Quoting: palhal
Actually talent wise it's pretty fair deal. And the Flyers do get extra controllable years. I've been a supporter of Kerfoot and hate the thought of having him leaving cause in would cause a real hole especially if Tavares or Matthews ever went on LTIR.
Many Leafs fans are enamoured with Clifford. I'm not with his play or the fact it cost the Leafs a second rounder instead of third if he signs with the Leafs.
Strange that so many fans...including Leaf fans are so smitten by other teams RHDs. Myers and Manson seem to be their sweethearts. Interesting that Liljegren is a full two years younger than Myers but so some reason so many think he a bust, despite that his development seems to be as it should be.
Agree with your thinking...Not a fan of Manson, Myers is just a bit further along in his development, and the idea of Liljegren and rasmus both playing as rookies IMO creates a worry. Myers I think is a top 4 RH, whos young and solid, but hes not the next erik karlsson. Stephen Johns is just 27 yrs old, RH, big guy, signed reasonably and those two, aid the development of the defense going forward with rasmus and liljegren, so we can stop with the 1 yr temporary fixes on defense. Addition of those two young-ish behemoths on defense help both in physicality, talent, and long term more than any dealt for them.
IMO the leafs lack three things: defense, physicality and team defense. Clifford, Martin, Simmonds, Reeves are all UFAs for that physicality, but the idea of adding 25 yr old laughton (a 25-30 pt) two way, gritty, physical guy who can play LW or C goes a lot further than his pt production, same as, to a lesser degree in Watson., really addresses team defense more so than anyone on the current roster.
And as for the trades, you have to give to get, dealing from areas of strength to address weaknesses, and I think the PHI deal does that for TOR. The Kerfoot deal is one sided and he is by far the best player in that deal, but its also about cap space.