap hit to the Leafs given his injuries. If he can stay healthy (not a far fetched idea), he will be solid.

Never assumed nobody know the devils except for me, just assumed you two Leaf fans didn’t. Agree to disagree on Muzzins value, he was average to below average last season in everything you stated he’s elite at, while Siegenthaler was regarded as the best defensive defenseman in hockey and Graves was above average in all aspects. I don’t believe he’ll bounce back from injury and become the same guy he was in LA given his age.

"Siegenthaler was regarded as the best defensive defenseman in hockey"

OK then

https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2022/06/29/jonas-siegenthaler-named-best-defensive-defenseman-of-2021-22-season/

“Two respected hockey statisticians, Andy & Rono, revealed their lists of the top 10 offensive and defensive defensemen in the NHL. The creators of the popular NHL player stat cards named former Capital Jonas Siegenthaler as the NHL’s best defensive defenseman of the 2021-22 season.“

Can’t seem to find Muzzin on the list…

Andy and Rono repackage other people's work. They aren't statisticians. Look at a card: it says data derived from natural stat trick, puck iq, and Corey Sznajder. Nst isn't advanced stats. Puck iq is some closed source bs that says "qoc matters more than you think". Corey tracks zone entries and exits but doesn't actually do advanced stats.

I could write a ****ty blog post that regards Muzzin as the best defenseman in the world, doesn't mean it's worth listening to. Citing these guys is akin to citing uncle Bob's drunken thanksgiving rants.