Edited Jun. 12, 2023 at 7:39 p.m.. Reason: added a thought
Please stop.
Since 2016 Toronto has conducted this experiment -- exploring whether you can construct a winning team from the top down. Now that the results are in, and undeniable, and the answer is NO, Toronto fans want to switch places with Los Angeles so that the Kings will look like the top-heavy Maple Leafs and the Maple Leafs will look like the full-depth Kings.
NO.
We're on the upswing. In contrast, as your Big Four contracts expire, you face the prospect of becoming a non-playoff team if you lose even one of them, and utter collapse if Matthews decides to go elsewhere for a better chance at the Cup because you have one of the five worst prospect pools in the League. (The only non-regular you have in your entire system who would make our roster is Matt Knies.)
Keep Mitch Marner for two more seasons. We have a well-balanced team and three of those players are core members of our future. Marner's two seasons wouldn't be anywhere close to sufficient compensation for them.
Quoting: Jjfoster24
LA would probably make that trade. They get one of the best wingers in the league and a starting goalie without losing any core pieces. Timmins is also a solid defenseman.
Saying that trading Byfield, Clarke and Vilardi wouldn't be "losing any core pieces" is the worst judgment you'll make this month.
Quoting: MapleLeafsPhanatic
I would think they do want those players, they get a good young goalie, a cost controlled defenceman and a superstar on a retained contract. Arvidsson is essentially a cap dump and they give up two prospects and a roster player to balance out the value.
What awful, uninformed takes. Getting one of the best wingers in the league for only two seasons is not the great boon you guys think it is, since LA wouldn't be able to re-sign him. Timmins is utterly redundant in light of our strength and depth at RhD, so he's valueless to us. Samsonov isn't equivalent in value to any one of our three youngsters. And the idea that Arvidsson is essentially a cap dump is laughably ignorant -- he scored 10 more points this past year than all but four forwards on your team, and I'll go out on a limb and predict that both of you can name those four Maple Leaf forwards without having to look them up.
Absolutely horrible evaluations.