The only way out is Marner resigned under $13M, Nylander traded. Rielly moved. That way the assets stay in line and the return for Nylander and Rielly are other NHL players and picks. Another top 4 RHD so OEL can play his natural Left side. Tavares to the 3rd line on the cheap and another centre with tenacity on line 2. Toews on PTO?. McMann and Robertson need a new home. Bye to Jarnkrok, Kampf, Reaves & Holmberg. We have 5 good Defensemen and 2 Good Goaltenders. A very good top line. Work it out and remake this roster with grit and hustle. -Prince
Just like anything else, it’s not the “only” way out to trade Nylander. Yes, they’re better off keeping Marner but that doesn’t mean it comes at the cost of Nylander.
Tavares is garbage on any line. His offense does not help you win more playoff games than his defense loses. He can not play a 3rd line, which should be designed to shutdown the opponents.
This is ideal scenario. I am definitely prefer to have Marner over Nylander, but since they have no assets for trades, they need money, as match as possible,
to bring decent pieces to fill the holes in the roster. -alex.TML
I wouldn’t call that the ideal scenario. The Leafs currently have 3 elite offensive weapons that are usually among the league leaders in goals, assists and points. They need to keep those 3 players.
What they need is to give those players more help at the cost of getting rid of the older, shittier players who don’t help enough.
That means Tavares, Rielly, Kampf, Jarnkrok, McMann, Robertson…these are the players that need to go away.
The players that need to come in should be complimentary. Knies, compliments Matthews and Marner well. That line was equal to the Barkov line. We did not lose because of Marner, Matthews and Knies. In fact, those 3 guys scored the GWGs in the 3 games they won against the Panthers. If the goal is to beat the Panthers, why the fuck would anybody even dream of getting rid of the guys who were directly responsible for winning those games? It’s a fools logic to blame a player for not winning even more games than they did when there are 10 other guys who contributed nothing at all.
Nylander’s line, however, sucked. Nylander can’t play defense. At all. But neither can Tavares or McMann. This is where you keep the guy with 45 goals and give him a two-way 2nd line center and a hardnosed LW to balance out Nylander’s weaknesses. In that scenario, you win the match-ups instead of hoping you win the offensive battle of a 6-5 game.
When the Leafs first signed Tavares, it made the most sense to trade Nylander. 7 years later, it now makes more sense to get rid of Tavares. It’s just the nature of how players age. The Leafs can afford to have one defensively irresponsible player like Nylander but they can’t afford to have another in Tavares too, no matter how “discounted” he may seem.
Same goes for Rielly. The Leafs need a situationally offensive D, especially for the PP. But they can’t have Rielly at 7.5, who doesn’t play the PP at all and is a nightmare defensively. Would rather have two guys at 4 AAV each, one LHD and one RHD. One for the PP and the other for the PK.
Knies | Matthews | Marner
R. Smith | Jenner | Nylander
Domi | McBain | B. Tanev
Laughton | Blueger | Lorentz
Comtois (or Pacioretty if he doesn’t retire)
OEL | Tanev
McCabe | T. Myers
Dumoulin | Carlo
Burns (if he doesn’t retire, maybe a 1 year deal if he’s a hometown guy because he’s from Barrie)
Woll | Stolarz
That’s the more ideal scenario.