Edited Jul. 31, 2023 at 1:41 p.m.
Let's start by saying yes, in the Anaheim trade, Toronto is giving up the best player in Nylander. I can understand where you are coming from.
However, Nylander is a pending UFA, as is Brodie. Brodie we would not be resigning, and has a 7.5 million salary this season which is wholeheartedly unappealing for us. We would move maybe a 4th to acquire Brodie. This takes us back to Nylander, which you are saying is worth Terry, a first, and a 2nd (assuming Vaaks is also worth a mid/late pick, makes Brodie Vaaks a wash
as far as Anaheim is concerned)
Nylander is not worth Terry plus a 1st and a 2nd, even with an extension in place. We're one of the few teams who can take a big swing at him as a UFA and not run into cap issues, and I fully expect we will. We're not even certain we would do Terry for Nylander straight up, as Terry is going to come in a few million cheaper AAV than Nylanders new contract.
So we really don't see how Toronto is helping us by sending two pending UFAs for top assets, the one who we actually want to sign is likely a flight risk we have to pay UFA money to ANYWAY, we might as well keep our assets and just pay him UFA money on the open market.