When and IF Nylander and Leafs reach an agreement, with Matthews healthy, this will be the first time in the 2018-19 season that the Leafs are icing a full unit. Can't we just leave it that way for one second before worrying about cap implications for the future. The salary cap bug aint gonna hurt us this year - there's nothing to fear.

Oh and ps. Connor Murphy is a worse player than Zaitsev, yet you deal him, a great prospect and a 3rd, no less, for this unruly and oft-injured Murphy character.

This is all actually reasonable

In what universe is Connor Murphy worth more than at the very most a 2nd round pick? Liljegren is a 1st rounder from 2 seasons ago who was supposed to be a top 2 pick until Mono derailed his draft year. Now before you mention Zaitsev being a cap dump, someone would take him for a lot less than this. Player for player Murphy isn't better than Zaitsev, they are both 2nd or 3rd pair defenceman.

Let’s be honest, most leaf acgms are ridiculous. This is at least someone willing to pay reasonable prices. Murphy isn’t the right target, but I’m also not sold that liljigren is a blue chip prospect. I think he and Zaitsev could be the start of a package to get a reliable d man

zaitsev was touted as a fantastic passer from the KHL and the leafs haven't seen any glimpse of that since coming over. zaitsevs contract is one of the worst in hockey, you have to stack value and retain salary in order to move a contract like that. also, chicago already is a disaster on defence, so giving them a young d prospect in lillegren, with boqvist already in their system, they can start building for the future post duncan and seabrook, also zaitszev gives the blackhawks options to experiment with their d. the leafs on the other hand, get to utilize justin holl, who can actually move the puck effectively, have calle rosen and/or rasmus sandin (who i think is better than liljegren, now) in the system ready for next years team, connor murphy back from injury, who is a former first round pick.

Why do you think he's a bust? I haven't seen a lot of him this season (I don't catch near enough AHL games), but his stats are coming on and from what I've read he's pretty close to the top right handed guy on the Marlies and he's still under 20 which is impressive. Zaitsev has been reliable this year, definitely far from spectacular but he's been very good in his own end. Which is impressive considering his partner several times a game gets caught watching the puck. Gardiner is not good in his own zone at all.

kind of seems like TO is giving a lot to Chicago and not getting much back in return. Liljegren is the Leafs top prospect currently, I'd want way more in return than Murphy who is just an average middle paid defenceman. Those are not hard to obtain and really are a low risk high reward type of addition. I am not against moving Zaitsev but there are definitely teams who'd be willing to take his contract on for way less than this package.

thats fair. think my reasoning behind murphy, is really more or less getting justin holl into the lineup. i like how zaitzsev can play in his own end, and he has been reliable this year for that, but we both know how much babs loves puck moving defensemen who are right handed. so having said that, having justin holl in the lineup along side another puck moving defensemen in ron haisney, gives us a bit more skill on the back-end. i will admit, its tough trying to trade this contract and get the value right. safe to say an nhl gm job is nowhere in my future lol

I'd say its a safe bet that no one posting on here has a good chance of ever being an NHL gm. I think if Zaitsev needs to be traded, it'll be to a bottom dwelling team that'll send a B prospect and a 3rd rounder for Zaitsev. It won't be a good trade because Zaitsev will hold more value than the package coming back but since the Leafs want to move him only for cap space, they'll have to take a loss to gain the space which isn't the worst thing. Really of all the "bad" contracts out there, 4.5 million for an average right handed defenceman isn't at all an albatross.

Dreadful trades for the Leafs. The Leafs have no cap issues this year. Leafs aren't trading good (and cheap) prospect. for 3rd pairing Dman. Don't know why so many think the Leafs have bad Dmen, and other teams bottom end Dmen are so much that than the Leafs.(3rd in GAA)

Who said he’s a bust?

Sorry why are you not sold on him? I used the wrong tone, I did not mean to sound defensive. I am just curious to how you formed your opinion, I like hearing from other People's perspective.

It’s more what he hasn’t done than what he has. I think he’s a nice prospect. I think he has great tools but I’m not really sure yet that he has the decision making to be high end in the nhl. He certainly could be awesome, but the ahl is full of high picks that had good tools that just couldn’t really figure it out in the nhl, so I’m just not putting him in the blue chip category. Before Urho vaakainanen played a bit and looked good in the nhl I would have had them in the identical category

Why would you trade all of that for Connor Murphy? He's barely worth his contract at nearly 4m for a #4. That seems like terrible use of value, but as a fan of a different team in the Atlantic Division I like it.