No sure if this is the move the leafs need to do I like trouba but not sure

If he's good, then why is NY going to trade their captain, for FC nonetheless? The Rangers are every bit as competitive, arguably more than the Leafs are, and the expectations are sky-high as well. Unless Schneider is all of a sudden requiring 8M on his next contract, I don't see a scenario where they would need to make a move like this.

New York already has 72m locked up next year in 13 players. They cap situation is VERY tight. Not sure they do this, but it is an option they would have to explore. They still have a nice right side without Trouba and they can get a cheaper piece to fill out that right side. And yes New York is super competitive. Tampa was very competitive when they gave McDonaugh away for free. Vegas was very competitive when they gave Fleury AND Pacioretty away for free. Sometimes it has to happen.

But I very much understand why New York keeps their captain and a big bruising RD.

We'd be embarrassing without him and he says no chance

They buy-out goodrow. Then re-sign Lindgren, Kakko and Schneider. They’re fine lmao

The roster will basically be the same next season. Kakko isn’t getting a raise of outside of his QO, and same goes for anyone else. The cap increase will cover any increases in pay needed. They would buyout Goodrow before giving away Trouba.

Fair enough! I assume Lindgren gets an increase. Maybe a Ryan Graves type contract? 4.5m x 6 years? I can see him pushing 5m a year also.

But if you guys think the cap will be fine next year, with Trouba, then fair enough!

We can revisit this after the playoffs. If New York and Toronto both flop again, I can see some bigger changes happening.

Lindgren could force himself up to $6m and they would still have enough cap. Kakko might be forced to accept his QO of $2.4m and Schneider won’t get over $2m

The big question mark is Gus who might price himself out, but Jones has proved a decent replacement. And if cap space is needed, goodrow is the first one gone

So I’m pretty sure Trouba will resign afterwards also for a retirement package. Him and Schneider will swap 2RD/3RD. Lindy probably goes 4.5*7. Kakko gets the QO for another bridge till he takes off. Goodrow is likely the odd man out in the end but when they signed the deal I think it was understood he may need to go at some point

Vegas throws players left and right, plus they always had cheaper, better, or younger options. Giving Trouba for free probably wouldn't help them replace him in any of those ways.

TB won the Cup twice, and they secured their core players who they wanted to keep around, as much as they liked him McDonaugh had to go to make way for Cirelli and Cernak's extensions. If you look at Rangers the "major" players that they need to sign next year are Lindgren, Kakko, and Schneider, and maybe Gustaffson. If they stick with him which I think they will, Kakko won't command a significant raise, Lindgren and Gustaffson would and I'm not too sure about Schneider. I would bet that Gustaffson wouldn't be brought back unless he's cheap and that Lindgren gets traded (just like Buchnevich was) if they can't afford him, he's an RFA so they should get a decent return. I would say that the Leafs probably had to less than 15.7M to allocate to ~10 guys, and they were able to make it work, so they might be just fine and able to bring back everyone (other than Gustaffson). The other UFAs are replaceable with cheap options.

(Edit: lol, took me so long to respond, already have so many replies. I've heard a lot of Rangers fans say that management likes Goodrow much to their dismay, so I doubt they buy him out. So, it's probably just a decision between Lindgren and Gustavsson).

I thought Gus showed a lot with the Leafs last year. We had 9 NHL dmen after the deadline though so he was in and out of the lineup. I was surprised he only signed for 800k after the year he had last year. Glad he is showing well with New York. I really liked that signing for them when it was made.

Him and Lavi seem to understand each other so it’s working out good. He’s a good mentor for Schneider too

Hope they extend him cheap come Jan 1st but I doubt it

Keefe gave some good praise to Gus last year also. He said he just oozed with confidence. I just thought Dubas put Keefe and Gus in a bad spot with the trade. We had 8 legit full time NHL dmen and Timmins on top of that. I understand wanting to have depth but it can be a bit detrimental if you go too crazy. I thought Gus was 1 dmen too many.

I could see him signing something between 2.75M-3.5M if he likes his situation. He's doing better this year than he did with WSH and is proving that it wasn't a fluke, but I do wonder if he would test free agency if his best offer was 800Kx1 assuming that he didn't pass up on better monetary offers. They would jus need to find a Lindgren replacement that they are comfortable with.



I wouldn't be surprised if he was trying to find a trade for Holl to recuperate a pick but couldn't find a partner.

They wouldn’t let Lindgren walk to make Fox mad. Gus would be the odd one out and Jones would step in