News Article: Could Kadri be traded?

[Pookie]

This guy gets it:

Toronto Maple Leafs: Could Nazem Kadri be Traded?

In summary, a self professed 43 fan who defended him in the Carlyle days, offers these reasons to move him:

- weak on D, deep at C
- need to improve D
- Nylander could shift over to play 3C and replace him
- Leafs would still be significantly strong up the middle
- long term deal to Nylander better served as a C vs winger
- Brown wasted on 4th line and could shift up the roster with Kadri’s move
- Kadri “ok” at shut down but wouldn’t make sense to line match and shut down opponents #1 line when AM line and JT line will dominate.
- 43’s trade value never higher based on his age, contract and lack of 2C/high end 3C’s in the market.
- Would fetch big return

Good read. It’s a nice situation to be in.

Click to read more...

 

[Marshy]

Sure, set the price high for Kadri. A true minute eating Dman preferably right side who can slot in beside Rielly. Think Manson or Trouba or equivalent (with Kadri as the main piece and small add if necessary on the Leafs end).

Now some will say...."...c'mon nobody is giving that type of D for Kadri" .....to that I say...I agree with you. This is just what it would take for me to move Kadri. I'm happy as hell to have the C depth we have and if anyone wants to overpay for Kadri I'll listen to offers.

 

[Sypher04]

If by "gets it" what you actually mean is mostly wrong then sure

 

[1specter]

James Tanner is one of the worst writers. Almost all of his articles have been poor quality and I've held this opinion long before this article was written.

 

[DopeyFish]

I think if we can get Seguin in FA, then the whole Kadri trade thing can come up.

That would also allow Grundstrom to get one year closer, we know what Johnsson is and whether Moore or Bracco is close.

But still quite risky in my opinion

 

[Brown Dog]

A 30-goal matchup centre in his prime who can play PP and plays with an edge on one of the best contracts in the league. If this can't get us a top pairing D, keep him.

 

[araisarena]

Still think Kadri has more to give and his best and most consistent hockey came when he finally played with a good winger like Marner and was at a 0.9-1 PPG pace over a 30ish game span. I'm excited at the prospect of him playing with Johnsson and Kapanen/Brown + the PP with Tavares slotting in at Bozak spot. He has a 70 point season in him before its all said and done. I'll keep a 30 goal match up and 50-60 PT C with an outside chance at 70 with the right pieces in front of him over a 2nd pairing D-Man. It's gotta be for a young elite RHD or I'm good.

 

[ACC1224]

Sure he could be traded, the Leafs have a history of dumb moves.
I'm betting the new regime isn't dumb.

 

[BrannigansLaw]

Too many of these damn blog sites these days.

 

[Cor]

We aren't deep at C.

We have Tavares, Matthews and Kadri, which is ridiculous, but after that, we have little depth.

Par Lindholm, Frederik Gauthier, Josh Jooris, Adam Brooks and Chris Mueller are the only other centres after the top 3.

We are hoping Lindholm transfers to N/A smoothly and can be our 4C, but that's no guarentee.

Gauthier failed during his stint last season, and doesn't seem to be in favour with Babcock anymore like he once was.

Josh Jooris is in all likelyhood the Ben Smith replacement on the Marlies, and has played more wing recently than center

Adam Brooks is not close to being NHL ready

Chris Mueller is simply an AHL player.

 

[Trapper]

This guy gets it:

Toronto Maple Leafs: Could Nazem Kadri be Traded?

In summary, a self professed 43 fan who defended him in the Carlyle days, offers these reasons to move him:

- weak on D, deep at C
- need to improve D
- Nylander could shift over to play 3C and replace him
- Leafs would still be significantly strong up the middle
- long term deal to Nylander better served as a C vs winger
- Brown wasted on 4th line and could shift up the roster with Kadri’s move
- Kadri “ok” at shut down but wouldn’t make sense to line match and shut down opponents #1 line when AM line and JT line will dominate.
- 43’s trade value never higher based on his age, contract and lack of 2C/high end 3C’s in the market.
- Would fetch big return

Good read. It’s a nice situation to be in.

You can come up with reasons for and reasons against all day in articles like this.
What is never written though, is what the return is.
Anyone can be moved for the right deals but 99.9% of the time the right deal is not there.
Another team has to have that top end D who's list (like the above Kadri list) warrants the move.
This is only listing reasons why maybe Kadri would be considered "movable" but jump to another team. Why is a Parayko (for example) or whatever being moved? Chances are there is no deal that equals what goes out.
The article might hold more weight if you could list potentially 6 or 7 teams that have the D we are looking for to do that.

 

[Notsince67]

I think we should trade Andersen for a Dman. We don't have anyone to replace him but that doesn't seem to be a problem when talking about centers

 

[FlareKnight]

A lot of guys could be traded. Dubas could have woken up today and decided to trade out Matthews. Whether that is likely or not is up to others to decide.

Right now the center situation is a strength. The second you move Kadri it becomes a weakness and area of concern. Go from having strength down the middle to hoping that Nylander can slide to the middle, hoping Babcock will put him there instead of Marleau, and accepting that you are paying a guy 6-7 million to be your third line center. And you get the bonus of weakning your top 6 by downgrading on wing from Nylander to whoever takes his spot.

Kadri's contract is great because it's not stupidly overpayment for a guy playing third line center. You can move Kadri sure. And maybe even get a second pairing D-man back. But whether that makes the team better or worse is up for debate.

A rather sad situation that James Tanner is someone that is being used to fuel an argument.

 

[Uncle]

A 30-goal matchup centre in his prime who can play PP and plays with an edge on one of the best contracts in the league. If this can't get us a top pairing D, keep him.

Amen

 

[egd27]

James Tanner is one of the worst writers. Almost all of his articles have been poor quality and I've held this opinion long before this article was written.

Seconded.....I see his byline now and just move on.

 

[weems]

Being unwilling to admit you're wrong on a player and continually pushing an agenda is a terrible thing.

 

[ACC1224]

James Tanner is one of the worst writers. Almost all of his articles have been poor quality and I've held this opinion long before this article was written.

Never heard of him. Why is he someone who's opinion we should care to hear?

 

[Stephen]

Before people label Kadri a third line center who scores 30 goals, we probably need to see what kind of actual production happens with him behind Matthews and Tavares first. Right now the C position is luxurious, but the blueline is a work in progress. Let's see how it pans out.

I think it's always an option to trade anyone for an upgrade to the team and I'd move Kadri before Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Nylander.

At the end of the day, if you can get a slight downgrade at C to replace Kadri and a big upgrade on D, maybe you consider it.

 

[BertCorbeau]

Tbh the step down from what the Leafs have as #3C options in Naz’s place is a lot bigger than the step up they would get from a d-man in a trade from what the Leafs currently have

 

[Liminality]

Ah yes just what we needed, another thread about the same topic that got locked.

 

[1specter]

Never heard of him. Why is he someone who's opinion we should care to hear?

He isn't. He's just another one of these bloggers trying to make a name. Time to time his stuff gets shared on the Leafs Reddit page and is almost always downvoted to hell.

 

[zeke]

This guy gets it:

Toronto Maple Leafs: Could Nazem Kadri be Traded?

In summary, a self professed 43 fan who defended him in the Carlyle days, offers these reasons to move him:

- weak on D, deep at C
- need to improve D
- Nylander could shift over to play 3C and replace him
- Leafs would still be significantly strong up the middle
- long term deal to Nylander better served as a C vs winger
- Brown wasted on 4th line and could shift up the roster with Kadri’s move
- Kadri “ok” at shut down but wouldn’t make sense to line match and shut down opponents #1 line when AM line and JT line will dominate.
- 43’s trade value never higher based on his age, contract and lack of 2C/high end 3C’s in the market.
- Would fetch big return

Good read. It’s a nice situation to be in.

after all your long years of telling us how bad Kadri is, on and off the ice, why do you think he has any worthwhile trade value?

 

[PuckMagi]

Moving Kadri to LW with Tavares also solves a lot of these "problems".

Johnsson - Matthews - Marner
Kadri - Tavares - Brown
Marleau - Nylander - Kapanen
_____ - ______ - Hyman

This makes the Tavares line a great match-up line to go head to head against the other team's top line. Having two centers on that line is good in case Tavares gets kicked out of the circle. Kadri gets lots of ice time that he otherwise would not get behind Matthews and Tavares. Tavares and Kadri used to play together on the London Knights... so both might like that... and I know that Matthews and Marner are dying to play with each other too. Our 3rd line becomes a super fast scoring line. Nylander gets to play center where he belongs. The third line might not get a ton of ice time... but that will keep them fresh to use their explosive speed to burn the other team. This keeps our center depth very strong because it's easy to move Kadri into any of those center spots if there are injuries.

 

[deletethis]

"The only problem with that is that one of the Toronto Maple Leafs best young players – William Nylander – is a centre and not a winger."

Apparently a 3rd line center if he's a center on this Leafs' team. This is exactly why this is a terrible idea to think of Nylander is a center. Nylander should continue to be that playmaking/finishing winger who fits in with either of the Leafs' top centers. That alone is more 5v5 minutes for him let alone him teeing the puck up for Matthews and Tavares (and maybe Kadri sometimes).

"Additionally, if you are going to pay Nylander for eight years, it’s better to commit to a centre than to a winger."

The implication of the above is that Nylander is somehow wasted as a winger, almost like elite talents shouldn't be wingers. That's obviously false: Kucherov? Ovechkin? Patrick Kane? Gaudreau? Marner? Hall? Wheeler? Voracek? Panarin?

 

[1specter]

Moving Kadri to LW with Tavares also solves a lot of these "problems".

Johnsson - Matthews - Marner
Kadri - Tavares - Brown
Marleau - Nylander - Kapanen
_____ - ______ - Hyman

This makes the Tavares line a great match-up line to go head to head against the other team's top line. Having two centers on that line is good in case Tavares gets kicked out of the circle. Kadri gets lots of ice time that he otherwise would not get behind Matthews and Tavares. Tavares and Kadri used to play together on the London Knights... so both might like that... and I know that Matthews and Marner are dying to play with each other too. Our 3rd line becomes a super fast scoring line. Nylander gets to play center where he belongs. The third line might not get a ton of ice time... but that will keep them fresh to use their explosive speed to burn the other team. This keeps our center depth very strong because it's easy to move Kadri into any of those center spots if there are injuries.

Kadri is not moving to wing. He is much better as a centre and plays better with that space he gets.