I'd do it considering the return. You don't trade someone who is productive at a loss. Phaneuf moved for nothing is going to be a lot of fans upset when he rebounds over there.
That's what Leafs do well. We horribly manage assets and watch ex-Leafs do better elsewhere. I definitely don't want to see that again.
By what metric? Dion had the toughest minutes and was stronger possession driver than Gunnars as well. Problem is, Carlyle had Dion play like a PMD which he is not. Gunnarsson didn't add much in terms of making use of the puck especially considering that we were living in the defensive zone.
Now don't get me wrong, Gunnarsson could be part of a shut down pairing even though he isn't as adept at moving the puck as Hjalmarsson. What would really be required is a potent two-way top line that can tie up the opposing top lines. In Chicago's case, that is the Toews line. Prior to that, you had Bolland paired with Kane, and that's obviously going to help with possession numbers. It'd be more of a puck moving type of "shut down" pairing rather than the physical, shut down variety that we tend to see.
trade lupul, reimer, franson, phaneuf, kessel(bozak if needed) for the highest pick/prospects offered. We need to build an infrastructure, u see teams do this all the time, build a young infrastructure with top picks (chicago-toews, kane) and then build around them. The leafs got phaneuf and kessel when they were in early-mid 20's. Neither of them warranted the huge contract extensions given to them except for the fact that they are our core players. They havn't won anything, thats the gift of drafting players, you have multiple years to figure out if u have a winner or not then u can trade them for a lateral move (jvr-->schenn)
we should have 3x 2nd rounders for bolland, kulimen, raymond in this draft as well... more picks gives us better chance at finding a hidden gem as well as more assets, instead we are going to lose these players for free (or sign them long-term and want to buy them out aka grabo who we could have had a 1st for, kulimen who were about to lose for nothing (1st round was offered) and mcarthur who was offered a conditional 1st.
"derp derp derp we need playoffs" mentality kills this franchise, please wake up.
edit: they keep saying "we have the young team blah blah blah" well thats because we dont have any veterans on this team. If we added a 35 year old 3rd liner our lineup gets way older. Our core is 25+ (kessel,phaneuf, bernier)
trade everyone thats 24+ (not jvr unless offered the moon or Bernier) and build around the prospects we have as well as the picks we can accumulate over the next 3 years. Leivo, Biggs, Gauthier, Percy, Finn, Granberg is a good start, but there isn't any blue chippers. Gardiner Kadri Rielly JVR Bernier are all on this team, who have shown they can compete and are younger, trade them for more picks (unless they are proven winners) when they are about to get to UFA. We dont have the depth in the minors to be sustainable, and with nonis throwing around 2nds like there candy doesn't help either.
its proven that UFA's who are big tickets turn out 1/10 of the time (richards, Connolly, Komisarek, Clarkson<--surprised leaf fans still want to sign players on July 1) the better ufas are like mcarthur, or raymond which u find in late August which we could use to unload at the TDL for 2nd round picks + thats what we need, to sign 3 mcarthurs unload them at the TDL and let our prospects gain the experience in the NHL after the TDL and go back down to the marlies for a playoff run, our rebuild is flawed starting with building from the wings out.
Our team needs a #1 C but a #1 winger isn't as important, but they are both necessary to win. If we had a top line with a toews calibre player (bennett?) then bozak-kessel line the 2nd unit (similar to Chicago) then we are laughing, we dont have this and thats why we should rebuild and bring in top end talent which can only be acquired through the draft,
Tim Liewikie watched Dean Lombardi load up on picks/prospects when he first started in LA, they won a cup... but nope "derp derp derp we need playoffs" mentality and getting 9th place in the east is the worst thing any franchise can do (unless ur core is all under 22 and ur learning/growing aka oilers this year)
