First off, every time this is brought up it is Marner ++ or Nylander ++ or Marner + Nylander etc. etc. So it's not just ONE player. **** man I've seen such bs as Marner + Rielly +1st in threads other than this one. So, I don't buy that part of your argument, regardless of what your "proposed trade" was.
Secondly, if you listen to Shanahan, Babcock and Lamoriello they are trying to build a perennial contender for a decade or longer. Which helps that more? Two years of Doughty or 9-10 years of Marner/Nylander?
You know what REALLY helps that? 9-10 years of Matthews+Marner+Nylander AND 7 years of Doughty (or any other quality Dman). Doughty is a great option no doubt, but he is far from our only option.
This team will get better defensively just through our young forwards gaining more experience at the NHL level.
This team will get better defensively as our d-men grow and get more experience (a 23 year old and an NHL rookie were our top pairing and top 10 in QofC last year)
This team will get better defensively as some of our weaker defensive forwards are replaced by better two-way players.
This team will get better defensively as Freddy Andersen continues to grow as a starter.
There are a lot of ways this team can get better defensively without adding Drew Doughty.
There are a lot of ways this team can win a Cup without adding Drew Doughty.
Some of us still believe in patience, as evidenced by the poll that has been running on the Leaf forum which asks "Who would you trade for Doughty? Marner? Nylander? Neither?
Neither is winning with 81% of the vote.
The key word of on your team is your team. That means on your roster Liljegren does not play for the leafs nor does anyone called first round pick. Now if u said future that
is a totally different thing. Oh and not one king fan especially this one (who you quote) mentions getting Reilly in this trade. I and i believe most king fans want Liljegren. It was leaf fan mentioning him and non king fans.
Next your 2 years of competing for a cup to me would be worth to me even thou the odd are he would resign. Lets be realistic there is no way la trades drew this year. As stated elsewhere King gm blake thinks we can be a playoff team and Drew is a huge part of that. I believe any trade of Drew happens after july 7 ish 2018 after the kings figure out what it will take to resign him (my disired outcome) If he doesn't resign or the kings decide to rebuild the kings will then let any team talk to drews agent to sign a contract extension and then trade him.
As for your hoping he gets to ufa that is not going to happen as we will trade him to a team that will resign him as part of the trade. As done above. So either he resigns with the kings or his new team He will not hit ufa no elite player does.
Your hoping ur defense man get better defensively I don't see it happening I think you have already seen the best reilly and gardner can do on there own Adding a true number one to your team would lessen the time on ice and strengthen the quality of defense that is played by the other defense. Just think if drew can make the kings go from 17th when hes off the ice defensively to 3rd How much he could help the leaf defensively.
I don't think anderson is the right goalie either but he does have a chance with a better defense in front of him Drew would hep his stats immensely.
Are there other ways to improve the leafs of course there is however i don't see them type of moves available to them right now.
As i said before will say again you can wait for as long as you want till you get a true number one defense man in leaf nation your not getting a cup imo. Too me your looking at 4 years to develop said number one. That puts all your 3 off elcs and pushes your depth out. If it means anything i was the same way when la traded for Richard I was all stay the course however it was the move that put us into contenders and knowing now how things worked out i do it 100/100