Nylander > Lindholm but relative cap hits makes them closer

Toronto. Calgary isn't trading a center, who they have no replacement for(Kadri is a 2c and Backlund is a 3c) to make our wings, even stronger.

you are trading a winger for a center also so that might even it out some also.

They could turn Nylander into a C, that being said it's the superior negoriator who will get the other to add.

Calgary isnt doing it. If they trade for Nylander, its to play him with Lindholm

TOR would need to add.

Nylander is more talented. But Lindholm is a great 2way C and @ a great cap hit.

Toronto's tried playing him at center many times and he is completely lost.

Flames have zero interest in a swap of these 2 players, Lindholm is Calgary's only 1C caliber player and they have loads of wingers

Not really, he's been tried at center a few times out of necessity once in the playoffs and a few times in the regular season. The results varied but you can't remove expect him to immediately get used to playing center again when he's been playing the wing for so many years.

I'm sure you're right that CGY isn't looking to swap these guys when the goal is to add a top 6 foward. The goal will be to resign Lindholm but if he doesn't want to resign, it's not like they could just easily swap him for another team's 1C. That's probably when they could play Kadri as the 1C and try Nylander as the 2C, and sign a top 6 ufa, probably someone who can play C as well like Barbashev.

Ima be blunt I would hate that result. If Lindholm doesn't want to extend I want them to sell and draft like LA did

He was tried at center when he was very young and half the player he is today. If I’m Toronto I’m not trading Nylander unless long term deals are signed and there is a clear cap savings.

Considering that they only have three long-term contracts and some young pieces that aren't really getting a chance yet, I think that would definitely be the move.

He was tried at center a couple years ago and looked completely lost. His lack of defensive awareness is a huge reason why his game doesn't translate well to playing center at the NHL level.

Thats fine though. I don't think he's traded unless he's the odd man out anyways and/or the cap doesn't work.

Calgary definitely has the assets to do it and LA proved that you can do it with 2 giant contracts too

No he wasn’t. Not for any length of time. And if you watch the Leafs you would have seen how much Nylander has grown as a player in the past couple of years. He took a huge step up this year in his play and was exceptional. I’m not dealing him for Lindholm who struggled without Gaudreau and Tkachuk.

He played center when they tried Tavares on the Matthews line. It was a failed experiment, hence why they never tried it again and Kerfoot played 2C one of Matthews or Tavares got hurt.

I do watch the Leafs pretty regularly as I live in Toronto. Nylander still hasn't grown at all defensively, he's still as incompetent as he was 5 years ago.

You don’t watch the Leafs if you don’t think Nylander hasn’t grown defensively from last year to this year. He was 11th in takeaways and 8th for forwards. He was a minus 9 last year and a plus 10 this year. His commitment was much better and it showed in his backcheck and ability to strip pucks.

We’ll just have to disagree on this one by a wide margin.

They have tried Nylander at 3C on his own line this year or last year (maybe both) in order to spread out the talent and get some guys out of slumps. He wasn't getting many minutes though and his line was okay, but they never took off. He also filled in at 2C again when Matthews was injured this year.

Nylander has always been elite at stripping the puck, especially in the offensive and neutral zones. He can be lazy but he gets a lot of unfound criticism about his defense. The fact is that it is his job is to cheat sometimes in the defensive zone so that the defenders could send him on a breakaway, he's probably often getting blamed for the D's failures but also for not being a hound on the ice like Mitch Marner. He's definitely has shown this year that he could play defense when needed, such as when Rielly and Brodie were out with injuries. He's not Laine, but also don't expect him to be Mitch Marner.

He was twice as good stripping pucks this year, much better on the forecheck and half as bad with those lazy defensive efforts. I know exactly what you are talking about but Willy was much much much better this year. Still not perfect but far far fewer poor efforts and many more brilliant ones. Ones like where he stripped pucks in corners and scored overtime winners. He was good in the playoff as well, consistently driving play. Scoring the game tying goal with a couple minutes left in game 5. There are plenty of examples where Nylander stepped up his game. When Matthews and Marner were struggling — he was the one that got Matthews going. What I saw this year was a much more mature Willie Nylander than in years past. Vast improvement. I would try him at center again. He definitely has ALL the tools and I would like to see if he responds well to the increased responsibility.

I think he would, and I think what we saw this year was a result of that when the forwards had to assume an increased defensive responsibility. I'm sure there was some growth in his game and he's more mature, but I think a lot of it comes to his role on the team. I personally do think Tavares can play C, but I do agree that he doesn't have the legs to go from the Ozone slot (where he typically is) back to his own. So, I do think that it's time for Tavares to start taking a lesser role and more responsibility being given to Nylander (and Matthews and Marner in terms of leadership).

I saw someone suggest putting Tavares with Matthews and Marner which could be an option but since Nylander isn't that great in the circle, I think you keep Tavares on his wing, play Knies with Matthews and Marner, and play Robertson or Jarnkrok or someone else on the RW spot. I would also "demote" Tavares to the second powerplay unit (especially if they end up resigning O'Reilly) and replace him with Knies. Give the second unit Rielly at times when PP1 isn't clicking. The Leafs definitely should be playing PP2 more often so that they could rely on them in the post-season when PP1 tends to fizzle out a bit or a lot.