Trade Proposals and Free Agency Thread - 2017 Edition Pt. III

[Legion34]

I wonder if Hjalmarsson will shake loose from pheonix?

 

[SprDaVE]

Becoming more and more obvious the Leafs need a defensive upgrade. The Gardiner and Zaitsev pairing has been awful all year and the bottom pairing is always very sheltered.

I don't think this is something that will magically get better.

 

[SprDaVE]

I wonder if Hjalmarsson will shake loose from pheonix?

Very doubtful. Probably someone they'd like to keep for next season as they try to get out of the basement.

We should have been in the mix to get him from the start. Blows my mind the Leafs weren't even in trade discussions for him.

 

[Trapper]

Very doubtful. Probably someone they'd like to keep for next season as they try to get out of the basement.

We should have been in the mix to get him from the start. Blows my mind the Leafs weren't even in trade discussions for him.

Probably because Chicago wanted a cost effective established young D. We didn't have a Murphy to give up. Our problem is, we don't have enough established players to trade. We need what we have. This is why I say we aren't finished yet. We need to get guys like Kappy/Dermott/Lily in the NHL and have a crop behind them to promote in the event of deals.

 

[ToneDog]

Becoming more and more obvious the Leafs need a defensive upgrade. The Gardiner and Zaitsev pairing has been awful all year and the bottom pairing is always very sheltered.

I don't think this is something that will magically get better.

Agree 100%. Gardiner and Zaitsev have been very disappointing. Borgman, only dman who can hit in open ice, showing promise but loses too many puck battles in our end for my liking. Polak doesn't bring anything to to the dance.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Becoming more and more obvious the Leafs need a defensive upgrade. The Gardiner and Zaitsev pairing has been awful all year and the bottom pairing is always very sheltered.

I don't think this is something that will magically get better.

Only thought was to try to mix it up in the bottom 4.

Gardiner-Carrick (good possession metrics last year)
Borgman-Zaitsev

I find lately Zaitsev is taking too long to make a decision and gets pinned to the boards.

 

[SprDaVE]

Probably because Chicago wanted a cost effective established young D. We didn't have a Murphy to give up. Our problem is, we don't have enough established players to trade. We need what we have. This is why I say we aren't finished yet. We need to get guys like Kappy/Dermott/Lily in the NHL and have a crop behind them to promote in the event of deals.

I don't really care if we didn't up getting him but there was a report/tweet from Friedman? LeBrun? (can't remember) that mentioned the Leafs did not have talks with them about it. I think we easily had the assets to make something happen. Either way, Murphy is an average defenseman and Dauphin wasn't much of a prospect.

Plenty of defenseman moved this past off-season. I've said it countless of times. There was a few more rumoured to be available for the right deal that didn't end up moving as well. But the Leafs chose to keep what they had and re-sign Polak (which I still can't comprehend how stupid it was). Now they refuse to play Carrick, have a bad struggling 2nd pairing that can't handle tough minutes and they have no idea what to do with the bottom pairing. It's a mess outside of Rielly and Haisney playing out of their minds.

This Leafs management team have done plenty of good things since taking over but the way they've handled certain things like their defensive core has been questionable to say the least.

 

[ToneDog]

Only thought was to try to mix it up in the bottom 4.

Gardiner-Carrick (good possession metrics last year)
Borgman-Zaitsev

I find lately Zaitsev is taking too long to make a decision and gets pinned to the boards.

Like your thinking but at this point it might be like shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic. Only hope I hold onto is that they rediscover their games in the playoffs.

 

[SprDaVE]

Only thought was to try to mix it up in the bottom 4.

Gardiner-Carrick (good possession metrics last year)
Borgman-Zaitsev

I find lately Zaitsev is taking too long to make a decision and gets pinned to the boards.

It would be a start... but this means having to get Babcock to admit Polak hasn't been good. Don't forget, players feel "safe" with him on the ice... so it's better to struggle than to have good players actually play.

 

[BlueForever75]

Carrick should be in the lineup if the standard of D the Leafs have been playing without him is suffice in Babcock's eyes. Carrick adds more to D then Polak ever will. Polak should be nothing more then a 7th Dman for insurance purposes.

There may be some interest in Mike Green from Detroit by Lamoriello. Personally I think he would be a perfect fit. He can play both the PK and PP, doesn't need to be sheltered on any pair. He would actually lead which ever pairing he is on. A Borgman-Green pairing would be great.

 

[Trapper]

I don't really care if we didn't up getting him but there was a report/tweet from Friedman? LeBrun? (can't remember) that mentioned the Leafs did not have talks with them about it. I think we easily had the assets to make something happen. Either way, Murphy is an average defenseman and Dauphin wasn't much of a prospect.

Plenty of defenseman moved this past off-season. I've said it countless of times. There was a few more rumoured to be available for the right deal that didn't end up moving as well. But the Leafs chose to keep what they had and re-sign Polak (which I still can't comprehend how stupid it was). Now they refuse to play Carrick, have a bad struggling 2nd pairing that can't handle tough minutes and they have no idea what to do with the bottom pairing. It's a mess outside of Rielly and Haisney playing out of their minds.

This Leafs management team have done plenty of good things since taking over but the way they've handled certain things like their defensive core has been questionable to say the least.

Well at some point we will see if you can add UFA handling to that list.
Management has done an excellent job IMO (it's hard to say who or what they are really looking at despite reports) but I will be disappointed if one premium asset leaves for nothing.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Like your thinking but at this point it might be like shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic. Only hope I hold onto is that they rediscover their games in the playoffs.

It would be a start... but this means having to get Babcock to admit Polak hasn't been good. Don't forget, players feel "safe" with him on the ice... so it's better to struggle than to have good players actually play.

Yeah...I have no answers as to why Carrick is out because of Polak outside of maybe PK time, Polak is useless at 5v5 and looks too slow.

 

[thewave]

So bored, please trade Bozak. Thanks

 

[pspot]

if they didn't have so many forwards i'd be interested in seeing Carrick as a winger

 

[Gary Nylund]

So bored, please trade JVR. Thanks

FYP.

 

[thewave]

FYP.

They can trade JVR as well, I am ok with that but he is playing quite well. On the bright-side he probably has massive value.

 

[Trapper]

FYP.

So bored. Please trade UFAs.

Finalized the post. LOL.

 

[Legion34]

I’m ok with JVR at under 5.5. (Hopefully closer to 5). In an 80 million dollar cap.

I still think we could trade him. But it sounds that’s not happening. Bozak and komorov have played themselves off the team. Of course if willy shifts to C we need another winger for Matts we just have 2 many wingers but we don’t have really what JVR can do long term anywhere in the system

 

[Trapper]

I’m ok with JVR at under 5.5. (Hopefully closer to 5). In an 80 million dollar cap.

I still think we could trade him. But it sounds that’s not happening. Bozak and komorov have played themselves off the team. Of course if willy shifts to C we need another winger for Matts we just have 2 many wingers but we don’t have really what JVR can do long term anywhere in the system

As the season goes by, I start to get the feeling that JVR will be re-signed. Perhaps management was waiting to see how Nylander and Marner faired in year 2 to determine salaries going forward. If they feel they get these guys for a certain number, then JVR might be retained. I would say Bozak is on his way out. Hard to say about Leo though. It depends on how Babcock sees the situation.

 

[Legion34]

As the season goes by, I start to get the feeling that JVR will be re-signed. Perhaps management was waiting to see how Nylander and Marner faired in year 2 to determine salaries going forward. If they feel they get these guys for a certain number, then JVR might be retained. I would say Bozak is on his way out. Hard to say about Leo though. It depends on how Babcock sees the situation.

Agreed but we have to start getting young blood in to the lines anyway so we can’t keep them all. Problem is that we need to keep center depth and all of our youth are wingers. Bozak and Leo need to go. If we keep JVR i would like to see

Marleau. Matthews. Marner
Jvr. Nylander. Brown
Hyman. Kadri. Kapanen
Martin. Xxxxxxx. Xxxxxxx

Whether that be gauthier/leiv0/Aaltonen. Etc

If willy stays a winger. We need 2 centers.

Hyman. Mattthews. Nylander
Jvr. Xxxxxxxx. Marner
Marleau. Kadri. Brown
Martin. Xxxxxx. Kapanen.

We have so much youth. Have to get it in or trade some.

 

[Kiwi]

Yeah...I have no answers as to why Carrick is out because of Polak outside of maybe PK time, Polak is useless at 5v5 and looks too slow.

It's hard to help the PK if your the big plug taking penalties

 

[Dog]

We been starving for a trade.. Feed the hunger this team could use new injection of defensive player.

 

[SprDaVE]

Columbus just lost Dubinsky for 6-8 weeks and they've been on the market for a forward/center for awhile.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Columbus just lost Dubinsky for 6-8 weeks and they've been on the market for a forward/center for awhile.

Pretty much Jack Johnson for Tyler Bozak is the only thing that works...and Babcock needs to be willing to put Nylander at centre.

 

[hockeywiz542]

For all the questions and speculation about his status, there is a noticeable peace surrounding James van Riemsdyk in the final year of his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In some ways, it has been easy for ‘JVR’ to stay Zen because the belief is there has been little meaningful dialogue in terms of contract talks so far.

“It’s been pretty quiet,” van Riemsdyk said Tuesday.

There is mutual interest in an extension to stay, but given the Leafs’ impending cap crunch and van Riemsdyk’s soaring contract season, there’s almost an unspoken understanding that this may come to an inevitable conclusion on July 1.

In the meantime, the other part of that understanding is that van Riemsdyk likely isn’t going anywhere.

The Maple Leafs believe they have a shot at the Stanley Cup this season - the targeting of both Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton is proof enough – and van Riemsdyk may well be their in-house trade deadline rental, their “own rental” as coined by former Toronto GM Dave Nonis.

That is, of course, unless something changes - like the Leafs determining JVR’s goals will be too difficult to replace. It just seems like neither side is holding their breath. In a salary-cap world, everyone can see the writing on the wall, which is why there is little frustration and no false pretenses here.

“At this point, I’m just playing it out,” van Riemsdyk said. “I’m just trying to focus on that. The better you play the more options you open up for yourself.”