Edited May 18, 2023 at 9:40 a.m.
Quoting: GMBL
You want a contender to trade their 2C and a top 4 D for a 1D which would result in them having two offesived Dmen. That itself is going to be an issue. There's also the cap aspect as mentioned by several already.
If it's Karlsson at 9.5m for 11M Tavares + the 28th OV, then maybe there's a conversation to be had (if we ignore the NMC), but I don't think Grier would be interested in that return for him.
The best bet for a Karlsson trade is probably to the Oilers, and that can only happen with a decent cap increase and some retention by the sharks.
I hear you but the case in front of you isn't a dream scenario for the leafs. There isn't a better scenario that I can think of where they improve next year.
The leafs HAVE to make a move. their failure is crazy. Also, trading 88/34/16 is CRAZY as well. if they trade 88/16, and keep 91 they are worse. people that say JT is still an 80 point player neglect to point out that without 16 riding shotgun, he is probably a 65 point player. The leafs know this. O'Reilly will put up 70 points if he had Marner on his wing.
I don't think the Oilers can make it work without serious retention from SJS... and this move allows SJS to have no retention (or very little) on EK (he just won the Norris, so there is an argument from SJS on why would they have to retain when Darnell Nurse makes 9M?), and then flip JT with lots of retention (increasing his value as a 2C at 7M...
SJS gets to double dip on two great players maximizing their return for the rebuild
SJS are out from any retention on JT two years earlier
TOR gets their PP QB, Norris level championship contending Dman
TOR gets more flexibility up front for fresh blood
TOR has 13M, 9.5M+ to sign 88/34
COL gets strong 2C to replace Landeskog
JT still competes for a cup, playing with elevating players like Rantonaan, or MacKinnon, Makar