So the rumour out there from Elliot Friedman, (which should be taken with a grain of salt, although in this case he did do some heavy backpedaling after his first rumour blewup.) is that St Louis offered Pietrangelo for Nylander in a 1 for 1 prior to Nylander signing and TO declined. Dubas apparently felt the contract situation for Pietrangelo wasn't worth giving up the future of Nylander who he feels has a tonne of great hockey ahead of him, opposed to having a tonne of great hockey behind him in Pietrangelo's case. There is currently zero chance of a Nylander for Pietrangelo trade.

Montreal rejects. That is completely opposite of their current gameplan.

C'mon - you're not exactly telling the truth. Friedman did not do anything other than guess which is not reporting. Here's exactly what he said:

"Nick Kypreos shook the masses last weekend, wondering on Headlines if Alex Pietrangelo would be a fit for Toronto. With a few more days to work off it, my guess is this: St. Louis put him in William Nylander discussions, but the Maple Leafs decided to keep the winger. I see two reasons. First, Nylander is six years younger. Second, they might not be able to fit Pietrangelo’s extension (he’s eligible in July) and would prefer someone with term in that particular trade. It doesn’t mean they can’t/won’t re-consider him in the future."

Do you see that part where he says "my guess is this:" that means he's making **** up as he goes along.

That does follow with his recent reporting style. Just speculation and non sense but reading between the lines there. He did put some feelers out and must have heard enough to get the understanding that TO was the side that didn't want the deal.

Nylander is 2 years away from hitting his prime (Age 24 season), he has his entire prime ahead of him. Pietrangelo hit his prime 3 years ago and is in the back slide of it. That is enough to make the trade not happen. Nylander, as long as he keeps progressing (his struggles so far are more to do with getting up to speed from missing the first quarter of the season than anything else), will be worth more than Pietrangelo in the very near future and has about 8-10 years of being a top end forward ahead of him. Pietrangelo could start declining at any time but will likely be a high value defender for at most 4 more years. And his next contract will be a nightmare, a 30 year who will want over 7 million a year is a terrible signing.