You only changed 6 players you are slipping. This video game roster should see a full overhaul because that's reality right?

Mtl can’t retain on 2 players and they aren’t trading Savard or Monahan for those kind of assets.

Woof, that defence would get caved in. Worst right side in hockey

VAN decline, no cap.

Forgot that. Should have added a 4th with a note that a second team will retain. What do you figure it would cost then? And yes, everyone has a price so hopefully you can give a thoughtful reply.

I am assuming this is trolling as you said garunteed cup on a leafs agm

Do better, trade everyone or you aren't even trying to be as destructive as you could be

If Monahan stay healthy i assume he will be targeted by multiple team. I assume at that point they would want draft pick. They are already loaded with prospect and limited in contract. The prospect would need to be a position on need like goalie or Rhd defenseman. As for Savard, i din’t think management want to trade him that bad so unless a team is willing to gave up a Chiarot type of deal Savard will be more valuable to the Habs.

Detroit declines

Hawks decline. We'll outbid you for nylander in the summer for free if we really want him

I'm learning not to assume things should be obvious for everyone so let's go through this together:

Jones enters his draft year as one of the most complete defensemen the league had seen in years, being touted as a potential 1st overall pick and going 4th to NSH. He steps right into a full-time NHL role at 18 and shows his clear talent right away. He's got an ideal frame even at the age, he’s an incredible skater both straight ahead and laterally, has an incredible shot, can play physically, has great awareness defensively and offensively, can play both PK and PP and log huge minutes. Quite literally all the tools you want in a franchise defenseman.

He ends up in CBJ on a team who lacks legitimate talent upfront, and immediately becomes their #1, minute-munching, two-way defenseman. At the age of 24 he goes into a round 1 matchup against the best regular season team of the salary cap era and the highest scoring to that point. He leads the Blue Jackets, and the entire playoffs in ATOI with 28 minutes per game, alongside his 22 year old partner in Werenski. He plays top PK, top PP, blocks shots, hits, carries and distributes the puck incredibly well, and leads the CBJ to arguably (probably not arguably) the greatest playoff upset of all-time; sweeping the Lightning with a +11 goal differential and placing 3rd on the team in playoff scoring with 9 points in 10 games behind only Panarin and Duchene. David Savard was also in the top 4 for that team but we’ll get to him later....

For reference, our untouchable defenseman Timmy liljegren was a healthy scratch to start these playoffs and has posted 0 playoff points in 7 playoff games over two seasons; he is the same age now that Jones was then.

The year after sweeping Tampa, CBJ loses Panarin, Duchene, and Bobrovsky and enters the playoffs as heavy underdogs against another offensive dynamo in our dear Toronto Maple Leafs. He led the entire league in ATOI for the second year in a row with THIRTY-TWO MINUTES per game and held a top 3 offense to 0 goals in their game 5 elimination match.

So basically, at 25 years old the dude is ****ing elite, as in a top 5 defenseman league wide. He finished 4th in Norris voting in 2018 and 2nd in 2019 to Hedman despite playing on an awful offensive team. He'd spend one more year on a rapidly declining CBJ team after defeating the Leafs in the play-ins, at which point the Blue Jackets needed to rebuild and made him available through trade. Chicago trades a 20-year-old D man who they selected 8th overall, the 12th overall pick, the 44th overall pick, and another future first for Jones, the 32nd overall pick and a 6th rounder. They then immediately sign him to one of the most lucrative contracts in the league after paying the biggest package we've seen for a defenseman in the cap era. Why? Not because he won a lottery, but because the dude is absolutely ****ing elite. Yes, IS. The Blackhawks were **** before he even arrived, they suffered through some key injuries, and partway through his first season entered probably the most scorched of scorched earth rebuilds we've ever seen. Not even Hagel, Debrincat and Dach were safe. Despite this, he continues to play in all situations and places third in team scoring behind Kane and Debrincat, good enough for 20th amount NHL D. You can argue that he’s overpaid based on his production with Chicago and you’d be right, but you can’t argue he’s anything less than a top pairing D. This past year he again led the hawks in all situations and still managed to score at a similar rate to guys like Hedman, Seider and Ekblad, with 12 goals and 37 points in 72 games.
So, was the reason that some of his stats began to suffer after joining an all time awful roster because he had some kind of life changing event that coincided with that move? No, and this is the obvious part I was talking about. His stats suffered because he is being asked to play the most important role on his team, in a sport where you play each game with 19 other teammates against 20 other players.
Do I need to explain how playing with less talented teammates would negatively affect a #1 defenseman's stats? I shouldn't have to because we've seen countless examples of it in recent years with guys like Doughty, Hamilton, Montour, Burns, Orlov, H. Lindholm, Dahlin, Dunn Gavrikov... etc. etc. etc. I would hope we wouldn't need examples of something that should be common sense, but here we are…

I'm not some kind of genius either because it's literally as easy as watching him play. Any layman can recognize obvious talent when they see it, regardless of the sport or their knowledge of it. In case you haven't actually watched him play recently, which is legitimately the only way a reasonable person can make a claim like yours, then here's a 20 minute video of his top plays from this past season; I know you're going to try saying something like "Of course he looks good in a compilation of his highlights", but no, it really is obvious. So, if you need to, give it a watch for yourself. It's better to admit you're wrong than to stand by a take as awful as yours. Here it is:
Seth Jones TOP PLAYS 2022-23 Season | Chicago Blackhawks - YouTube

If Seth Jones were to join the Leafs for this season he is an immediate Norris contender, that is no exaggeration at all.

David Savard was used as Montreal's number 1 shutdown guy and fits the mold of players who Rielly partners best with. He's probably better than Schenn is now, and Schenn was a fantastic partner for Riell - again, coming from a struggling team where he was asked to play almost an identical role to Savard.

Those two players should absolutely be able to form a contending top 4 with two top pairing D in Rielly and Hanifin on their flanks. That allows us to shelter Klingberg and partner him on the 3rd pair with McCabe, who is coming fresh off top pair shutdown minutes and would be much more sheltered in this role. It's not unreasonable to think we could unlock some of the skill that made him a top pairing defenseman throughout a cup final run with the Stars where he finished 2nd on the team in scoring (ahead of any other forward). He's also coming fresh off being one of only 2 Wild players to score at a PPG in their playoff series, a series where Kaprizov had only 1 point in 6 games.

Now I had to put together this long-winded explanation of the obvious because not only is it ridiculous to say this is the worst right side in hockey, it's very likely that right side is top 10 league wide, with the potential to be top 5. Objectively speaking, that D core as a whole would undoubtedly be top 5.

No, I am not delusional, nor am I exaggerating... I'm basing this entirely off the talent of these players and the talent of the players around them in the system they'll be playing in, a system that makes overconfident space cadets think Liljegren is a better defenseman than Jones - not because they'd ever think that watching them play, but because they counted stats and were unable to contextualize them. I guess you can pretend you're right until they're traded to a better team, if that ever ends up being the case.

Smart people need to start thinking for themselves and stop saying stupid **** because they were led to believe it.

Woof.....

my goodness, you really believe all this nonsense dont you? That.....that's something alright. Though I really do think that last sentence really cracked it for ya, startlingly good self advice.
Jones and Savard suck dude.

Hard pass on Seth Jones, his cap hit isn't worth it. Hanifin deal seems like a slight overpay, and the Monahan deal is abysmal for the Leafs. Brodie isn't a cap dump, Kostin isn't worth a second, and there's absolutely no reason to trade McCabe.

Disappointing, I really thought I had laid it all out pretty clearly for you. Did you watch the video by chance? If not maybe there's still hope. Not that I expect you to ever admit you're wrong about something you pretended to know. We're officially living in the upside-down I guess...

I would much rather pay a top pairing D 9 mil for the next 7 years than pay Nylander more money for two years beyond that, To each their own I guess.

Ana decline. Not moving a 2nd for a rental mid-rebuild while battling for a bottom 10 spot

No any move that makes you have to tear apart half the roster isn’t gonna work

I think you should be looking to transition out of the rebuild after acquiring Calrsson, and I think your management team feels the same as proven by the acquisitions of Killorn, Gudas, Lyubushkin, and Hagg.

There no longer seems to be any glaring holes that you'd need to fill by tanking; you have two projected 1st line, potential franchise centers with size and two-way ability, young guys like Zegras and Terry on your wings already with prospects like Pastujov and Gaucher on the way, a likely 1D in Drysdale with Zellwegger and Mintyukov behind him, then Gibson in net with Dostal on the rise.

Eventually you need to start building an environment that encourages winning rather than showing your players you're more interested in continuing to tank. Otherwise you may end up going the route of Buffalo or Edmonton where your lack of success pushes away exactly the type of players who can turn you around; like Eichel and ROR and wasted 2nd overall picks like Reinhart, or wasted first overall picks like Hall and Yakupov in Edm. Sure you might get there eventually, but once you nab a player like Carlsson you should start growing the team around him as you may not ever draft a player like that again.

Your D core is far from complete and it would be wise to round things out with defensive-minded veterans who play the game the right way and can cover for the young guy's mistakes. It's an incredibly common step along the rebuild for any team, and it's also worth remembering you can only sign so many players, and at some point it might be better to have actual bodies in your lineup in the present,

At the end of the day it doesn't make much difference to me because of course Brodie and a 4th will fetch a 2nd rounder from someone. I'll just say that as a Leafs fan there was a tangible benefit to bringing in guys like Hainsey to play with Rielly and Gio to play with Lily, You need guys like that to help you learn the NHL game in my opinion.

Also, adding Brodie to your top pair with Drysdale with a second pair of Fowler and Gudas behind them does not leave the playoffs as that unrealistic a goal. There would be a lot of parallels to the Leafs making the playoffs after drafting Matthews as well.

Sorry I’m not going to address that long of a response. Simply put, ANA is kidding themself if they think drafting Carlsson means the rebuild is over.

They have great key pieces in a lot of areas, but many are too young to be ready to make a big impact (Zell, Minty, Carlsson, all RD prospects, all wing prospects, Gaucher, etc). They’re still rebuilding no matter what

Adding Brodie is a great move. He’d be an awesome partner for Drys. But doing so changes nothing for the ducks this year. They’ll miss playoffs, and won’t be close. He’s an expiring UFA, so it’s 1 year of imo t where it’s bottom 5 to bottom 10 at best. You don’t sell a 2nd mid-rebuild to go up to bottom 10. We’ll take him for a 3rd and still flip him at the deadline when near the bottom of the west. Thats it

Yeah i don't want you to think I'm suggesting they're ready to compete for a championship, I'm just saying they should start to focus on the ascent rather than actively looking to tank. We disagree that it changes nothing, I think the growth of their key players should be the focus at this point and I think moves like this are a large part of that. It's difficult to assign a tangible value to that, but I think a lot of teams would consider that to be worth a swap of 2nd and 4th round picks. Not to mention they can probably gain the value his experience would provide and still recoup those assets at the TDL if they wanted to.

I understand your point though, appreciate the discussion!

doh

Yeah I'm not going to get caught up in the difference between a 3rd and swapping a 2nd for a 4th so that's probably fine. Leafs would probably look elsewhere though.

Cheers!

All you laid out was a story you told yourself of guys who might have been good once
That does mean they are good anymore. Is this where i accuse you of being in love with them

Alright man, here's what's actually happening as we both know:

That's not a story, that's a thorough recollection of the player's past-to-present performance that you don't have much of a response for. You're probably smart enough to see you had a shortsighted view of things after it being laid out like that, but I understand you can't just eat your words after coming in as hot as you did. So, I'll play along for a bit.

None of that is nonsense because i specifically made sure it was all factual and not something you could poke holes in. Like I said, that's not some genius on my part, it's literally just giving it the amount of thought you never did. You should try to do that in the future instead of making smarmy replies with zero substance.

You realized you didn't have a leg to stand on so you went with the classic play of pretending like you can't see the logic there, trying to dismiss it in the typical condescending tone of someone who has no actual criticism to make and nothing intelligent to add, because you know you got fed your lunch as everyone can see.

Here are some other meaningless statements you can go with in the future:

"Lol, are you on drugs?"

"Go touch grass"

"Wow, so you actually believe this, huh..."

Or you can accuse me of loving him, that's a good one too. Regardless of what you decide to go with, you're still going to end up having nothing intelligent to say and looking like a pretender to everyone who has seen this tired old act time and time again.

So, next time you're better off not suggesting someone's opinion is "nonsensical" when you really don't know what you're talking about in the first place.

It's not really a matter of opinion, but at the end of the day you can't argue with someone who will call a blue sky "red". If you need to get another shot in feel free, I understand. Try to give this some thought though afterwards and take it as a learning experience.

Your point is well taken, JaredOfLondon. I do appreciate your feedback!

Kind Regards,

- SethJonesLover69

You need an editor