All I wish to say right now is I think Treliving blew it by refusing to trade Toronto's 1st round pick for Tanev. Pairing him with Rielly would have been the best decision he's possibly ever made, along with simply playing him in front of Toronto's netminders. Instead, the Leafs get Lyubushkin, who is good for the 3rd pairing, in exchange for a 3rd and a 6th, but still leaves them with a shaky corps. The maybe-makes-the-NHL-in-a-few-years selection he makes with the 1st he keeps better be worth not getting the vastly better defenceman.

yea not sure i agree. i love tanev and have followed his game for awhile but the leafs still have a shallow pool of prospects and an even shallower pool of picks. the leafs cant afford to pay that for a rental. even if he stays hes pretty weathered, not sure if thats where his value is

with that said i like this trade for all teams

I respect your point of view, of course, and I may be speaking with a bit of bias as a Flames fan who has watched him over the last few years, but I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I say his effect in the playoffs cannot be overstated. He would be THE guy on the Leafs blueline taking pucks to the face, spitting out teeth while blocking his third shot in a row on that shift, while also having the ability to move the puck out of his own end well. His character alone could have been a major factor in putting the currently hot Leafs over the top (if their goalies can come through for them).

From what I've heard and read, there is quite a drop-off after pick 15-ish or so in this draft, and essentially, the picks from around 25-70, according to one guy anyway, with obvious "better" guys in that range, all kind of fit into a "grouping" in the draft, of similarly rated players. For Toronto to not want to give up what they expect to be 32nd overall for Tanev, but give up a 3rd and a 6th for Lyubushkin.... you said yourself the Leafs can't afford to give up too many picks (paraphrasing), but Treliving's exact plan is to try and offer "multiple" lower picks for players in lieu of one higher pick. Overall, that ought to diminish the Leafs' pool..

But, my ultimate point, you can't put a price on character (you can, but humor me), and Tanev would have been exactly the kind of character guy that dressing room needs for a playoff run, on and off the ice.

i dont dispute any of what you said, but i do think that your value of these guys may be a bit high. there is a reason why he didnt go for a first and why CC didnt hold out for one

Nah, it was both ... Supposedly, Toronto offered a 1st+ for Z and Tanev... The only reason why Calgary didn't do the deal is the price for retention which is a fumble on both ends bc they couldn't get a 3rd party to retain?

Now, Toronto is in need of defensive help and a big body and Calgary didn't get a 1st+ in total like they were expecting and still had to retain on Tanev anyway

Sorry, a bit late! I agree with you, but I expected a 2nd and a prospect for Tanev. A prospect that was a 2nd round pick himself, whatever anyone thinks, I don't mind at all. A late 1st COULD be a slightly better player than either Grushnikov or the player Calgary selects with its 2nd. But it could also be only as good as one of them. So getting two assets from the 2nd round as opposed to one asset from the late 2024 1st round is a bargain to me for Conroy.

That said, as I said in one pre-deadline post, it certainly felt like a buyer's market. Some really good players, while UFAs-to-be, went with 50% retention for just a pick or two, and definitely not what most fans on capfriendly expected their players to go for.

It is a cap era, and I think we have to accept that cap space is just as valuable, if not sometimes more valuable, than a player is, to a team...