Rejoint: mai 2017
Messages: 938
Mentions "j'aime": 253
My $0.02.
Hearing people say that Holl will be traded. The status of Muzzin - and if he recovers fully from the last string of injury - is unclear. Lyubushkin is gone.
Our D core is weaker than ever, in my opinion.
Holl has become the player people (and a journalist) complain about, even though he plays well. 2M for a competent righty will be difficult to replace. The only rationale for a trade is that the unjustified bad press will affect his morale. We are almost sure to lose this trade.
If Muzzin can't return to his past glory, we have no one to replace him. Not clear Sandin is ready to play 22 minutes this season. Even if he is, though, he wouldn't take the defensive responsibilities Muzzin was taking.
The gamble will be if Liljegren can move up to the top 4 this year. If so, you can try:
Rielly - Brodie
Giordano - Liljegren
Sandin - (Jordie Benn?)
Your two PK pairs become something like Gio-Lily and Brodie-Benn. That's taking full advantange of having Gio at a discount top 4 for the entire year.
In short, with Muzzin not being able to continue as he was before, we will have moved from a decent D-core last year to a below average D-core. It's bad for us.
And in that scenario, Dubas would still need to find a replacement for Holl, someone to play with Sandin. It will be difficult to find a player of the same calibre as Holl for the same price or below.
In all scenarios, the Leafs are missing a top pairing RHD, big time.