I’m ignoring the Marner trade because that’s about the last place he would want to be or would want to add on salary to compete. However, Auston in Carolina is an interesting idea even if it’s highly unlikely. Most of the Canes fans I’ve seen here are out of their minds and will probably tell you something silly like they wouldn’t trade Aho for Matthews straight up though.

you are boxing us all into one based on the one's wild opinions. just because we say no to marner because we cant afford him long term doesnt mean we dont want or like Marner.

dependent on Matthews wants for an extension, i would be highly interested in this deal.

if we took the philly 2nd off the list, we could take on Murray too.

This person purposed a trade for Matthews, not Marner.

i understand. but most the recent consternation have been from Marner trade ideas and that is where i was going.

i edited late but opinion on this: if we took the philly 2nd off the list, we could take on Murray too.

If they can take away Brodie and Pesce and add a couple more picks to Toronto then I would take this deal in heartbeat

brodie at 2.5 million isnt a deal breaker. we could find a RHD in FA if need be.

I'm not saying that Brodie at $2.5m is a deal breaker... I'm saying dealing Pesce is. We can throw in Morrow and another 1st

I dont think the Leafs need to dump Murray if they get rid of Marner and Matthews.

Matthews is going to cost a crazy amount, a significant amount more than Aho.

Matthews = Aho + 3 firsts is a fair deal

1st don't do a tonne to help a team that is in win now mode.

Pesce isn’t a deal breaker either

Maybe for one more year until you have a massive cap crunch... So those three firsts and Aho will help you rebuild

I'm just saying that there are ways to work this deal without dealing both Pesce and Aho... Like throwing in Morrow or Gunler and some more picks

If that is enough for the deal to be done, do it. Pesce is replaceable

Why are they rebuilding? What I am suggesting is Matthews would take other key pieces in his age group. I personally think Pesce is grossly overrated so I would want something like Slavin and Aho for an extended Matthews. Contrary to popular belief, adding Matthews will definitely hurt. It will be extremely expensive and you'll have mixed feelings about it for a while.

Fair enough... But if we can get the deal without Pesce that I'd rather have that

Because all signs point to you guys dealing one or two members of your core in the offseason or losing them when Nylander demands $10m+ in a couple of offseasons and I don't think that you can be the kind of competition you've been without one or two of them. I mean Matthews plays pretty good defense while fixing our one really big area of need and is also only $1.5m more than Aho.

Maybe not. But pushing him out would allow yall to sign another RW and slide jankrok to his 3RW position. And get a 3C. Acciari is a 4C

Matthews plays incredible defence. He was #1 in the NHL for forwards in defensive touches. By a very large margin. Significantly ahead of Bergeron and Barkov. He absolutely should be a selke candidate but that's a reputation award that doesn't really have any basis in reality anymore.

As for the rest of your statement. "All signs" is just media bull**** and toll nation want. Matthews literally said a week ago that his intentions are to stay in TO long term. His words. They all said that.

So they don't want out, they want to keep building. Shanahan may have messed it all up by refusing to give Dubas the autonomy he wanted so who knows how it unfolds but the players do want to stay.

They need a better coach that's for sure. But the rest of what you said is all just listening to headlines that are meant to drive clicks

Of course, Matthews is going to say that he wants to stay in Tronto long-term that doesn't mean he actually does. I mean your team is not set up for success in the playoffs and got lucky to win one round. Your team is very likely to blow it up and at least get some stuff back for your players rather than letting one of them walk for nothing. Shanahan isn't going to give the new guy autonomy.

If Aho says he wants to stay in Carolina are you going to automatically say he's lying? Come on

Also it's awfully telling that Boston who has the best season in the leagues history blew a 3-1 lead vs Florida and it's totally fine. Carolina is down 3-0 as well and it's fine, but TO lost in 5 and it's an embarrassment somehow. This double standard is dumb

Here's the difference between Aho and Matthews... Aho hasn't had to constantly deal with playoff futility and Matthews has.

It's embarrassing because that's your first series win since 2004 meanwhile both the Hurricanes and Bruins have won cups in that span. It's also just another plot point that Marner, Matthews, Nylander and Tavares doesn't work as a core come playoff time