i wouldnt give up sandin in that package, only two id move him for on the trade market are meier and chychrun

Agree. But for Meier you‘ll probably will need Knies not Sandin. Chychrun seems to go to LA unfortunately. A Kane Matthews connection is exciting and Willy, Tavares, Marner could also work - but IMO TOR needs a competitive 1st Line LW. The Bunting push down would also solve the problem with the missing grid in the bottom 6. Besides his poor penalty play lately, I‘ll hope for an upgrade on the left upfront. He will figure it out.

i would give up knies in a meier deal, but san joses leff side is terrible, sandin is in the same caliber as knies. Their value is fairly similar and i think sandin gets underrated on here quite a bit

Disagree. Sandin has the potential to be a good 2nd line D. Like many other players around the NHL - thats a useful asset. But to find a powerforward with the potential of Knies is rare. Overrated? Maybe. Still hard to find. D men development takes time. So its difficult to figure out the ceilling of Sandin - but right now he is a liability for me in a lot of Games in the nearer past and 1st man out, after Holl is upgraded.

Sandin is a young "established" player in the sense that he's an a full-time NHLer already, he does have top-4 potential and it will take some time but he's on track. You are right that Knies' skillset is rare, so they will want him and he would make a good replacement for Meier in terms of skill set but the high end of his potential is a top 6f. He's likely going to be a top 9 guy though. If Sandin fills a need for them then he's just as valuable to the Sharks, and because he's defence takes time to develop that's even more reason to get him over Knies. They can target a pwf type player in the later part of the 1st round with the Leafs pick. I believe there are guys that fit the profile at the 25-35 region, let me check.

Edit: Yeah, there's Matthew Wood with a similar build to Knies, and he is ranked 14-27 (a lot have him in the 20s). His year in the NCAA is similar to Knies' first year, might be a little less scoring but he has a good shot apparently. He's also buddies with Bedard, so if they win the Lottery Draft, might not be a bad selection.

i wouldnt call him a liability whatsoever, probably the leafs best puck mover. He makes mistakes but so does rielly and holl.

The Leafs D with MUZZ on LTIR who did not show defensive liabilitys consistently are Brodie and most of the time Gio. Sandin and Liljegren getting there, but I wach a lot of other teams and the young sweds are not 100 percent established, of course not. They are young. They need to learn. All fine but it could be a problem for the playoff run. Holl is hopefully not in the lineup, comes playoff time. Rielly was never a defensive stud. Hopefully his offensive keep going…

the leafs are a top 5 defensive team in the NHL lmfao

Leafs just need a rental to push Sandin out of the lineup for the playoff if he doesn't elevate his game enough by then. If they get someone with two year term, then they can be a Holl replacement as well and Timmins will compete with them perhaps.

Yeah. Because the hole team had to learn to play defense due to the injurys. This d core as it stands wont win us a round. It‘s frightening due to streches and right now #34 is a bigger loss at the back with his Selke plays. This D can not compete with BOS or TAMPA. Every year I get fooled in the regular season. I am sick of this. No Muzzin. No Bogosian. No Lyubushkin. Dubas has to do something.

McCabe is likely the guy to fill muzzins void, but the glaring need isnt a dman, its a top 6 LW that can drive play off the rush and score goals, their issues in the playoffs havent been defending, its been goaltending and powerplay scoring

Absolutely. I am all in for Meier.
And I am fine with McCabe besides I would rather have a gamechanging Chychrun in the lineup for the PP creativity, bomb shot, lateral movement and fresh breath. Would be capolicious for the Leafs. And he is great at defense as well. He will help LA big time.

If the Myers rumors going to get real this would be the end.