hard no from Toronto. Also if I were you, I'd ask for younger, cheaper assets for Zucker. He can get a pretty good haul that way. Ristolainen is pretty overrated, I wouldn't even consider him if I were you

Interesting, a lot of Leafs fans liked this trade when I posted it earlier, despite the fact the Leafs most likely aren't moving Nylander. The general sentiment was that the Leafs are losing a big piece in Nylander, but Spurgeon would be a massive upgrade on their blue line and Greenway is an incredibly unique talent that projects to be among the best power forwards in the league in the next few years. Leafs are looking for a power forward LW and a RD, and they get exactly that in this trade.

As for Zucker, I do agree, but if we decide to trade Spurgeon we will need a 2nd pairing RD. Risto is not a good 1RD, but from the 5-10 Buffalo games I've watched this season I think he'd be a good 2nd pairing guy, especially with a defensive-oriented partner like Brodin.

Hard no from Buffalo. Despite everyone crying about it, Risto should not be moved, hes finally got a d core around him. Also im not a huge fan of Zucker

That's all completely fair. Montour should take some pressure off of Risto and maybe he thrives under less of the spotlight.

Can you explain to me why you think this? He's an above average power play player. Gets killed at five on five every night. Would need to be sheltered heavily to be an advantage to the team. For the assets you could get back for him, he needs to be moved.

Risto isnt over rated, anyone who thinks that is a clown. Hes been hung out to dry most of his career. Nobody was complaing a couple seasons ago when everything was going right. Hes started his career off on a couple of tank teams and a failed rebuild. He usually has one of the most TOI in the league and has some of the highest shift averages while having some of the worst team mates around him. You look at the last 2 games where hes with Dahlin on man advantage situations, Dahlin falls over and coughs up the puck both nights, ends up a goal and people blame Risto. Not to mention when Rodrigues fumbles the puck to the other teams stick in front of the Sabres net. He finally has D men to supplement him and he wont need to do everything, Dahlin will only get better, Montour/Bogo is an improvement over Nelson, McCabe is one of the more under rated D men in the league. Once the forwards start pulling their weight and they can get possitive possession numbers from their bottom 3 lines, teams will be envious of this top 4. If they trade him for a middle 6 forward that would be super disappointing, he has more value to Buffalo than that. RHD are a premium.

I never said he was overrated, I've always felt he's a great 2nd pairing guy after watching quite a few Buffalo games over the past few seasons (Eichel is one of my favorite non-Wild players). I'm not convinced he's a top pairing NHL'er but he's a solid #3-4 RD. I also think you're underselling Zucker, he's a top 6 forward that has been incredibly snake bitten this year. He has great advanced stats this year and gets tons of scoring opportunities but there's always something small that causes him to not put the puck in the net (usually a great play by a goaltender, a great play by a defenseman, or he hits the post).

This is kinda an overarching response to everyone

& a lot of Leafs fans are dumb. Most of them jumped on Nylander cause he started off slow after missing training camp and 2 months of the season. Now look at him.. he's absolutely tearing it up. I don't think Spurgeon is the guy that would have to come back from Minnesota. Yes he's an upgrade, but he's older and on a shorter term contract. He doesn't fit the age group. Greenway would be a nice piece but it's been pretty clear that Dubas goes more for skill than size and won't care that he's a power forward. You mentioned that he projects as a really good power forward, well Nylander projects as an elite scorer with skil and Dubas is more in favour of that as he should be. If Minnesota wants Nylander, the price is going to be Dumba. He fits the age group and still has the skill and skating on the back end. That'll be the target from the Leafs.

That being said, I doubt Minnesota wants to trade Dumba which is why Toronto has been reported as scouting other teams heavily. Carolina and Anaheim were looked at harder, and to a lesser extent Edmonton was looked at for Larsson. If Nylander happens to get traded (I highly doubt he does) it'll be for one of the other guys

Swap out Pateryn for Brodin and add a 2nd. Buffalo adds Tage Thompson