27 Dec 2017 23:43:33
Couple of trades that could benefit Toronto w. a decently lengthy playoff run:

Toronto Acquires:
- Brandon Manning
- Valtteri Filppula

Philadelphia Acquires:
- Nikita Soshnikov
- Eric Fehr
- 2018 2nd Round Pick (SJS)

No salary retained here, basically the 2nd for Manning, and Sosh and Fehr for Filppula. All are UFAs after the year, besides Sosh. A 2nd is more than fair for Manning, and honestly, you downgrade from Flipper to Fehr, but Flipper is maybe going to get like a 4th/ 5th at the deadline, as seen from previous deadline deals for large salary players. So I think Sosh for him is pretty fair. Hell, if it really seems unfair, i'm willing to thrown in some more picks.

Toronto Acquires:
- Ian Cole

Pittsburgh Acquires:
- Josh Leivo
- Leo Komarov
- 2018 3rd Round Draft Pick

Simple. Pittsburgh just acquired Oleksiak, who plays identical hockey to Cole. Pittsburgh has centre depth, even though Sheahan is soso, but they need better, cheaper wingers for Crosby. Leo can play winger on a third line role, or take Sheahans spot, but Leivo may be able to jump and produce with Crosby in a similar manner as Sheary, Rust and Guentzel have. Idk. It was either this, or Bozak straight up, but from a leaf perspective, the more centers we have for the run, the better. Bozak for Cole is probably better, but whatever.

Lineup:

Patrick Marleau - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Zach Hyman - Nazem Kadri - Connor Brown
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Mitch Marner
Matt Martin - Valtteri Filppula - Kasperi Kapanen
*Dominic Moore

Ron Hainsey - Morgan Rielly
Ian Cole - Jake Gardiner
Brandon Manning - Nikita Zaitsev
*Connor Carrick, Andreas Borgman

Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElheinney

Just becomes a more defensively oriented team on the backend, and a more skilled team up front. They can now roll four lines and be unafraid, and the three top dmen (Zaitsy, Gardiner, Rielly) are all paired with shutdown partners. And plus, our only major FUTURE losses are:
- Josh Leivo
- Nikita Soshnikov
- 2nd Round Pick
- 3rd Round Pick

But this team could actually make some noise in the playoffs. I'm A OK losing that as futures tbh.

1.) 28 Dec 2017
28 Dec 2017 03:51:20
Filpulla was almost traded to Leafs last year but refused to play for Babcock. Leafs likely on his no trade list again for the same reason.

2.) 28 Dec 2017
28 Dec 2017 10:13:41
Solid value for the first trade, can Filp be trade to Leafs like is his no trade clause nulled now? The second may be a lil too much for a 3rd pair guy like Cole but not outrageous.

3.) 28 Dec 2017
28 Dec 2017 14:21:08
Filppula doesn't like Babs so there goes that idea. Second trade isn't bad. I would modify it so it's Cole for Komarov, a 2018 2nd and a conditional 3rd.

4.) 28 Dec 2017
28 Dec 2017 14:52:41
Oh yeah, sh! t. Forgot about Flippers relation w. Babs.

But I mean, I think the reason he didn't wanna go play is cause of guys like Michalek, Lupul, Cowen, Laich, etc. Guess he didn't wanna end up like that. Or was it actually bc of Babs? Maybe the two teams could talk him out of it this year? Idk.

And @THF
I think Pittsburgh would rather Leivo because they need the scoring help asap. I'd also like Leivo to go to somewhere where he can succeed, cause really, I think Toronto is going to bring back JVR, and there simply isn't any way that he'll make Torontos top 9.

5.) 28 Dec 2017
28 Dec 2017 15:09:19
First one has the obvious flaw of filp not wanting to be here. And as a leafs fan, I wouldnâ€™t pay that for ian Cole. Just donâ€™t see him as an answer. With the money going to be shelled out in the next couple years, cheap controllable assets like Leivo and draft picks will be essential for leafs to stay competitive. Iâ€™m okay with them moving guys or picks for a good D, just donâ€™t think Cole is a big enough improvement over guys we have to pay that price.