Quoting: Ryminister_27
Massive overpay for Zibanejad. I get that's he's been good, but there's no reason why he should get more than what New Jersey got for Taylor Hall. You'd be able to get 1 top prospect, but not 2 of their top 3 plus a 1st round pick. Likely Sandin might be available with their depth on d, but the team is extremely high on him.
& Toronto isn't the team to do it. He'd be a 3C (maybe 2C if they move Tavares to the top line with Matthews and Marner) but they wouldn't be able to afford to re-sign him when they have guys like Rielly soon, then Matthews and Nylander right after. Signing Zibanejad long term would basically guarantee losing at least 2 of them.
Shop elsewhere. Colorado would be a good team to target. They have tons of good prospects and are in win now mode.
Two reasons why Zibanejad gets massively better return than Hall did
- since we can't really tell how well he's gonna play during 2020-21 season, I based the value on 2019-20 season. He was statistically the best goal scorer in the league, and is due to that immensely valuable.
- he's a center. By nature, centers are more valuable than wingers.
Toronto is in a win now mode as well, with good prospects. I don't see how these teams differ from each other, with the exception of COL also investing depth, not only to their top guys. Which one is the way to go, only time will tell, but it makes a TOR fan sound a very much like hypocrite when they're selling themselves as a top contender, but says at the same time that they're not in win now mode.
Money is going to be tough, but as said, this is based on TOR going all out now.