Does that package even get Provorov retained?

I would throw in Robertson as well but if I'm the Leafs, those are the players I'm targeting

yall, we’re really last in the conference for a reason, do you really think you get better by taking 16% of our lineup?

No, it’s not that helpful. Picks aren’t that good and lily only makes our RHD logjam worse because he’s better than Peeke. We’d have no choice but to trade his RFA rights this summer because it’d be bad asset management to try and keep him when we know Jiricek has a higher ceiling and Severson and Gudbranson are both unmoveable.

Peeke would be thrown in for free but we’d have an asking price for Kuraly so value for us and our roster/needs specifically is way off.

Just the weirdest obsession with defencemen who arnt good.

Peeke barely plays in Columbus but, he's the answer for the top pair in Toronto? This might be the wrong decision

👎🏻

So many so called Leaf fan, just hate their own. Plus they have an obsession with any RHD.
The Peeke/Provo for Liljegren/Brodie exchange, the Leafs lose big time this season, and for the future and the cap implications later.

Oh dude don't get me wrong I HATE THE LEAFS and I look forward to them failing in the playoffs again this year lol! Me pointing out that the trade isn't good doesn't change that

I should ;point out that 15 teams a year fail in the playoff, plus another 16 teams don't fail in the playoffs because they aren't even in the playoffs.

Fair but only 1 teams failure brings joy to 31 other teams fanbases

I was told by the Athletic fans and the calculators that Simon Benoit was bad because of his player card

It should, I think Columbus would happily toss him over for that. He's not good. And not liked in locker rooms.

You kinda abandoned the main point there. It's a bad trade for the Leafs. When other teams' fans are all saying that, it's probably not a good sign.

He's not quite that bad. We'd expect better value back - he's perfectly fine as a middle-pairing guy, and judging by how he's acquitted himself here he's made his peace with that role. But he is available, mostly because he was only ever intended as a stopgap unless he did truly exceptional work and he hasn't been truly exceptional, just good.

Hmm. I think we'll have to agree to disagree. He's paid like a 1st pairing guy (yes, I know he's partially retained, but you paid for that in another way), used like a 2nd pairing guy and has the defensive impacts of a depth Dman. Maybe it's not true, but I keep hearing/reading CLB is eager to get rid of him. Some of that may be that he is obviously not going to a popular figure in a college town, I dunno.

Teams don't give a rat's bald ass about players' personal beliefs or what fans think of those beliefs. There isn't a team in the league that cares about what Provorov did and I guarantee you that 90+% of hockey ops people agree with him. No, he doesn't seem to be popular with his teammates (he is notably absent in our other Russian players' social media where all of them are always present plus our Latvian and our Frenchman). But the "eager to get rid of him" is all fan-based. And the Blue Jackets very notoriously don't care what we think at all.

We didn't pay him in the first place, and if we retain, he's suddenly got a cap hit under 4 million and is extremely valuable to a lot of teams. The original contract is entirely sunk cost. He is very much worth 4 million. Someone will pay a first for him, whether it's Friday, over the summer, or next deadline.

1 - Well, that is all just simply not accurate. Some of it is wildly off. I'll leave it at that.

2 - I really think you are underplaying how impactful this can be. Especially to a new GM regime walking in the door.

3 - I'm not talking about fan chatter. I'm talking about media chatter.

4 - CLB gave up the draft slot where Bonk went (which was pure idiocy... loads of other excellent prospects were also still available) and what will presumably be a high 25 2nd to get Provy retained like that. Oh, you definitely are paying for part of his salary. Paying more than it is worth, actually.

5 - To who? When?

6 - Oh my... please do not hold your breath over getting a 1st for Provy. That would be harmful to your health.

It's one thing to think he's been okay as a 2LD for his AAV. But c'mon. Be real.

He's not popular, not with fans or teammates. We agree on that. But hockey ops people don't care that he "hates the gays." Most of them do, too, probably without even the veneer of blaming Orthodox Christianity like Provorov did. They're just smart enough not to make statements. Macho hockey he-man culture? Come on. Have you met a hockey player?

CBJ made moves requested by Babcock. He wanted two veteran D, possibly even Provorov and Severson specifically. But even without Babcock in the mix, Columbus 100% had to make at least one blueline move last offseason for an established player. They couldn't risk another year of finding themselves needing to use Billy Sweezy in the NHL. They moved a first acquired in a previous trade for two UFA's whose time in Columbus was over. It was house money. It was worth the opportunity cost of a player who won't see the NHL til 2025 at the earliest to bring in help now to a blueline that was utterly devastated and devoid of any talent. Obviously I wish it hadn't been Provorov (ffs, I AM LGBT MYSELF AND I AM SO TIRED OF HAVING TO TALK ABOUT HIM), but trading that late first for a mid-20s defenseman with pedigree was absolutely the right choice. I don't care if fans of a team that made the playoffs think otherwise. You didn't have to watch the Blue Jackets defense in 2022-23. Idiocy would have been doing nothing and going into a new season with the same collection of AHLers, injury risks, and children on ELCs they ended the year with.

They had to do something, and they had capital to do so that didn't affect their own picks in that draft at all. Provorov is a former top 10 pick who's still an actual NHL caliber player; you yourself even acknowledged he's a fine for the second pair. The Flyers signed him to his current deal in 2019, before the pandemic and when he was, in fact, very much a first pairing defenseman. 6.75 for that is fantastic. He's currently retained down to 4.725, thanks to Rob Blake's foolishness, and it is very easy for Columbus to retain up to half of that for a year.

So yes, someone will pay a first for a second pair caliber rental defenseman at (likely) under four million dollars. Like I said, maybe not this coming Friday. But over the summer or next deadline? Yes, someone will. And it won't be St. Louis, so I'm not sure why you care so much. You've got the corpses of Torey Krug and Nick Leddy for much, much longer to worry about. Provorov is just here to keep Denton Mateychuk's roster spot warm.