Should the Toronto Maple Leafs keep Nick Robertson or use him in a package for Jakob Chychrun?
Michael Traikos of the Toronto Sun: Should Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nick Robertson remain on the line with John Tavares and William Nylander or should he be used a trade piece for Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun?
With Jake Muzzin out indefinitely, things are pointing towards Arizona.
The Maple Leafs biggest need right now is more elite defensemen. Someone who can play some tough minutes, and someone who is young enough to grow with the team.
The 24-year-old Chychrun has three years left at $4.6 million and two years ago lead the NHL defensemen with 18 goals in 56 games. He plays with some edge to his game and has a big shot from the point.
Among the teams believed to have some interest include the Ottawa Senators, Edmonton Oilers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues, and likely more recently the Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers.
The Leafs have the pieces to get a trade done and are in win-now mode.
What is the Vancouver Canucks big picture outlook?
Donnie & Dhali: Thomas Drance on the Vancouver Canucks big picture outlook.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“Big picture is, this might be the best team that we ever see on J.T. Miller‘s newly signed extension.
At some point, this team is going to have to contend with the fact that they have $15.26 million locked up into Oliver Ekman-Larsson and J.T. Miller, who are supporting pieces frankly.
I know what J.T. Miller did last year but he has spent his entire career as a fringe, top-line calibre forward. Not a star player. The team signed him to be a star player off the back of star season after he played as a first line center for the first time in his career.
And, that’s not looking good this far in. You’ve got a ton of bloated deals for aging guys. You’ve still got Elias Pettersson to extend, not after this season but after next. That price tag is going to big.
It’s just going to be so hard for this team at this point to capitalize off of Hughes, Pettersson and Demko’s prime season. It didn’t have to be this way, and the fact that you brough in new management and they sort of doubled down on this roster and made it even more difficult to untangle.
Like this team, which has to at least be fun, with a win-now posture for the tenth time in a row. You can just feel the Canucks fans. Canucks fans yelling at this team, ‘just shape a plan that might bring a Stanley Cup to Vancouver.’ And instead they are like, ‘oh, oh, oh, that’s what you want.’ How about this, we try and sneak in to a Wild Card spot.
Nooo, fans are sick of that. You can smell when an organization has no plan, that’s what it smells like around the Canucks.”
