One final note. Toronto tied another team for 8th best record last year (45-26-7=105 pts). The Maple Leafs scored more goals and gave up fewer goals than that team. Wanna guess which team that was?

Chicago: Keith, Seabrook
Los Angeles: Doughty, Muzzin
Pittsburgh: Letang, Schultz
Boston: Chara, Boychuk
Detroit: Lidstrom, Kronwall
Anaheim: Neidermayer, Pronger

On our hand, Rielly can be our #2, but without a #1 D man there isn’t much to win the Stanley Cup. The last decade+ teams have had two elite defenceman to carry them to the cup. 5 of those defenceman are HOF or franchise talents in my list.

The Captals who would eventually win the Stanley cup. However, Ovechkin was dangerously overdue for the Cup and wasn’t human for those playoffs. Most players, aka. DSP, Conolly would score and play better than they ever did in the regular season.

I never understand these ratings of # 1 or # 2 etc, and I don't think hockey fans that use these phoney number systems know if they have any meaning either.
Your best Dmen....forget the silly number play about 22 minutes a game... some PP time, some PK time. Your second group of Dmen might play the same number of minutes. It's the "worse" Dmen, they still play 14 minus a game, often on 5 on 5. It's getting those guys playing well that makes a team successful.
I fail to see the logic if the Leafs got a better Dmen than Reilly, and let's say he replaced Zaitsev, the Leafs would still have Carrick and Borgman or whoever as the worse Dmen,
So the Leafs get this magical Dman better than Reilly, what would be the cost....a top tier forward. Looks like just a lateral trade to me, which doesn't really improve the team.

I don't mind if the Leafs made a trade for a better Dman, but it's going to cost at another position. Having this magic man doesn't guarantee success especially if your bottom two or three Dmen aren't NHL good to hold their own.

Ehm.. Leafs defence last year with Zaitsev having worst season possible and Polak in the lineup was 10th best in season in goals against. We dont have Polak now, Zaitsev is going to rebound, Gardiner is in contract year (he would play insanely well.. moneey..), Ozhiganov seems like a decent addition and we dont have defensive liabilities in the group of forwards like we did last year in JVR and Bozak

It’s also dependent on the stunning play by Freddy Anderson. He looked inhumane many times in the season and playoffs

Players sometimes get traded once and then traded again later that day or whatever ... maybe in-season he will struggle and get traded, who knows? But the Flames didn't bring him in to trade him. I'm saying he's no longer available. For example, do you think ROR is still available? Do you think Skinner is still available?

I think that the only reason that Skinner is "unavailable" is that he has that NTC that handcuffed Waddell. If my Ducks woke up and offered Buffalo a first for him, and Skinner agreed, Buffalo would re-trade him in a flash. (And don't start with the over-the-cap noise. Anaheim can always put Eaves on LTIR.)

Anaheim won't want to put Eaves on LTIR. He may be able to come back, it looks like he will be, and you can only put players who can't play on LTIR, you can't put an un-injured, healthy player on LTIR. And of course, if Calgary got an unbelievable offer for Hanifin, they might take it, but players usually don't get traded twice in the same offseason. They did not bring him in just to trade him.

It's not clear to me that Eaves really can play, no matter what you hear in the hockey news (the media, not the publication). I hope I'm wrong. And you're absolutely right about Hanifin. And I STILL don't understand why Skinner isn't in Southern California.

Interesting how Mcillerney a career backup had a 2.15 GAA and .934 Save % in eighteen games. Better than Freddies.

for the right trade absolutely every one of those guys is available. if the flames could trade Hanifin plus more for 8 years of karlsson don't you think they would. no player is untouchable