Not trying to troll, but the more I look at the Leafs roster and prospects, I honestly think the only way Toronto has any chance at a winning team is trading Matthews. None of the other big four will net them anything close in assets needed back plus the cap space to improve the "team" enough to win. IF the Leafs make the playoffs this year, it's likely as a wild card and another 1st round exit. He's then one year to his NMC and the Leafs don't want to be stuck in that final year if he doesn't sign an extension and block any potential moves. Tough spot. Still don't understand why they signed Travares as that is probably the root cause of where they are and he won't waive for a trade. I don't see either Marner or Nylander getting that much back as they are good, but overpaid wingers. Centers bring more back.

I could care less about the Leafs, just interesting to see how this has played out. The Leafs don't want to trade Matthews, they just may need to.

I think Matthews is walking to the Kings in 2024 as Kopitar's contract expires so they have the room, it's a high profile market close to home and a team on the way up with its window opening instead of closing.

Please explain why this isn't logical instead of just "Shut up, McDavid wants out".

No way they're trading Matthews. He won the Rocket Richard this year. He is the face of their franchise. Sure he did little in the playoffs but he is their best player. He is still very young at 23 years of age. I wouldn't trade Matthews yet if I was Dubas.

They could get a decent haul for Tavares without trading away their best player in his early 20s.

Oh yes, trade their best player who's only 23.

How does this make the team better unless McDavid or Mackinnon is coming back?

Tavares has a NMC though.

You don't trade Matthews. Not now or ever. You wont get a offer good enough.

Also do you think marner is worthless? He can get a nice haul easy as a top 5 winger in the NHL as young he is.

Nylander isn't overpaid

I didn’t say they were worthless, I said wingers don’t bring back the return a center would. Also, who wants to take Marner’s almost $11m contract? The options are limited and likely so is the return.

Has Matthew’s even proven he can drive his own line and still score? I wonder how much he can score if Marner wasn’t there to set up one timers.

I don't think you know much about him lul. Matthews from 2016-2018 was with Hyman and Nylander and scored 34-41 goals in that period. After that from 2018-2020 he played with Johnson and Nylander only getting Marner as a linemate mid way through the 2020 season once Keefe decided in February to pair the two together. In general, Matthews does not need Marner to score. He has done just fine without him


In general your worried about Matthews when you should be worried about McDavid and the Oilers. Holland had 25 mill to spend and he wasted it. Only good signing was Hyman and even that's a stretch. The Oilers you could argue didn't get better they stayed exactly the same if not somewhat worse. Keith is old slow and not good anymore and won't replace Klefbolm. Ceci is worse than Larsson and is a turnover machine, Barrie and Nurse suck at defense and what makes this whole situation worse they are running back one of the worst goalie tandems in the NHL. Then you get to the contracts as Holland gave Nurse 9.25mill way to much for the #2dman behind Klefbolm. When Nurse is making more than Josi something ain't right in that gms head. With how the oilers have been in the playoffs so far would not be surprised if they struggle once again especially when you consider the dcore is bad and that goaltending duo lost against a rebuilding Chicago team who sold at the deadline and a jets team with a bad top 4 dcore and no Ehlers for the first 2 games. Sure the Pacific sucks but with teams like Calgary and Vegas won't be a cake walk. Especially when you consider Calgary will have a new dangerous defensive line to shut down McDavid and as we saw with copp-lowry-appleton that's something we know is very effective against him.

Did pretty well with Nylander

I understand the theory. but if they're not good enough to win with Matthews, how could they ever be good enough to win w/o him? He's a superstar. Leafs problems stem from overpaying Marner and Tavares. Silly contracts like Marleau didn't help along the way. Dubas can't afford any mistakes with the flat cap if they're gonna contend.

Wow, must have hit a nerve. Edm is in a much better spot than Toronto. There GAA wasn’t much different from Toronto last year using a lot of young D so if they suck, what does that say about the Leafs.

I don’t care about the Leafs or Matthews, just interested how they continue to go all in when they can’t win. They have no draft picks and no cap space after last season so how would you fix it? At least Edm is filling holes rather than hoping for this year to somehow be different.

Not really. Edmonton lost in 7 to a rebuilding chicago team who sold at the deadline and got swept by a jets team who hasnt had a proper dcore in 3 years. So that GAA really didnt help much did it. And they are running back that team with a worse Dcore, the same goaltending who has struggled hard in the post season and the only good add of the offseason was Hyman and they only get 2 good years out of him before he becomes Okoposo. Thats not gonna end well. In general this year Calgary has a better Dcore, goaltending, and more balanced top 9 along with Vegas who has a better structured team. Edmonton will be lucky to get out of round 1 or 2 even with the changes they have made. Plus if they struggled against a rebuilding team in Chicago and a team who didn't have a proper Dcore in Winnipeg they are really gonna struggle against a properly built team like the two mentioned above.

Look, you can’t answer my question on what Toronto needs to do if you don’t trade Matthews which is fine. Keep believing next year will be different.

But if I can try your game - no cup or finals appearances in 54 years, no playoff series wins in 14 years and they went all in to blow a 3 to 1 games lead to the 18th best regular season team with no first line center. But next year……