Quote:
Originally Posted by stemit14
My own attempt at some crazy Marner trades that Treliving might try… keeping in mind he likes his “proven playoff performers”.
Trade option 1:
To Washington: Mitch Marner
To Toronto: Tom Wilson + 2024 1st round pick
Toronto keeps trying to get tougher and gets a guy that has performed in the playoffs before. This will of course not work for the leafs but Treliving would give anything to get tougher. This is essentially the Simmons and Clarkson moves all over again for the leafs. The leafs also get cap relief in this deal but he is signed for 7 seasons after this one (Yikes). Washington gets out of the Tom Wilson contract early and gets Ovechkin his playmaker to get his goal scoring record across the line next season. I added a pick going to Toronto because they are taking on such a long term contract.
Trade option 2:
To Pittsburgh: Mitch Marner
To Toronto: Eric Karlsson + 2025 conditional 1st round pick (becomes a 2nd if Pittsburgh misses the playoffs)
Pittsburgh gets a top six winger for Crosby, Letang and Malkin to keep trying with the old guard. Toronto gets an offensive defenceman to QB their powerplay. Problem for the leafs is that this does not solve the problem of having too much money tied up in too few players since Karlsson’s cap hit is roughly $10 million for 3 more years. Leafs likely bank on him LTIR-retiring after 2 years though. I added the pick going to the leafs because of the term left on the contract and because I think Marner is a more valuable player at this point.
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I think that first one hits Treliving's type of deal, but Karlsson has one of the most terrible contract's in the league that I think would be mostly unmovable. To deal away a talent like Marner for the back end of Karlsson's contract, I just can't see happening because there's too much chance it'll blow up in Trelivings face. I think they're missing a more assertive dirty skilled scorer on the front end. Too many guys similar who are not willing to get hands dirty. Matthews is a problem despite the 69 goals, as crazy as that seems. He gets paid so much he should play with more aggression when needed. Anyway, their team needs a bit more than than the above - defence needs more at the top, as well as goaltending. So there are a lot of patches to fill but they're slaves to their cap structure.
At the end of the day I don't know how they could have walked away from Matthews' talent but the second you have that high a percentage of the cap tied up in one guy, you have to have that guy do everything when needed, and lead by example of what's needed to be successful in the playoffs. As an identity they don't have those guys they're paying at the top, being assertive enough. You need a super guy who is assertive, speedy, and who can score. Those guys are hard to find. Treliving has looked to address that with Bertuzzi and Domi, but Bertuzzi hasn't been consistent enough and they'll walk away from him, and Domi is good as the third liner, but you need that first line talent to do the same role as Domi.