Leafs need a guy who can play top 6C min in return

Aka keller

Montreal would won’t take stepsn snd is contract

Dvorak was Marner's OHL linemate.

Aka Dvorak

2 years left which is how long we have cap to play with before Danault,Gallagher,Tatar,Petry ,Poehling , Kotkanemi , Lehkonen , And Armia need contracts in 2022 just as Stepans would end .
its the same reason we took Weise back and the Mason contract on , to get paid .

that being said this trade is naive to think we'd pay to get him .
if they were offering Connor Garland or Christian Fischer with Stepan for Lehkonen then i'd do it .
trade a playmaking defensive shut down winger for a goal scoring player at a similar point in their development .


but again only if we're getting paid for it does it work for MTL
we dont need Stepan as he'd be our 4th Center helping Danault with Bulk Faceoffs so Poehling and Kotkanemi didnt have to take 1250+ faceoffs each to help Danault who handled 1800/5000 by himself last year being double and triple shifted until Thompson showed up and helped take some of the pressure off . Stepan wouldnt be coming here to play top 6 or even 3rd line but for 4th line and top PK duties primarily .

Yes they would, they have no true centers, Stepan is a fine center

Good joke

No true center?? Danault kasperi kotkaniemi max domi add been great last year so yes there no need for stepan simce we got
Suzuki and poehling goiing to battle for s’ot on roster. Stepan isn’t a true 1st center he never add over 60point.

Yeah that was my point! Montreal
Isn’t trading for stepan but if they trading with arizona to take stepan contract that could work but arizona would have to gave us fischer. Stepan isnt a upgrade on actual centerline in Montreal. He could help but i rather play the young kids giving them ice time

we have Danault who's finished on a career high at 25 of 9th in faceoffs taken in the NHL and 7th in faceoffs won .

to say we have no true Centers then say Stepan who didnt finish top 100 in any faceoff catagory is better tells me your about 2 years out of date with current events .

this is 2019 sir , please join us

agreed he'd be our worst Top 6 option straight out the gate but there is a lot to be said about what he could provide on 4th line as he'd be one of basically 3 Centers in the NHL who play 4th line primarily and can take over 1000+ faceoffs . sure we already have Thompson who can take almost 1000 so there is no incentive for us to trade currently without a Fischer in return . (Stepan's an upgrade as a player on Thompson but not as a Faceoff Center , we'd actually be downgrading in Win % to get 300-400 more draws a year off 2nd and 3rd helping KK and RP grow more naturally )

We should also look at Connor Brown in OTT as being a top 6 potential player pigeon hold under new management into a bottom 6 role as the change in the system effected them both negatively as it did Domi leading to his trade . Brown isnt going to be used any different in OTT after being acquired in the Yard Sale they call the Ceci-Zaitsev trade . if we had Brown and Fischer we'd have enough support on offense long term to grow with them that letting the kids play would be our new motto injecting 1-2 forward prospects each year like we will with Poehling/Suzuki this year .

long term this means we can have Brown,Fischer, Drouin , Domi and Gallagher long term for 25-30m allowing the Poehlings, Kotkanemi's,Suzuki's , Caufields, Ylonen's , Ikonen's, Olofsson's and Evans to grow in around them in our offensive core giving us only 1 player over 30 on our offensive crew by 2022-23 in Brendan Gallagher . (Stepans deal would just be ending ). We could move out Danault for a Profit after getting paid to take him and Romanov for Weise the return would add to the best trade MB has made as GM . Tatar could land us more in the Pacioretty return giving us Suzuki,Norlinder ,Legurerrier plus whatever Tatar lands giving MB another high return in a trade. While Petry , Armia ,Lehkonen , Kulak and Lindgren can be moved for whatever holes MTL feels we lack in AHL/Depth prospects and picks .

Also Domi's first year as Center destroyed Stepans last year as Center
Stepan has him slightly beat on Win % but Domi doubled his offensive production so what 3%


Stepan was a True Center for NYR though and after he left the team fell appart .
Stepan just needs a coach like Alain Vigneault or Claude Julien who plays a 4 line system never requiring the Center to play 18-19 minutes unless he can .
ARZ was a horrible fit for him at his age but NYR suffered the worse of the 2 fate's as since he left the team he and Callahan lead through years of being a contender died .
Stepan's a Corey Stillman type as he's never the top 3 forward on any team skill wise but he made all those around him better .

dont get me wrong who Stepan was vs who he is now is a big difference in skill
but at his age given he was never a strong faceoff player or speedy forward he could be a top bottom 6 Center like Vermette was for years and years or Matt Cullen