I wouldn't wanna lose Nylander right now

Value wise, I think this is a fair trade. In fact, I think both teams might win here

Last time I checked Lehner was hurt, so why does Vegas trade Fleury for a question mark at goalie? I get that there are other parts to this trade, but add doubt in net right now isn’t a strategy any team with cup hopes should be doing.

Lehner is in conditioning, practicing with the AHL roster right now, it sounds like he will be ready to play for the playoffs in an even better state than before.

If Vegas trusted Fleury they wouldn’t have traded and resigned Lehner

To me...Lehner/Fleury combo sounds 1000% more competitive than a Lehner/Andersen combo

This is a straw man argument. If Andersen could be trusted - why would the leafs trade him?

Vegas has really no reason to do this.

I see your point, but don’t agree. It’s possible to trade away a guy they don’t trust, and for the other team to take a chance on him. That happens all the time.

In this case, Vegas has wanted to trade Fleury since the end of last season and they get a guy who’s contract ends st the end of this season. They may believe Lehner is due back soon.

Leafs get a goalie that may get them to the final four

There's about a 6 year age difference between the players being traded (Fleury - 36, Anderson - 31; Marchessault - 30, Nylander - 24). Instead of Vegas having 2 starting goalies, you shift to having a starter and a solid backup. They move that cap upfront into a player who will continually improve over the next few years, especially with the help of Vegas' exceptional training facilities. You also upgrade a late 2nd round pick to a late 1st which just acts as the cherry on top. It's also a cap neutral trade which means neither team gains or loses any cap space.

I think the underlying point I’m making is this isn’t the year nor time to be making trades like this with Goalies.

I doubt there is much movement at all with goalies from here on out.

Fair enough.

Nah

So Vegas trades a vezina contender for a much worse goalie and gets nylander who’s not much better than marchessault in return? Why would they do this?

They move from an early 2nd to a late 1st. A wash. They move from a very good goalie to a not very good goalie. And they move from a goal scorer to a slightly better goal scorer. They are slightly better later but not any better today. They are in win now mode. Makes no sense.

Vegas really gets nothing out of it, and if losing Nylander is the cost for a marginal upgrade in net, that's a cost the Leafs are certainly not going to pay.

I would suggest the same reason Vegas traded Statsny and Schmidt. Andersen is coming off the books this summer, Fleury isn't. WPG and VAN gave up little to get those roster players from Vegas.