calling vatrano a proven playoff performer is like calling kerfoot one. Dude had one good playoff run 2 years ago and has 3 points in the other 3 years he was on a playoff team

Last year for the Rangers he put up 13 points in 20 games. That's pretty good.

yeah, and thats the only year he's ever done it. Literally any player can get hot over a 20 game sample size even in the playoffs. When a player does that once and hasnt even gotten close to producing that in any regular season in 10 years in the league, it's just a ideally timed hot streak. The likelyhood of him doing that ever again is minuscule. To be labled as a performer of a type the skill needs to be repeatable

I see we're back to trading for Vatrano again......

I will remind you, we can't trade him this year if we ever want to sign a UFA of any value as long as Verbeeks in the chair.

Vatrano probably isn't moving and definitely not for 2 3rds and a cap dump

Engvall isn't a cap dump. He can be resigned and replace Vatrano in the line up. He's an underrated player.

He's a cap dump. His cap hit outweighs his impact and does nothing for a rebuilding team going forward.

That's simply not true. I don't think you are familiar with Engvall's game. He's not old. He can play on the PK. He can put up 30 points. He can do a lot of things that Vatrano does at a cheaper price.

And the Leafs should give him that chance to repeat his performance from last year. It's a gamble, sure, but it's worth it imo.

I'm very familiar with his game. He's a bottom 6 pending UFA who's plain just making too much in a cash strapped league. He offers no value to a rebuilding team and you need to move him to make any moves at all. He's a cap dump any way you can slice itm

lol, that cap dump has 2 more goals and 2 less assists while getting like 5 mins less a game and much harder zone starts with better defensive results all while being almost 1.5 mill a year cheaper.

or they can keep the 3rds and just try engvall on 2LW and see what he can do since he's outscoring Vatrano right now

Engvall ghosts in the playoffs.

he has just as much playoff performance as Vatrano did at this point in his career

Ok? Why isn't he the 2LW in that case?

Them being that close when one is on the 5th best team in the league vs the 30th isn't the gotcha you think it is

because the leafs are a good team who arnt trying to win the draft lotto? I dont know if you've noticed but the ducks are a very bad hockey team and the Leafs are a very good one and good hockey teams usually have a lot more better players than bad ones so they dont have to play guys with 17 points in their top 6

Come on man. We all saw the playoffs last year. Vatrano is a better player than Engvall.

like I said, at this point in his career, Vatrano had the exact same number of playoff points as engvall does.
And if Vatrano is a better player than Engvall why cant he out produce him while getting 5 mins more a game playing with guys like strome, Terry, Zegras and Henrique while Engvall gets Kerfoot, Kampf and ZAR?

not to mention, Vatrano played with Zibanejad, Krieder and Panarin in the playoffs.

He saves his best for the playoffs, that's why. Meanwhile, in April Engvall will be all out of gas because he chased down the puck against 4th liners and out-hustled AHL call ups in January.

then why has he only done it once? And why did it only miraculously happen when he was paired with guys way above his paygrade, his and both his personal and on ice shooting percentage spiked? And why would he be saving it for the playoffs when he's on a team that probably wont make the playoffs for like 4-5 more seasons at best?
All's im saying that if you want that experience, we can just play Engvall with guys who are much better than him and hope his shooting % doubles for 20 games, at the very least the line will get better defensively

Vatrano has proven he can play with elite players like Tavares and Marner. Engvall hasn't shown that capability. Keefe is his biggest fan and even he isn't crazy enough to play him in the top six on a consistent basis.

If he can play with elite players, he'd be able to out score engvall while playing with them. He cant even hit 0.5ppg while playing top 6 mins with the ducks best players.

So he's a bad player making 2.25 that tops out on the 3rd line. How is he not a cap dump again?

if he's a cap dump then what is a guy who makes more with more term while producing less offence and being worse defensively?

The Ducks don't have elite players. That's why they are where they are.