True but non feel like full time NHLers

Like Zadorov lets be honest is better than Benoit, Lagesson come playoffs.

He does give the size and strength you want but if your paying more than a 3rd + Abruzzese yea no lul


As this Dcore lacks 2 elements

1. A net front clearer (he can do it but also for some reason struggles)

2. Another guy to provide offense besides Rielly but who can also defend for the 1st or 2nd pair


He would help with one but they would need to find someone else.


Thats why to me the solution is spend big on Hanafin to help with the second issue then go find a cheaper net front defender and there is a guy in mind who once played for us

Ilya Lybushkin. Should not cost much to get and he played good enough with Rielly. He fits as Rielly often plays well with guys like this (Hainsey, Schenn, Lybushkin, Benn, etc). And with how Rielly is playing rn could work perfectly

I think the bigger issue will be is the cost of adding players to this roster without having a ton of draft capital to trade away.

If it comes down to adding only one of a RD, LD or forward, what would you and others want Treliving doing?

This scenario could very well be realistic depending on who is available and what GMs asking price is.

They do have enough to make the 2 moves needed but they got to be careful not to overpay

Lybushkin at 50% ret should cost a 3rd

Hanafin 1st + 3rd and pick the prospect/s (Hirvonen and Abruzzese) should be fine to make up for not having a 2nd.

Like last year a lot of guys who were expensive came with term or were packaged with another good player

Gavrikov + Korpisalo

Orlov + Hathaway


Rn Leafs have their 2024 1st and 3rd and their 2025 3rd thats all that is needed rn. From there it will be prospects and potentially Timmins used

Now there will be guys who are safe but guys like Hirvonen, Grebyonkin, Niemela, etc all could be fair game

Ok. But I wasn’t guessing. Info coming directly from him/his wife

There’s an incredibly significant gap between the confidence those other teams had in their superstar players returning for the playoffs vs the confidence anyone would have in tossing klingberg into the lineup for game 1 after 5 months away.

I get that logistically it makes sense, but practically that’s way too risky for a guy that’s been playing the way klingberg has the past few seasons

Maybe but if he has surgery the timeline fits the picture as Kane got hip surgery end of June and is coming back this week for Det. If Klingberg wants to play without risking further dmg to his hip that might be the road he has to take. Or like Backstrom he may just be done

I think based on everything we have heard from reporters to his interview in Sweden there is a possibility we dont see him for a while. As man Mike Johnsson's report seems to suggest that hip aint right and we know hes had double hip surgery before. The concern probs is k we know he got it OCT 19 how bad did he make it by skating on it from then till Nov 11. Maybe doctor recommends surgery or long rehab idk hips be tricky.

Gonna be interesting as to me I think he could be done for the remainder of regular season or at the very least like Muzzin back after the TDL but who knows. Leafs management probs going can you just stay on LTIR till playoffs so we get 4.15m freed to add pls. As even if hes healthy come then probs wont use him unless something happens or they need some offense back there (I swear if they dont address it). But its up to him just dont ruin your career playing through it.

Maybe if he stays on LTIR or is an IR candidate someone will take to reach the floor or something as these deals seem to be like candy to bottom feeders look at Arizona

Just feel for the guy as his final game he looked fine than missed the 2 Sweden games and for him that had to be hard.


Anyways should find out by Friday what is the plan

The way I'm seeing how this season is playing out so far is..there was hope Holmberg would step up and be a 3rd/4th liner which hasn't happened. So...maybe the next hope is Hirvonen and perhaps Niemela on D will be ELC guys.

This is why Treliving can't just keep trading prospects because the roster will need ELCs to be part of the team IMO.

I don't think this team is an add or two before being pushed over through top.
That's when that type of move is warranted.

At most we should do is cost effective add, anything else seems silly.


Adding a Hanifin or Tanev will not be cheap, and they are pending UFAs... just seems that we are gonna pay high price to only move the needle a bit.

True but they do got ELC's who are gonna most likely be part and ahead of these guys

Look at the team rn

Knies and Robertson.

Next season could be Cowen and Minten. So where are Hirvionen and Holmberg gonna work as you dont just want an entire bottom 6 of ELC's (unless they really good)


There are prospects you keep and others you turn into win now guys

Moving Hirvonen in a pkg to get a Dman makes sense for us rn. Same with Holmberg

Just got to be for the right guy

Disagree as if we look at this team the majority of problems can be warranted to defense

Their blue line offense is almost dead last in the league

And their defense has been god awful leaving the goalies to dry in most cases and coupled with all the injuries is getting exposed. Only Rielly has been for the most part the consistent bright spot


We know Woll can be good lets get him a competent Dcore to push things


As now the forward group is done with 4 useable lines (especially since rotating Reaves) but the Dcore is a mess

This team needs 2 additions to that blue line to really push em over the top


Like lets look at VGK

McNabb-Theodore
Martinez-Pietrangelo
Hague-Whitecloud

As we learned good Dcore's help win championships


Rn when healthy this was the Leafs Dcore

Rielly-Brodie
McCabe-Liligren
Gio-Klingberg

Thats not good enough as while top 4 is fine

You need someone to push Liligren down and give Gio a rest either by moving McCabe down or just being a nice third pair option

If the Leafs went and added Hanafin and someone to play with Rielly pushing Brodie to the 2nd pair that would improve things

As

Rielly-new guy (Lybushkin, Bear, Fabbro, etc)
Hanafin-Brodie
McCabe-Liligren

Thats pretty dam good

Brad can then extend Hanafin like Boston did with Lindholm (Wanted a deal in the 6.6m range) and still has room to keep Willy even at 10m and address some areas for 2024-2025

I think you’re both right, to a certain extent.

The team has shown that they are lacking reliable strength on the blue line to be a contender.

At the same time, this team hasn’t shown yet that they’re worth giving up valuable futures in order to try and win this year.

With the Calgary d-men…you can understand Brad/Conroy not wanting to extend everyone after last season. They needed more info to see if it’s still a core to build around or time to blow it up.

Hopefully with Brad running Toronto, and there being a much clearer mandate to win, he’ll have that insight to know which guy(s) are worth bringing in…and ideally with the intention to re-sign…vs those you just hope hit free agency in the summer and you can try and bring in then. I can see a trade for any of those d-men that includes conditional picks that get upgraded if they re-sign.

But I don’t want to see a bigger acquisition like Hanafin, and the assets we’d have to give up to get him, unless an extension was already agreed to

Agreed, I wouldnt mind Hanafin if he is extended beyond this season. Like what Boston did with Lindholm or LA with Gavrikov. If this is like Orlov where he leaves in FA NTU. Basically I would want assurance hes okay with extending here before committing. Like ask CGY if we can talk to him and see if he would sign an extension with us before the start of FA.

As then it can help them now and the future as come next season they will have their LD of Rielly, Hanafin, Brodie set and would just need to focus on who goes on the right besides Liligren

Cause man they got a lot of cap to do dmg so even with Nylander at 10m and Hanafin at 7m they still can make some nice moves



Now if he does not want to extend then NTU we will explore someone maybe with term on a non contender as to who idk but there will probs be options

https://twitter.com/TLNdc/status/1730340866454159789

Was laughing at this

As not saying I would do it

But if Minten + Cowen and a 1st dont get Zadorov + Tanev put the phone down. Destroy it and burn it in a field

Thats how much of a NO that would be

As thats more than what we saw Orlov + Hatnaway or Gavrikov + Korpisalo went for

Besides after looking at the Toffoli trade I would say lower expectations on a potential return

But ya gotta understand what he’s trying to say here…if Brad calls Conroy today and asked for both guys (and assumed retention on both) the asking price would be thru the moon.

You’d essentially be asking Calgary to give up on their season on Dec 1st and, for them to bite, it’d need to be an overpayment.

At the trade deadline if they’re well out of a playoff spot? Sure, asking price becomes more reasonable/fair but also have to imagine there will be a decent amount of competition for those guys.

Lol after all that it's a 3rd and a 5th for zadorov to a divisional rival lmao

Hope Tanev is up next

Zadorov went for next to nothing, and the Leafs could've easily matched the price (especially considering he was traded to a divisional rival). To me, this indicates that the Leafs want a guy with term. Peeke is the obvious candidate, but is he really the type of defenseman Treliving would add? How about a Mackenzie Weegar?

Peeke is awful

Solid defender, but more of a Brodie-type. I'd like him for the third pair. Also forgot to mention Noah Hanifin (assuming an extension could be worked out in short order)

No. Not solid.
Not nhl calibre

Not really a Brodie type at all. Terrible defensive instincts and has a reputation (an overblown one) of being a tough/physical player.

Edit: Terrible defensive instincts is probably harsh, but he's not a guy they should be targeting

A Brodie type in the sense that he doesn't move the puck particularly well, but defends well in his own end. I only mentioned him as a possible 3rd pair addition with term who would cost next to nothing to add. Obviously not an impact guy, but not bad by any means

****ing laughing rn as remember there was always that one flames fan going

"HES WORTH A 1ST AND BLAH BLAH BLAH"

Peeke has fallen off bad like hes been HS for Gudbranson lul

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=187555 --- HES PLAYED 4 GAMES WOW

Like if im taking him from CBJ gimmie a sweetener and I mean a nice one. Chinokov or Johnsson lul

And you get FC

https://twitter.com/lukefoxjukebox/status/1730374204724318544?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Bullet potentially dodged

But to me the thing I notice is if they asking for ret then they had other moved planned

As 3.75m with Klingberg out was doable but anymore moves would have needed more cap cleared