Evocable Manager
Registered User
Our LHD really aren't that great. Dunn is young and his offensive game is there but Yeo did a poor job with his development so he does have some defensive gaffes. Edmundson is overrated among Blues fans and is best suited for a bottom pair role. Bouwmeester and Gunnarsson both suck.Well if you have 2, and need scoring and get a good haul then you still have 1, and the rest of your D is good, however this yr for whatever reason it's the entire teams D that's the problem. To me team D is a bigger part than just position players.
2 reasons the leafs are top 3 in the NhL. Mostly scoring, and Andy has been stellar, but for a team that could use top 4 maybe top 2 RHD our actual defense position players haven't been horrible. Last night when we got killed the whole team stunk real bad in both zones. That's typically a bigger deal than on pure position.
That's why both Parayko and Pietrangelo are a huge need. They carry our core on their backs. So justifying any trade involving them has to be a pretty substantial overpayment.
The biggest issue is coaching. Our coaching staff has been in shambles ever since Hitch left and Armstrong waited too long before making a change. Implement a proper coaching staff and this same exact group is instantly a lot better.
Our team can't afford to sacrifice defense for offense because Allen and Johnson are both horrible. We don't have Vezina level goaltending a la Toronto. Too add on, our forward core is deep but the high end talent isn't there. O'Reilly would be your third best forward and he's our best. Tarasenko is also in a similar level. Schwartz is great but not a game breaker, Schenn is meh and then it falls off a cliff.
If the team decides to try a new direction and move away from some of our key guys, banking on Thomas, Kyrou, Bokk and other younger players to lead the team going forward then maybe Armstrong is looking to move Pietrangelo. I highly doubt O'Reilly is going anywhere, I fear Tarasenko (stupidly) might and I highly doubt Parayko will.
Trading Pietrangelo for Zaitsev, who sucks and is an albatross of a contract and a few decent prospects is not gonna happen. If that's the Leafs best offer, they'd be out bid. At the very least we could get the late first and prospects without taking on a bad deal.
I could see a Petro + Schenn deal that has similar framework (although both Schenn and Pietrangelo are better) to the McDonagh + Miller trade. Although I'd expect because of the difference in ability that the prospects are of higher caliber than Howden and Hajek and the roster player can add more then Namestnkinov.