I mean sure but that’s a pretty sizable gamble to take over the course of the regular season. Would you rather go into the playoffs with a solid team with an already re-built foundation at 2C or spend the house of assets on a $4-5m deadline acquisition and then taking the gamble of whether said player pans out or not.

Option 1 is the smarter and better hockey decision. Give your said 2C a training camp and regular season to play with the team and you are more than likely to see better results.

They'd be able to spend more than $5m by the time the deadline roles around. There simply aren't many center options on the market currently, and teams are more likely to commit to a re-build if they are not in playoff position by mid-season. If there were quality options available then I'd tend to agree with you that option #1 is more sound.

Not sure if Toews takes that deal. Same with ERod and Byram, who are both projected to cost more. Malgin was good for COL and I think could be better with stability around him. $800K is not much of a bump for him. I don't think you'd have to go too much higher, but he's nearer $1M.

There are plenty of quality options available now, rather than gambling on making a solution to your team over halfway through the season. That’s not a smart way to go about running your team. Lots of risk and uncertainty involved with that which is why it won’t happen.

I can think of one - Ryan O'Reilly

Who else would you include on the list?

The FA C class sucks honestly. I would say pass on Toews and instead opt for a low cost flyer on Pacioretty and see what you have in house to be the 2C and if no one steps up then opt for a rental at the TDL. This isn’t a bad idea.

And people are going to overpay for him or Domi as they are the only 2 I would consider top 6 and even then they are 2nd liners at best

That’s very logical, option C would be move one of the LD and a 1st for a C but who is offering up C right now???
And it’s smarter to get a 1 year rental and the Landenskog is back next year.

The idea has its pros and cons though I should point out you'll have that exact figure at the TDL, it won't rise because it's LTIR money.

I don't think you can leave that much money on the table when it can be used to sign Byram long term. I don't mind the signings. Not sure JVR is a great fit, but it's low risk.

As a Leaf fan....and I'm a seller, could a Matthews half retained for one year be possible. Now I don' think the Leafs do it, but maybe they should.