Canucks decline

This trade is laughable

This is incredibly awful for Toronto

What?

Why would they trade a top 10 forward in the game and their only cost controlled LD for JT Miller who is being paid until he's 37, and an all offense defenseman who would play 2nd pairing in Quinn Hughes who they also don't need? Alongside throwing away any chance Matthews will re-sign with the team. Zero chance Toronto even considers this.

Leafs wouldn't take that for Marner on his own. What do the leafs want with another small offensive D-man, he had 19 hits last year. Leafs aren't trading Marner anyways.

The leafs would laugh at that offer with Marner involved.

Canucks wouldn’t take that for Hughes on his own. You massively upgrade from Sandin to Hughes, who instantly becomes your best dman. The gap between him and Sandin is much bigger than the gap between Marner and Miller

Laughably bad for the Canucks

Quinn Hughes would be the leafs best defenceman and it wouldn’t be close

Now that's just homer bias. He isn't that good.

All credibility goes out the window when you say you wouldn't take Marner + Sandin for Hughes

Why would the Canucks trade their star #1 dman, when their defense is already terrible, for an extremely expensive winger (yes he’d be their best one but it’s the last position they need) and a significant downgrade on defense?

Honestly? In terms of their respective positions, I'd argue that Marner and Hughes are probably incredibly similarly valued - if you were re-drafting every player in the NHL I'd bet that these guys are both within the first 20 picks. Marner might be better offensively, but Hughes is younger/has the better contract situation, yada yada yada this is a conversation for when you're stuck at a hotel bar on a business trip and need something to pass the time.

To me, the problem in this deal, and the reason why Toronto probably declines, would be the cap implications, not the perceived talent levels of the players. I'd argue that in a vacuum, with no salary cap to worry about, it's a pretty fair deal - the risk that JT Miller's deal ages horribly is mitigated by the risk that Sandin doesn't fully develop into a top 4 D. But Toronto is taking on the higher risk in a salary cap world - Sandin is owed 2x$1.4M, and Marner has 3x$10.9M; meanwhile they're taking on 5x$7.85M of Hughes and 7x$8M of Miller. For a team that's already skating random guys they found in the AHL on a 21 man roster, I don't see the fit at all - regardless of how you're feeling about the values of the players involved.

Oh so you hate the Leafs. Okay

Lol, it's funny how many players on the canucks would instantly be the best player on the Leafs and yet the canucks are awful. No Hughes would be the 2nd best offensive defenceman on the team and the worst defensively. He's a good player for sure but he does nothing much better than Rielly and is a trainwreck when he doesn't have the puck.

So why would TO do this? To get a defenceman they already have a bigger better defensively player in Rielly? All so they can take a guy who's best season happened last year and will only decline.

What’s actually funny is how wrong you are. Reilly is actually the worst Dman defensively in the league. Hughes isn’t great but he’s significantly better defensively than Reilly.

Reilly is in the 1% defensively over the last 3 years and Hughes in the 21%.

Not one nhl gm would take Hughes over Marner; that is a flat out ridiculous take.

I clearly said this is a conversation for a hotel bar (or talk radio) because the Marner/Hughes part of the trade isn't why I think that Toronto rejects this trade. The point is you can start a new franchise from scratch with either of these guys as your #1 pick, it just depends on what type of team you want to build.

Saying that, I dunno, TJ Brodie more valuable than Mitch Marner is a ridiculous take. Saying these two guys are both stars you can build a team around isn't. Settle down.

You can build a team around a lot of players; in theory every team does so minimum 32 “franchise” players in league. But in reality probably more as some teams have more than one franchise player, although some teams have none. So being the best player on your team (one that you can build a team on) does not mean anything; just ask Clayton Keller or Nick Suzuki - best players on their team, but not even top 50 in the league.
Quinn is not close to Marner’s value, so just a lazy comparison. Marner is best or 2nd best rw in game, top 10-15 player overall. Hughes is not even a top 10-15 dman.

I mean, saying Hughes isn't a top 10-15 D in the league is also a ridiculous take, but go off I guess

Reilly is not better then Hughes. Hughes produces more and is better defensively.

He's way better then Reilly. The eye test backs that up, analytics back that up, and a lot of analysts back that up

Makar, Josi, Hedman, Karlson, McAvoy, Fox, Letang, Carlson, Ekblad, Heiskenen, Slavin, Toews, Pieterangelo, Chabot, Dahlin, Werenski, Theodore, Reilly.
I’d take them all over Hughes. He’s a great skater / passer but is small & can’t defend .
To each his own but your premise, even if not your main point, of equating Marner with Hughes was weak and deserved to be corrected.