I think Leafs are more concentrated on getting Ethan Bear in that trade than Benning. Cheaper and imo better fitting. Bear, 5th and Maksimov/Marody makes sense.

The asking price for Zaitsev is crazy, no way the Leafs are getting that

Likely will. Locked up RD 27 years old. Owed less than cap hit because of bonuses. If he were UFA someone would face him that deal

There's a reason Leaf fans has been suggesting Zaitsev trades hundreds of times over the last few months. I'd like I see some humility and reaslism. There's no way Toronto wins a trade heavily with him.

Virtually all Zaitsev trades posted on this site make no sense. Zaitsev is OK value at 4.5m. Leafs have no replacement for him so it's not like the Leafs should have to giving sweeteners to trade him. And other teams really don't want Zaitsev's five year term. Then we have this unrealistic bias that all (besides Reilly) Leaf defencemen are bad.
My opinion on a Zaitsev, especially since he wants out, Leafs trade him for a seventh rounder. Leafs want cap space and then can use at least part of that 4.5m cleared to get another Dman. The other team gets an NHL Dman at fair contract value and hope he maintains that value for five years.

On the Marleau trade, Kings don't have the cap for Marleau. Unless there was an unwritten side deal with the Muzzin trade, can't see the Kings wanting Marleau.

Benning is 25, a RFA, cost 2.6 mill less, and is a better defenseman.

Some dumb fk Oilers fans are down on Benning for reasons I can’t understand. But I suspect it’s the same idiots that wanted Petry and Schultz gone before they even hit 300 games in the NHL too.

Sorry Jangle, accidentally quoted you there

I think Benning has quiet offense. It's actually quite good 5v5 p/60. His possession and scoring for and against aren't bad. He has no particular skill or role to play, and he isn't playing as much elite competition. For what he's getting paid compared to his play though, that good value for a 6th D

Although in limited minutes, Benning had the best numbers against elite competition last season. If anything happens with him it won’t/shouldn’t be this year. He’s pretty much the perfect stop gap until Bouchard and Bear/Persson are ripe and ready.

I think you'd be surprised. During the first couple days I tracked other team's proposals and there were some interesting offers, and that was before the ask was known and some ofthe additional rumors spread around.

To me that's crazy. I've looked into his stats extensively for this purpose and I don't see it. I see a 5th defensemen getting paid like a 3rd with 1-2D term. You want to trade him for Benning who is a 5th D getting paid like a 5th D with 5D term. And you want them to add a prospect. Doesn't add up

1-2D term is more like 6-8 years I'd say.

He signed 7 years for 4.5 AAV

Yea Yea I know but he has 5 years left