Why is Anaheim giving up the better pick when the purpose of this exercise is to get rid of Muzzin's huge cap hit? It's not as if Muzzin makes the Ducks sudden contenders for a playoff spot.

Muzzin isn't exactly useless. I don't see the leafs getting back absolutely nothing in return

It depends upon who you're dealing with. Teams can have two different perspectives on the same player. To Toronto, Muzzin has value as a veteran defenseman, and if left to your own devices, he's going to play #2LD for you; in a perfect world, where every team could comfortably afford his cap hit (whether with retention or not), he'd be worth a second-round draft pick for sure. But this isn't an imaginary world. To rebuilding teams like Anaheim, IT IS IRRELEVANT HOW GOOD A PLAYER MUZZIN IS because they won't be getting to the playoffs this year for sure and probably not the season after that, either. So the only reason why a team like Anaheim or Arizona or Buffalo or Chicago or another no-hoper would be taking on his cap hit would be as a cap dump, no matter what you think about him. That means giving the Ducks an incentive, because Muzzin isn't getting the Ducks closer to the Stanley Cup.

You have to stop thinking that eliminating $5.625 million of ugly fat is "getting back absolutely nothing in return." What you'll be getting back in return is the opportunity to acquire or develop someone younger and cheaper and under team control longer if useful.

Finally, you Toronto guys should stop trading Muzzin to bottom-feeders and other non-contenders. Muzzin's NTC virtually guarantees he won't go to one of them. Why give up a spot on a Stanley Cup contender for the final two years of his career?

The rumor is he'd only be willing to move to a Calafornian team, and Anaheim as a rebuild kinda fits the bill. That said, I'm still 50/50 on him actually waiving for that. The only way I see it happen is if he knows his career is winding down, he has his cups, and play out his days in California.