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leafhype

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Forum: Armchair-GMMay 10, 2019 at 11:28 a.m.
Thread: Evolving Wild Projections Based Roster
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>palhal</b></div><div>I never understand all these Zaitsev trades. Seems like folks think the Leafs have to give up something to dump Zaitsev and then overpay just to replace him. Seems to me the Leafs would be 100 times better off keeping Zaitsev and if cap is needed trade some high cap for future assets.
Zaitsev isn't as bad as so many make out, though his term makes him a tough trade. I think most of rants against Zaitsev are unwarranted, gee he plays heavy minutes with a good team but somehow folks thinks fringe RHD on other teams are so much better.</div></div>

When a player has a bad contract, teams have to pay to move it out. Just how the league works.

To get what Toronto needs (top 4 right handed d-man) it would cost any team a good amount because it's a position in such high demand. But I wouldn't be going more than Kapanen and a 1st for Spurgeon. Even with an extension that's a hefty price to play and it makes the Leafs better.

Zaitsev is bad. He's average offensively, average defensively but absolutely god awful at breaking the puck out of his own end. He can't make good passes, and when he makes a pass it usually puts the forwards in a bad spot to make the next move. He frequently seems to be scared to take a hit to make a play. &amp; he needs to be paired with a good d-man to make him look good. That's why he played with Muzzin. Because he could make the simple pass over to Muzzin and not be responsible for making the breakout pass. Zaitsev is a #4-5 d-man in the NHL but that means he's still a NHL d-man. Those are teachable things to fix, but Zaitsev hasn't shown in over 2 years that he's fixed them. At most, he should be getting $3.5M for another 3 seasons which means he's overpaid by about $1M and 2 seasons. Not a terrible overpayment, but nonetheless, it's overpaid and Leafs will have to give up something of value to move him. But he has to be moved for cap reasons. There's no hiding that and that hurts his value more, which either means a lesser return or that Toronto has to add more to move him. It's pretty common sense.

A realistic trade comparison is the Dion Phaneuf trade to Ottawa. Toronto gets back either a low level prospect or 3rd pairing d-man, but uses their financial muscle to take back multiple short term contracts that add up to Zaitsev's number that Toronto can afford to bury in the minors and pay where another team can't. Which is why I've always said Zaitsev to Ottawa makes so much sense. Sens send Condon ($2.4M), Demelo ($900K) and a late round pick to Toronto for Zaitsev ($4.5M), an average roster player (Petan or Moore) and a couple C+ prospects. Toronto takes back $3.3M in cap, but Condon is being paid $2.4M by Ottawa to play in the AHL, #Melnyktoocheap for that, Toronto takes the contract back, bury Condon in the AHL and it saves them $3.125M in cap space from Zaitsev, but they pay the full salary of Condon. Toronto also gets a competent roster d-man in Demelo because as we seem to agree, Zaitsev is still a NHL d-man and has some value so a replacement isn't out of the question in a deal. Then Ottawa gets a young roster player and a couple prospects or picks to help their rebuild. Zaitsev would be a good fit to play with either Chabot or Brannstrom in the future and he also helps Ottawa hit the floor of the cap. It seems like the perfect fit for a deal