Some D ideas

Pesce would cost Nylander.

Florida's D is already trash with Ekblad out and Weegar being traded. Zero chance of Zito trading Gudas anytime soon.

Dallas and the islanders pass as of right now as well.

Pesce for Nylander has already been completely shot down. Pesce would cost a lot more than Nylander for the Canes to move Pesce.

I’ll respectfully disagree here.

Nylander has turned into an 80pt winger, scoring 30g a year. Considering contracts, he should be worth quite a bit more than Pesce 1-1.

Now, in terms of team need, the Canes currently “need “ Pesce more than they need another winger, but if I were offered Nylander for Pesce in a 1-1 deal, I’d think long and hard about it and probably would make that deal.

A more realistic target for TOR is Bear. I’d entertain Bear for Kerfoot maybe as Kerfoot might be a better fit on the Staal line than Stastny long term.

First two trades are tough to gauge and probably are only on the board if Dallas or the Isles are out of playoff contention - neither team has a ready-made prospect to step up and replace those guys if they move them, so they're not gonna do it unless they're in the tank. I think the value in a trade would be similar - for Mayfield, I'd want to match the Josh Manson deal from last year (solid prospect & a 2nd rounder), with a sweetener thrown in if you want the Isles to retain him down, something like a 4th rounder. I'd wager that the prospect/2nd/4th would be the conversation around Hakanpaa even before retention, since you get 2 playoff runs out of him.

-Pesce is a much better player than the first two - and that puts him out of TML's price range, in my opinion. Toronto doesn't really have the prospect horses they'd need to get Pesce out of Carolina (I'm guessing you'd have to offer at least Knies/1st/2nd to get the conversation started), and even if we agree that it could be Nylander for Pesce 1-for-1, it turns into a trade where you're closing one hole by opening another. Who replaces Nylander in the top 6 if you move him out? Is your second line now Robertson-Tavares-Kerfoot? I just think it really weakens one of the team's strengths to try and pry Pesce out of Carolina.

-Gudas is an interesting idea, if Florida really falls apart and decides to do a hard reset this year. As of right now he's probably untouchable as one of what, 2 guys on that blueline that you could even call borderline top 4 guys? But if they get stuck in the back half of the league too long, I could easily see them cashing in Gudas' expiring deal. I'd wager that the same type of package you'd offer for Mayfield or Hakanpaa would be fine here - you'd probably need a little more retention tho, seeing as his cap hit is $2.5M (vs $1.45M for Mayfield & $1.5M for Hakanpaa.)

To pry Pesce out of Carolina, you're going to need to pay through the nose. He'd become your best defenseman, and it's not really close. You're likely looking at Nylander and some sweeteners. Pesce and Nylander both have 2 years left, Nylander is a year younger, but Pesce plays a much more valuable position. Pesce is a 1RD in Carolina, and Nylander is a 2 RW in Toronto. Nylander scores 80 a year and is garbage defensively, Pesce is one of the best DFD in the NHL and can still put up 30 points a season. If you don't want Nylander moved, that's fine, you're looking at Knies/Robertson + 1st + a conditional 2nd that becomes a 1st? Even then, I don't think Tulsky would give the green light on this.

This is moot. Dundon confirmed a few weeks ago that Pesce, Aho, Slavin, and Jarvis are going to be Canes for most of their careers. The interesting omission was Teravainen, but we'll see.