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What would it take to move the 1OA pick?

mr grieves

mr grieves

Well-known member
I ask because we've long had a shopping list for this team and then always had to conclude "well, they don't have the assets that'd land that"

But now... they do?
 
mr grieves said:
Ok. I did.

Now I have Gavin McKenna, Auston Matthews (NMC), William Nylander (NMC), John Tavares (NMC), Morgan Rielly (NMC), Easton Cowan, and Matthew Knies.

How do I get a 1D?
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In my fantasy land, somehow Nylander is traded for a defenceman.

I get the temptation. Turn the pick into a haul. But that same logic (to a different extent) was bandied about when Marner left and the vapspace could be turned into 3-4 good players - and we all saw how that turned out.

But this is a discussion forum. And this is the place to throw these kinds of ideas around. So I didn't mean to shut down the discussion, just my personal opinion is draft with the pick.
 
herman said:
Top 6 C on the rise, or a youngish top pair D on a contending lineup
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So that'd be a Schaefer, Lane Hutson, Luke Hughes, Thomas Harley, Jake Sanderson, Noah Dobson, Noah Hanifin.

I would also check in to see whether CBJ and NYR are getting serious about their rebuilds.
 
I don't know what to think. I don't believe this team can contend, so I kind of hope that Matthews just says he wants out so the path forward is much clearer.

If Matthews stays, draft Mckenna trade Nylander for young grade A dman.
If Matthews wants out, trade everything and everyone for draft picks and prospects.
 
As excited as I am for McKenna, it does feel very Leafy to get the 1st overall pick in a year sandwiched between two potential franchise defencemen going (or likely going) 1st overall.

But yeah I think you just keep the pick.
 
You explore swapping the pick with any of the top 5. I they want McKenna bad enough you try to get something good in return for swapping picks. I don't know what the price would be. Probably reaching, but I'd like a 2nd rounder or a good prospect. Have to stay in the top 5. This way you are guaranteed to get a very good player. I have a feeling SJ is taking Reid at 2 so it might be a moot point anyway.
If you don't want to mess around with that pick, you draft McKenna, try and sign UFA Radman and look at trading 88 for a haul. You do not trade the young guys like I've seen mentioned in the socials unless it's for equal value on the D side of things.
 
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To me, this doesn't fundamentally change where the Leafs were when they canned Dubas: a roster with a surfeit of elite forwards, nothing elite on defense. The differences are the age spread of those forwards is now 10 years instead of 4 and 2/3rds of the forwards have complete trade control.

Guilt Trip said:
You do not trade the young guys like I've seen mentioned in the socials unless it's for equal value on the D side of things.
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I agree. That's why I wonder the what the 'equivalent value' of McKenna is.
 
I suggested the following in the 2026 Draft thread:

Adam Fox + 5th overall pick for Brandon Carlo + 1st overall pick.


That might be tempting you could land a top young defence man already established in the league and possibly a top d prospect. (1 of the top 3 D in the draft should be available at 5).

But I think you're better off keeping McKenna who could be a generational talent (it wasn't long ago he was in the same stratosphere as Bedard and Celebrini before they made the jump to the NHL, that's the level of talent we're talking here).

I think you can build a championship winning calibre D core without a "top defensemen". McCabe and Tanev graded out among the best D pairs in the NHL in 2024-2025. Bring in some solid defensemen through free agency and possibly trades. Easier said than done but it's probably a more prudent course of action.

Darren Raddysh, John Carlson, Rasmus Andersson, Jacob Trouba, Ben Hutton, Radko Gudas, Jamie Oleksiak, Mike Reilly, Jeremy Lauzon, Jake Bean, Connor Clifton, Vincent Desharnais, are all free agents this year. Sign, possibly 4 of them, and revamp the Leafs D core. Get out the laptop Chayka and figure which would be the best fit. Have a solid pair 1 through 3. I think we all know where the Leafs struggled last season.
 
Keep the pick and draft McKenna.

Nylander and Matthews will be 30 and 29, respectively, at the start of next season. At this point I'm more considering moving one or both of them for a defenceman and/or a haul of prospects and picks.

It's a dawn of a new era and McKenna is going to be the one who carries this franchise forward now.
 
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