Well, Rodrigues is heading back to Pittsburgh. This deal doesn't look as bad now.

Rodrigues was a throwaway assist. He definitely wasn't worth the 2 million qualifier.

He definitely was

Pretty sure paying 3 million for a "4th liner" and a -0.5 WAR is not a good option.

Yeah, he had a down year, but his 3 Year average shows it was just a down season for him. Definitely worth his 2 Million dollar QO

Still a loss for Pittsburgh IMO but it's slightly better now.

IMO it doesn’t really make the trade any better, but it is funny that he signs back there after playing no games for the team he was traded to.

He's a 4th liner... really a non-factor

It becomes Kapanen for Amirov. Depends who becomes better at this point.

Rodriguez was never a factor. It becomes Kapanen for Amirov & Hållander. Which I’d say is a clear win for the Leafs.

I wouldn't say a clear win. Amirov is projected as a middle six winger and Hallander is projected as a 3rd line guy. We have to see how they develop.

Looking at it now, this is still IMO, a leafs win if Amirov and Hallander grow correctly(which they should, but I could see Hallander being shipped out of town in a few years, dk why), but man, Kapanen has been SOLID in Pittsburgh

Tottaly agreed.

Leafs only win if these guys come while the Leafs are competitive (right now). Who knows how they will look in 3-4 years when these guys are NHL ready

So I followed up on this trade and so far

Leafs

Hallander (high B prospect) who will be with the Marlies
Amirov (A prospect) who is a lethal threat offensively but can also provide some defense (expect him with the Marlies in 2022)
Chucky (traded Warsofsky for him)

Penguins

Kapenan had a good season with the Penguins
Rodrigues (returned to the penguins as UFA) and was alright when needed
Lindgren (was in Europe whole season)

Aberg of course left and Warsofsky got traded

RN we got to wait and see how Amirov and Hallander do before we can say for sure who won this in the end

Pittsburgh keeps trading first round picks like they’ll win the cup

Main features of trade:
Kapanen: talented young winger
1st round pick: really valuable because Pittsburgh flopped against Montreal

The trade was made after Pittsburgh lost the series to Montréal. They already knew the pick was 15th overall.

Yeah I know that but still what was Rutherford thinking?

Yeah, it’s just as baffling today as it was then.

Looking back at this it's still a dub for the Leafs since Amirov has played really well this season. Kapanen exceeded my expectations too, but I think Amirov pans out to be the better player unless the KHL factor plays a role here.

Can't be a dub when the Leafs have got 0 points out of him, they will likely win, but they haven't yet.

Does anybody know why Evan Rodrigues was part of this trade? He was a RFA so Toronto acquired his signing rights, but they gave up those signing rights by not making him a qualifying offer, which made him a UFA. Then he went back to Pittsburgh and signed for a lesser amount. No games were played between the trade and the deadline for making qualifying offers, so Toronto must have already known when they traded for him that they weren’t going to qualify him.

Is there some rule I don’t know about that says that if you don’t make a qualifying offer to a RFA, you can’t sign him when he becomes a UFA? That’s the only reason I can think of for including him. In that case, trading him to a team that had no intention of qualifying him allowed Pittsburgh to try to re-sign him for a lower amount (which they ultimately did).

His QO was $2M dollars and at the time, Pittsburgh didn't want to match that and they couldn't get a different deal done, so they sent his RFA rights to Toronto and they also couldn't afford his QO, so they left him unsigned leading him to signing back in Pittsburgh for league minimum.

I understand that, but why bother trading him if neither team planned to qualify him? Wouldn't the result have been the same if Pittsburgh was the team that chose not to qualify him?