leafs laugh at the calgary trade my god what is with you guys undervaluing nylander brodie and liljegren

2nd line would improve by replacing Lafferty with Dube. 1st pair would improve by replacing Brodie with Tanev. 2nd pair would drastically improve by replacing McCabe with Hanifin, and 3rd pair would improve by replacing Gio and Lily with McCabe and Timmins. Our D core would go from being mediocre to one of the best in the league, with the only line/pair we'd be downgrading on being the third line, a third line which would still be among the league's best while also improving defensively down the middle.

That's what you call distributing your cap for a more balanced roster... a roster which would probably be clear cup favourites.

Just to add, Flames are already over the cap with 21 man roster, and now the exchange of six players gives the Flames even more cap.
Seems like the the Leafs lose in both trades.
Funny, how so many Leaf fans are so enthralled by the so many of the non playoff Flames Dmen. How is the Leafs defence medicore ( top 7 last season), and then the Leafs lose three Dmen Giordano, Brodie and Liljegren and only get two in return Hanifan and Tanev.

How is the Leafs D mediocre? Each of the past two deadlines we've had to acquire career bottom pairing rentals from bottom feeder teams to play with our best defenseman, Morgan Rielly. Both players immediately walked, and Luke Schenn was our 2nd best defenseman in last year's playoffs. Yes, that Luke Schenn, who is now 33 years old.

Speaking of 33 year old D-men, TJ Brodie is in the last year of his deal and struggled noticeably in last year's playoffs. Unsurprisingly, given the fact he's now past his prime and lost his partner in Jake Muzzin to a career ending injury, Muzzin who was our best defensive D-man up to that point. Our solution to replacing him? Bring in a 2 mil contract with retention for a player who has never played in the playoffs, or been successful in top-pair shutdown minutes, who predictably struggles as a result of being asked to do too much.

Elite talent Liljegren loses his spot down the stretch due solely to his own poor play, resulting in him being a healthy scratch for game one of the playoffs. As a result of our D-core being horrible he gets in eventually, making zero impact and posting 0 points. Giordano struggles in an obvious way as well, possibly due to him being the oldest D-man in the league. Our only two defensemen to post a positive goal differential are Rielly and Schenn (yes, Luke Schenn), while our only defenseman to score more than 3 points in 11 games is Rielly, our playoff MVP. Brodie and Gio get another year older as they enter the final year of their contracts, Holl and Schenn leave. 2 years in a row we post a sub .900% in the playoffs while our fans point to regular season goals against as a marker for the strength of our backend. Instead of, you know... actual talent.

Meanwhile, 26 year old former 5th overall pick Noah Hanifin plays top pair minutes for the team who finishes 3rd in the league in shots against last year, while Chris Tanev continues living up to his title as one of the league's best defensive defensemen. As in, truly elite. Timmins has a full summer of training and continues to show his incredible potential, yet you're going to claim Hanifin, Tanev and Timmins would not be an improvement over Brodie, Gio and Lily?

Good one Randy...

You really don't like Nylander eh?

We've been through this. He is the most valuable piece we can conceivably move to address roster needs elsewhere. We have enough winger depth that we're paying him 7 mil to be our 3C when he's never played center for any significant amount of time. Why not get a solid 3C for $5 mil less who is more comfortable at the position and much better defensively, while improving the second line, the 4th line and all 3 pairings while having the space to carry 3 goalies?

Seems pretty obvious to me.

I don't mind the CGY trade if we could find a way to make the cap work. We really need another player to generate offense, and that's Nylander in a nutshell.

The much weaker defence gives me a bit of a pause but
Weegar - Andersson
Zadorov - Brodie
Liljergren - Oesterle/Gilbert/Kylington
Doesn't look terrible, even though it's a bit thin.

I wouldn't go spending assets on Monahan if I were you, unless you're sure that he can stay healthy.

He was drafted as a centre and played centre on the marlies. It's his natural position. And perhaps he isn't going to be the 3C but the 2C. He's better than JT at this stage of their careers.

And beyond that, you can address other needs without moving him. You just seem to really want to blow it up and don't much care to see it any other way.

No to both

Most highly touted forwards play center growing up. The fact is he has barely played center at the NHL, specifically because of the defensive responsibility that goes with that position. How does swapping him with JT help? Now we're paying our 3C $11 mil instead of $7 when he's more than capable of being our 2C.

And no, you can't address the needs this team has without clearing a considerable amount of cap or sending a valuable asset the other way. We've already tried that, trading for two top 4 defenseman at each of the last 2 deadlines, 2 of whom were career bottom pair defensemen who we played on our top pair and immediately walked to FA, the other two who we had to pay retention for just to fit them into roles where they were asked to do too much.

I'm not "blowing it up", I'm trying to improve a roster that has been an obvious failure. This is far from the changes teams like Florida, Vegas, Colorado and Tampa made before finding success.

As a Habs fan, your trade offer for Monahan is ok.
However, from the Monteal management group perspective, as of right now, there are so many young kids in the lineup, that there really needs a veteran presence that is truly appreciated.
Edmundson, Weber, Price, Chiarot and Toffoli left in the last 2 years and were all much loved veterans.
For the young kids, having no veterans might be tough for a well oiled development.

So, again, purely value-wise, your offer seems totally reasonable and fair.

I just think the Habs may want to wait until the trade deadline - even with the risk of injury - to flip Monahan for the best offer.
That way he can have 3/4 of a season in the lineup to infuse some of his leadership.

Cheers, and have a good season!
(I really think the moves Toronto made will be awesome - especially Bertuzzi and Domi)