No appreciation of the Leafs cap at all next season by acquiring a 5m Ekholm, who contract ends when he's 36 years of age. Leafs are much better cap wise and maybe even for his play having Sandin.

keep the younger defenseman.

Neither player is someone NSH would have interest in.

I don't think any of these players should be targets for Toronto. The best one of them, Ekholm, probably won't be traded since Nashville is still in target of the playoffs and they likely wouldn't retain for four years.

The other two trades are just swapping bottom six players.

Yeah totally, why would they want a guy 10 years younger who makes less and is already a top 4 defenceman on a better team. You really hate the leafs eh?

If NSH trades Ekholm, they wouldn't want an LD in return. Josi, McDonagh, and Lauzon all have multiple years of term left, and their prospects on defence that are closest to being NHL ready are all lefties too. Even if NSH felt this was adequate value for a retained Ekholm, these aren't the right pieces for them.

If you really feel being younger and cheaper are important factors, it's curious you go apoplectic every time other Leafs fans make proposals for Jeannot. He's cheaper and younger than TOR's bottom six players like Kerfoot and Engvall. Wouldn't the Leafs benefit from moving on from those older, expensive, UFAs?

Your pal hal was trying to make the Sandin is a top four defenceman argument to me yesterday too. Maybe somebody should tell Keefe that, so he doesn't keep putting him on the 3rd pair?

https://twitter.com/MapleLeafs/status/1616219365069791233

Sandin is 6th on the Leafs for average ice time for defencemen this season, in case you were about to refute that lineup with a "that's just one game" argument.

The Leafs currently being a better team is a flawed argument. TOR is better than teams like EDM and COL too. Are you saying you wouldn't want a McDavid or Makar on your team? Are they unworthy to play for the mighty Maple Leafs too?

I don't have hatred for the Leafs. I live in Toronto. I'd like to see them win. It's good for the city when they do. the local economy would benefit from them ever being able to get past the first round for a change. I think you're just trying to project your own feelings of hatred for NSH onto me.

RipNasty is the biggest Toronto homer on capfriendly. and that’s saying something, there’s a lot of them.
glad somebody is putting him in his place for once

(i also live in toronto that’s pretty cool lol)

Those funny people who think hits are all important overvalue those 4th line grinders. They are just silly. Same as the fans that just don't learn that players decline as they age. Ekholm isn't a 6.25 million dollar defenceman, he certainly isn't going to be that as he moves deeper into his 30's. He's a bad contract and one of many in Nashville. Keep him

Oh yeah biggest homer? Because I don't see Jeannot's 3 goals as worth trading multiple high quality assets to get? That is capfriendly for you. If you don't crap on leaf players all the time then you are "the biggest homer". As we all know everyone on the 3rd best team in the league is worthless and anyone from any team is better, disagree and you are a hopeless homer. Boy am I have "put in my place". Hilarious that you didn't even have the stones to tag me, just hoped you could slide an insult in there without getting called out for it eh? So tough

anytime you’re in a thread talking about other players that aren’t on the oh so holy maple leafs, you’re the most negative homer. you never have any idea what you’re talking about because you’ve essentially echo-chambered yourself.

“my teams better. any other player who isn’t on toronto is bad”


yeah, like right here.
top 4 defenseman, playing a primarily shutdown role while logging 21+ minutes a night, still scoring 30-40 pts a season and while being an important penalty killer is a “bad contract”

i guess because he isn’t on the leafs, he’s bad.

see you on the golf course in april.
how many first round losses will that end up being?

-Nashville passes. Ekholm is still a surplus value player per GSVA at $6.25M getting 21+ minutes per night against stiff competition; while Sandin is excelling in his role, he's playing much more sheltered minutes. Robertson has now missed significant time with injuries for 3 straight years, so his value is waning, too - I would have to think that Nashville would want at least a 1st round pick being added to this deal to give up a top 4 D and retain for 3 more years after this. And, as said upthread, an LHD like Sandin doesn't make sense as a centerpiece return for a team like Nashville that already has McDonagh & Josi signed to term. I would have to assume they'd rather target an RD or a C as a return in this type of deal.

-San Jose passes. What value does this give them for Bonino? ZAR is a pending UFA like Bonino, so can't imagine them placing a strong value on him. Bonino fully retained should get something in the 3rd round range, so offer that and keep ZAR instead of offering a pair of uninteresting pieces.

-No idea why the Kraken would do this. Their top 9 is pretty set (Burakovsky-Beniers-Eberle, Schwartz-Wennberg-McCann, Tolvanen-Gourde-Bjorkstrand) so, at best, Kerfoot is a bottom-6 guy. Doesn't seem like a guy that they would be targeting, not with his full cap hit at least.

-Anderson has no value but sure, I'd guess the Blues would be happy with a 3rd for Acciari.

dannibalciropse always coming clutch.

Anybody with a semi-developed frontal lobe could tell you that Ekholm is worth much more than a “bad contract”, to which you labeled him.

Sandin and Robertson are all yours amigo. We can get better.

Enjoy watching Ekholm's 6.25 million dollar contract get worse and worse each year bud. A fully developed front lobe will look at the mountains of empirical data that shows why it's a bad contract and see it's a bad contract.

Of course Nashville wants as much as they can get, however how would it make sense for a team up against the cap to spend major assets for a guy who's already played his best hockey and is only going to get worse as he ages more.

At this point, it just seems like copium :/

So a bunch of Nashville wants who think everyone on their team is worth multiple high value assets are somehow not homers eh? We have seen first hand what Muzzin looked like as he went from 32-34 and Ekholm has 4 more years of term. Good luck

sandin and robertson are gods amongst men, and should be worshiped before they play. didnt you know this?

At this point you'd think you guys would realize the team is on the downward trend and selling the vets with too much term makes sense. Enjoy the ride to the bottom

You're missing the point entirely, man. I didn't think it could be possible for a human being to be this thick-skulled.

Nobody in the replies is agreeing with the ACGM, where Ekholm goes to Toronto.
In fact, I'm saying the complete opposite. Toronto's D core is fine without Ekholm.

But, If you're going to label Ekholm. Do it right. Putting him down as "old and going to get bad lol" just because Muzzin has regressed to the retirement home would be a misjudgment.
He's shown no signs of slowing down, and still produces at a steady rate.

Thanks for the good luck. We'll keep Ekholm until a better offer comes along the table. If you want to high-value Sandin, go for it. But I wouldn't necessarily call Robertson a "high value asset".

by the time nashville is at the bottom, matthews will be enjoying a cocktail in his new arizona home after signing his yotes contract.

all of this after still never winning a first round, of course.

If all defencemen decline due to age equally, why did the Leafs give a 38 year old Giordano a two year deal this past summer?



OK now you're complaining about not enough toughness? At least stay consistent, please.

Can I ask how you became a Toronto based Preds fan? There aren't a lot of us. For me, I grew up in WPG and was a fan of the OG Jets. When they relocated I didn't pick a new team to support for awhile. Just kind of watched whatever looked like the best game that night, regardless of the teams. I missed having a team to get behind though. After a couple years I decided I'd get a fresh start with one of the new expansion teams from that time. Get behind a new franchise, as they started from nothing. The Preds had a badass logo, and a good Manitoba boy coaching them, so they were my pick. Ironically, if I went with the Thrashers then, I guess I'd be a Jets fan all over again.

The number of defenceman playing past 32 has dropped every year since the last lockout. It's a young man's game and everyone declines in their 30's. It's biology. You are right, TO has no need on defence. Which is why taking on a risky contract that already looks bad, is just insane. Pump Ekholm's tires all you want. It doesn't matter, he's not worth what you think. It's a cap league and paying guys for what they used to be able to do while they decline is just dumb. It happens all the time and Ekholm is another example. He may be a decent player still but you can get way better value than his 6.25 million dollar contract. Sandin for example offers way way way more value for his 1.4 million dollar cap hit. It's pretty easy to understand why I am arguing against this trade as you yourself have admitted, it doesn't make sense for TO. So perhaps next time just understand that part of the discussion and refrain from lobbing insults because someone hurt your feelings for not wanting to take on a bad contract. And yes there is no way around it. Paying a 2nd pair defenceman their biggest contract of their career until they are 36 is a bad contract. Sure it's not Vlasic bad but it's certainly not a good one. He should have been paid this much from 25-30 not in his 30's. Just like JT Miller getting his biggest contract of his life as he turns 30, there is no way for an aging player to make it look good as he declines. Perry, Toews, McDonagh, Ladd, Neal etc etc. Just look at what happened to all of those guys. Do you honestly believe that Ekholm at 34 isn't going to show a decline? Almost everyone does. But I guess me being a terrible homer just makes that up eh?

Yeah because a team that can't sell out a 5 thousand seat arena is going to give him the spotlight he craves. What a joke