Realistic Trade

Leafs absolutely do this and are cup bound afterwards.

Leaf’s defence woukd still be to offensive and soft.
Reilly/ klingberg/Dobson don’t hit and aren’t the greatest defensively Dobson and klingberg are terrible.
McCabe is solid but he can’t carry the whole top 4.

Gio can play physical but his age is limiting how much damage he can take these days.

Brodie is very solid but again him and McCabe aren’t pelech and Slavin

Dobson just turned 23 last year and is going to end up being a #1D. You can trade Brodie and pair each of those 3 with a defensive minded D. Dobson and Klingberg may not be the most physical but they're big and mobile, which is better than we can say for Lily and Brodie at this point. I agree we need to add physicality, but ideally each pair has a balance between a physical defensive D and an offensive puck mover.

Also, not sure when this D core was ever too offensive... we've been severely lacking offense from the backend for awhile. If you look at the roster I followed this up with I had Middleton-Dobson, Rielly-Peeke and McCabe-Klingberg. I value physicality as well as you and respect where you're coming from.

There is no chance the isles trade Dobson for a winger and adding a 2nd on top of it

Because they need another offensive defenceman? Haven't you been super critical of Klingberg? Dobson isn't needed.