Fair to say if the Leafs move Nylander it's to free up cap space / improve the blue line. Not to take on a lesser forward who is owed far more money.

That’ trade isn’t even considered by Toronto. Maybe if the 1st is the 1st overall.

So the leafs need a supporting cast who shows up in the playoffs and they do that by trading their most consistent playoff performer for a much worse player?

Listen... There's different types of contributions. There is pure points... But there is an effect when Josh Anderson chases you into the corner. It's not always only about skill. I want the Leafs to win and I think you are crazy to discount Josh Anderson's style of play. Leafs don't have a single player that brings that kind of game.

What you mean?! They have 43 year old 'rookie' Michael Bunting

You guys are nuts. 6 years of only skill and you haven't had enough yet? He's 4th on your depth chart, right? There are very few players that bring the kind of game Anderson does.

Yes Nylander brings more skill, but Anderson brings better physical play in both an offensive and defensive game. You are insane to call him lesser. He's different, but not lesser.

Listen, anderson isnt half as good as nylander and this trade would make the leafs actively worse in both the regular and post seasons
Josh Andersons style of play is fall over when breathed on, skate really fast in a straight line and then shppt 70% for 3 games before dissapearing .
And on top of that he's so bad in his own end he makes nylander look like a multiple selke winner.
Would it be nice to have a guy who crashes a bit more? Sure, but you dont trade much much better players for them, especially when they are on the wrong side of the aging curve, have a lenthy injury history and really really bad contracts

7th year if playoff futility coming next year. Signed JaredOfLondon.

"Making the team worse and pretending it will make them win a round by magic" signed john514

Only 1 edit needs to be made on this thread....

It is 19 years and counting since the last time the Leafs won a playoff series not 6 years. Besides that, you hit the nail on the head John, the Leafs need a better playoff type of lineup. They have too many guys that get you to the playoffs and not enough guys that get you through the playoff. The solution though is not trading Nylander, Matthews or Marner you need those guys to make the playoffs and hope they step up (like Nylander does) in the playoffs. The issue is they don't play team defense very well look at Tampa, every player to a man protects the front of the net when they get the lead and the lock it down. The Leafs don't do that they keep looking to score more and it seems like they think "oh well we just got scored on we will just score again to overcome this" the problem is the other team ends up locking down their zone and taking advantage of the Leafs run and gun style.

You clearly over-value your players. We know all about that in Montreal. Our GM overpaid 5 players over 2 years. You have decided Anderson is not good. You are so prejudiced against him that you don't see that he's exactly what the Leafs need.

I actually wanted the Leafs to win so badly... It's a heartbreaker. You need to trade value for value in this league. Anderson's numbers are much worse than Nylander's sure. Did you see the Habs the last 2 seasons under Ducharme? He was the biggest disaster that has happened to any team in a long time.

You think all the Habs are as bad as their numbers show? Please explain last year's playoffs in that case?

Look at Lehkonen. On the surface that was a bad deal, but some people can assess things as they are.

Exactly. There was a point in the Vegas series last year where Alex pietrangelo was legit afraid to go into a corner with this guy

I obviously really like Nylander. I also really like and believe in Anderson. Leafs fans downplay how easy Nylander has it playing behind the big 3 in Toronto. They also downplay how Anderson is not playing with any good players and not playing behind a Marner.

Tough to have an honest dialog on this site. According to some people... The only players on the Habs with any value are Suzuki and Caufield. If that was true why we're all those scouts at the Habs games? The Habs aren't trading those guys!

This is actually true. And what a contribution! When you mix skill with other attributes like willingness to go into the dirty areas and speed, you get great results.

Anderson is twice the player Bunting is playing on the same line.

Josh anderson has scored more than 32 points once and plays defense like a distracted moth when there's a light at center ice and he makes over 5 million bucks a year. I didn't decide he was bad, he just is.
As far as last years playoffs? Easy. Price time travelled to 2005 for em an danault was great. You'll notice how bad the habs were with those two things missing.
That was easy

Lol, maybe anderson can hit 50 points like any top 6 offensive guy should easily be able to do just once before you go making silly claims like that

For the record: I am not a Leafs fan and I think their playoff losses are hilarious.

Nylander is 25 and puts up close to a point per game. He has two more years on his contract at ~$7M and has produced enough to justify that price tag.

Josh Anderson is 28 and puts up around 0.5 PPG. He’s signed for $5.5M for the next 5 years. That’s a pretty tough contract for his production.

Obviously both players play a different game. But if the Leafs are moving on from Nylander to get more physical, Josh Anderson isn’t remotely in the ballpark of a return.

Of course Bunting got no help playing with Matthews & Marner. Future hall of famer right there!

It’s tough to have an honest conversation here when fans overvalue their depth players and prospects. And Montreal fans tend to be the biggest culprits.

Pro scouts go to a lot of games. Lehkonen and Chiarot got moved for nice returns. But now if you look up and down the Habs lineup, there’s just not much there that could get a big return. The decent players that could get moved are saddled down to awful contracts.

Suzuki and Caufield are obviously dope and have enough value to get splashy returns. Doesn’t mean the Habs have to do it. Same as how every other team doesn’t need to take Drouin or Armia off your hands.

Fair. It's hard to value players playing on below average teams... But totally fair. Look at Slafkovsky though. What points/game indicates that he's going to bring top line value in the NHL? By the same token... There are players scoring 120+ pts in junior who never translate to the NHL. Scouting is not apparent.

I truly believe Anderson over Nylander makes Toronto a more competitive team in the playoffs straight up. Am I in the minority? Maybe. But I have no issue being a contrarian thinker.

Let's say the Leafs go sign Klingberg with the money they get from trading Nylander only for picks. Does Klingberg get the Leafs to the second round next year, or are you just trading skill on the frontend for skill on the backend?

Bunting had better per game numbers in Phoenix than anderson has had in his entire career, but sure thing!

Anderson has never played for a team in his entire career that had a true number 1 center... But sure.

Lmao Bunting’s 1C in Arizona was Dvorak

Yeah, a true number one center is all anderson needs to go from a 47 point career high to 3x as good as a guy who put up a 51 point 39 goal pace on the coyotes.
Magic!

Alright fair enough. Maybe Bunting is better than I give him credit for. The point remains that Anderson would make the Leafs better.