I was originally of the trade Nylander camp, after he stalled out his contract until the dying hours.

He has proceeded to be a pretty strong member of the Leafs this season, so personally I'd be seeking a big fish RHD if he was to be moved.

The Sabres don't have a defencemen in the "big fish" category (names like Parayko and Jones come to mind).

I also do not know enough about Borgen/Thompson to even give a proper opinion about the overall value. But the Leafs are trading in division, while also giving up the best piece.

I am not a fan of the deal at all.

Very fair assessment here. My rationale is Thompson could very well be a 2RW as early as next year with the right linemate or in the near future. Should be a 3RW next year fairly certainly. Borgen is at what might be his ceiling which is a bottom pairing shutdown RHD but in our organization he evidently plays top pairing in the AHL. He could be a Top4 but I think that's a BIIIG stretch. Either way a nice depth option. I fully support your "big fish" desire! His solid season this year is the only reason I want him at all. I was very against him and his brother this time last year.

Its not bad but its not that great either.

I feel the leafs wouldnt really have the need for thompson and would probs be looking at Mittelstadt or Kahun. Montour would be alright with the leafs and could be a good partner for Rielly, and Borgen could be an alright bottom pairing guy or could be flipped in another trade for picks or other things the leafs need. So I wont say this trade is impossible but I just dont see toronto moving on from Nylander, but than again its the NHL anything can happen and anyone can get traded. Still if that pick is in the top 10 or 15 leafs could draft a RHD like (Jamie Drysdale, Justin Barron, Braden Schneider, Helge Grans)

I wanted to try and not trade Mittlestadt but if it was for Nylander I would absolutely include him. I'd rather not give up Montour, Mittsy, and a 1st in a trade for just Nylander though. Too much of a chance we get torched by a "divisional mistake" for the next 10 years.

Regarding the draft pick. I made it the 2021 1st not the 2020 1st because I wouldn't expect a deal to be made until after the draft this year. Too much is up in the air and I expect a quieter "draft floor" much like the NFL had.

For me, any sort of trade Nylander to the sabres deal starts with Jokiharju and not underperforming defensemen like Montour or overpaid ones like Risto.

Also a fair opinion. Obviously as a Sabres fan, any deal I create will favour us. (Hopefully only slightly).

Leafs want no part of Risto or Montour. If you want Nylander, best way to get him is Reinhart+Jokiharju to start the conversation.

I get why the Leafs wouldn’t want either RHD proposed. But how can you say with a straight face that Willie cost not only Reinhart, but Reinhart and Joki +. Seriously, not that either team would do it because devil you know kinda thing, but Reinhart for Nylander is about as even as you can get. Both will be on similar contracts, but have a few flaws in their game, both have put up progressively better numbers year over year, both play with elite centers currently and would one either team. I don’t see how the Sabres add anything more then maybe a mid pick in any hypothetical deal around those two and certainly not a 20 year old RHD with over 100 nhl games thus far without looking out of place +.

Reinhart is on bridge deal and would need a contract. Nylander has 4 years left on bargain deal. Reinhart is less productive than Nylander and not as versatille. I would ask this.. How is Reinhart defensively and is he capable of any time stepping into center role like he was there the whole time?

As far as being versatile, and stepping in to play center he could do it in a pinch. Honestly probably not a full time thing for him, but is it for Nylander or is it also just in a pinch? Contracts will be about the same, I said as much. As far as being productive, they’re both trending up (Reinhart steadily and Nylander shot back up after his horrendous year after holding out). The difference isn’t Joki + though. That was my point. And it’s not even just Joki. Not that he’s untouchable or the Sabres should be asking the world for him (although they should be able to get quite a bit) but he’s not the add to a Hypothetical never gonna happen Reinhart/Nylander deal

Yeah I mightve overshot with Joki, but still Sabres add. Reinharts faceoff numbers suggest he should not take faceoffs ever so he is not capable.. Nylander can be full time center anytime and if Sabres trade for him, he likely would be 2C right out of the gate. Which would automatically mean he is more valuable. Production suggests so as well.. in that hypothetical scenario if Leafs ever decide to trade Nylander (they would trade Marner before him), its gonna be for Reinhart+ and that plus might not even be just a mid round pick. But I overshot with Joki, thats true.

And that’s fair. Idk what that add would be, but it would be somewhere in between significant and insignificant. Don’t really need to speculate too much as would never happen. But just for kicks I looked up a couple of “do-over” drafts and they had willy at 6/7 and Reinhart at 8/9 so whatever that difference is sure. Add some for willy’s versatility (although the hope would be to cozens long term at 2C, the sooner the better). Anyways, good talk.

I like the Thompson assessment for the Sabres, although the Sabres may not have the best RW depth, so Thompson would likely be forced to play behind Marner/Kappy/Potentially one of Johnsson/Kerfoot/Mikheyev depending on how lines are shuffled.
The Leafs already have enough bottom pair defenseman atm (Holl/Liljegren/Marincin/Lehtonen), so I'm not sure how Borgen would slot in (other than a 7th guy).
From my very basic knowledge of advanced stats (Corsi, Fenwick), Montour seems like a #4-5 guy with the Sabres (20 minutes/night, looked like he also played a lot with Dahlin). His Corsi/Fenwick, suggest he was in the D Zone a lot (I also know the Sabres are a bad team, so its not his fault), but the oiSV% (On ice save percentage, while Montour was on the ice, was at 0.920, which is pretty good considering the swiss cheese Hutton and Ullmark were this year)

Maybe if the deal was Cozens + Montour, it would be a little more interesting to the Leafs (since Cozens could be a piece with extremely high potential). But Nylander is 24, with 3 60 point seasons, so losing that skill would be pretty detrimental to the Leafs without getting a high end piece back.