Big Buff? Big Trade!

[devo22]

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the New Jersey Devils finally came to an agreement for a deal that effectively took 39 PMs and 6 days to complete:

To Toronto:
C Paul Gaustad
LW Ryan Johansen
D Mattias Ohlund
C Freddie Hamilton (ECHL)
2013 4th round pick

To New Jersey:
C Mark Letestu
D Cam Fowler
D Dustin Byfuglien
RW Bryan Bickell
RW Henrik Samuelsson (ECHL)
2013 5th round pick

So Toronto gets a small upgrade in the middle (Gaustad is 63, Letestu is 61) while taking a downgrade on the blueline (Ohlund is 66, Byfuglien is 71). Johansen and Fowler both have huge potential, but in my book, Johansen has more upside.

At the end of the day, Byfuglien didn't seem to work in Toronto ... both in the preseason and the first "real" games, I wasn't really convinced he was up for the task. I was never really happy with the Samuelsson pick, as I actually tried to trade up in the draft to get into the first round. He was the BPA in my book at the position I drafted him, but it wasn't a pick I was particularly exstatic about, which was why I offered him several times. I like Hamilton though ... while not as talented as his younger brother, he was a great scorer in the OHL and he might become very valuable in the future. I am extremely excited to add Johansen to my team, I think he'll be a stud in a couple years. He is listed as C/RW on many sites, so he'll make a switch ... probably to RW.

Thanks to 3thirty for the talks! Took some time and patience, but I think this deal helps both of us.

[MJK]

A whole lot of nothing for Byf and Fowler...this one ain't close.

[TurdFerguson]

Jeeze, am I missing something here? How does this deal make any sense for the leafs?

[Goffie]

I had to read this one over a few times to see what I'm missing. Is this posted right? Pretty well Fowler and Byff for Johanson.

[TurdFerguson]

Reading this again, this is a damaging deal long-term for a leafs franchise that really needed to string together a couple trade wins to turn things around. Road just got a lot longer.

[Goffie]

Devils get the two best players by a wide margin as well as the best prospect in Samuelsson. This is a hard one to comprehend.

[Forever Flames]

Wow, I feel like I offered much more for Buff a week ago or so.

TOR must have a very sore bum.

[Swayze11]

Yikes, huge win for NJ. Not even close.

[Young Guns]

You guys are overlooking the exchange of draft picks. The Leafs get the better pick in the deal.

[3thirty]

Obviously i am happy with the deal, but I think Johansen will be a stud in the NHL sooner rather than later, and Hamilton has great potential to be a Kessler type 2-way centre.

I am obviouly happy with how the deal worked out, but am not sure it is as one sided as everyone seems to think as long term this could be great for T.O. too.

[Caged Great]

The Leafs got raped and they didn't really have much to start with. This really damages their organization and it'll take a long long long time to recover from this.

Really, if you just had Byfuglien leaving the leafs, I would've still given it to NJ.