liljegren should have one more year with the marlies that's why dermott should be signed to a "proove yourself" one year deal

Defence is looking stellar if you pay a 40 game 3rd liner that much.

I love Mikheyev, and hope they can bring him back at a reasonable cost. But no matter how useful Mikheyev is, that D is gonna suffer over the extra 1.5M

I'd love to see the reporting on this trade:

"We have breaking news. It looks like Travis Dermott is getting traded"
"Where's he getting traded to?"
"Any team the release states"
"What are they getting in return"
"It looks like picks and stuff."

I think Johnsson will be the one to move, if not him, someone may offer a bigger return on Kapanen who I'd let go in that case. The Leafs top 6 is stacked and with Barbarov and Robertson in the wings, they will be fine. To those who think the Leafs defence is garbage next year because currently the only 2 RHD on the roster are Holl and Liljegren should just look at the cup winning defences over the past 20 years and see how many of them had an even split of left handed and right handed defenceman. I'd be surprised if 5 out of 20 had the perfect split. What hand a guy shoots was a huge deal to Babs and then the media blew it way out of proportion. The key is to have 6 quality defenceman and depth in case of injuries which I think TO definitely has next year.

Rielly and Muzzin are both top pair defenders, Holl was great with Muzzin and I think one of Dermott or Lehtonen could do very will with Rielly and then you have Sandin with whichever doesn't mesh as well with Rielly. That is a solid 6 member defence. There is even an outside chance that Liljegren takes a step and forces his way onto the team. And you have Marincin around in case of injury. He isn't worth full time play but he's a terrific #7. Give him 3rd pair minutes in sheltered situations and let him kill penalties which he is extremely good at.

I think the Leafs defence could have one of the best bang for its bucks in the entire league next year.

Rielly at 5, Muzzin at 5.6, Holl at 2, Dermott close to that, Sandin, Lehtonen both at under 1 million and Liljegren and Marincin under 1 million as well. That is money well spent and I think could be far better than the Legions of Leaf haters want to admit.

wky keep mikheyev at $3m to ice that d core. that rd looks weak. how do you keep/replace andersen, hyman, and lehtonen the following season.

All of the contracts are fine, yes. But you have 2 proven top pair left handed defensemen in Rielly and Muzzin, and as far as I'm concerned the rest of the defence are 3rd pairing guys unless they prove otherwise

Holl proved otherwise last year, Lehtonen is the best defenceman outside the NHL and Dermott I think will take another step.

Holl has less than one season under his belt as a 28 year old, and proved to be a solid #5 defenceman in that season, Lehtonen has never played a game in the NHL and older KHL imports often don't pan out, and Dermott might take another step, but again, he's currently third pairing unless he proves otherwise. You also traded Dermott

I certainly didn't trade Dermott. I have been vocal that Johnsson is the most likely to be traded. He's a good player and I love him but as this is a business, he is by far the easiest to replace and he does hold value. Barbarov, Robertson and Korshkov could all make a case for 3rd line LW. Holl was top 4 for almost the whole season. He started on the 3rd pair but moved up to playing with Muzzin and stayed there. The only time he looked over his head was when he was the shut down pair with Marincin while Muzzin and Rielly were both hurt. Who would succeed in that scenario? I like Marincin but he should never play against top competition, ever. So you are selling him really short. He earned his playing time. He should have been a fixture the year before but Babs plays his favs no matter what.

Sorry I thought this was your post for a sec, which has traded Dermott. Just because Holl had to play in the top 4 doesn't mean he belongs there. He earned a lot of the time he got, but I disagree, in that there were times while playing with guys other than marincin that he looked a bit overwhelmed. They have many players on this team that very well could end up good enough for the top 4, but also way, way, way too many question marks. Grab a nice defensive top 4 guy like demelo to play with rielly. From there, if all of them look top 4 worthy, great- you have incredible defensive depth. If they all turn out to be bottom pair guys or non-NHLers, then you're also prepared.

He didn't look overwhelmed with Muzzin. And that is very important. If someone pushes him down though is fantastic

He's a number 5 D man that had to be the number 4. He'd be an asset to the third pair, if he keeps last season up- which is a big if considering he's played one season at 28 years old

He should have made the team the year before but Bab's wouldn't give him a chance. Which is how Bab's was. I used to love him but he was so in love with his reputation that he couldn't see past it.

who would you have put him over in Bab's shoes? All of the D were NHL regulars for at least a couple years, except Dermott, and I'm glad Dermott played over him.

Hainsey was garbage more often than not. He only looked serviceable on the PK (which wasn't good) and because Rielly carried him. He was slow, and constantly got beat. I would have even given him a chance over Zaitsev. Although Zaitsev did look okay with Muzzin as well. Hainsey was good for half the first year of his time in TO and then looked tired the rest of the way.

you can say that in hindsight, but I guarantee you you wouldn't have put him in over either of them at the time. Hainsey was actually underrated. He freed rielly up by being so responsible defensively

Not last season he didn't. He was a liability. He was easily the worst defenseman on the team.

Yes he did. He contributed very positively to rielly's 72 point year. Of course he's gonna start to get tired when he's like 38 and is played on 80% of penalty minutes (not an exaggerated stat)

Which was not good, under Babs the PK was never good. He was overused and ineffective and Holl just needed a chance, he has always looked good.

You say "always" like he's been in the league for more than a year... lol. He was overused, yes, I'm agreeing. 80% of the PK was too much- he was very effective on the PK, but that did start to wear on him a bit. He was not ineffective. He freed Rielly to be as offensive as he needed to be because he knew that Hainsey would bail him out on the D side of the puck as needed.

Hainsey sucked