Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Leafs Fans Have Some Interesting Trade Deadline Predictions

I think this Platinum Seat Ghosts is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and his name is not in any way a Shayne Gostisbehere reference. That's a little weird because the word "Ghost" in any sort of context should be referencing the Flyers' rookie blueliner. But, for whatever reason, he's using the word to mean something other than what we care about. Fine, live your own life I guess.

The responses to his tweet this morning are an interesting cross-section of Hockey Twitter. Obviously, the vast majority of people who follow PSG (and would be responding to this tweet) are crazy hockey fans. They come from different cities and root for different teams, but all of Hockey Twitter shares a love for crazy, senseless, boiling hot takes.
Twitter in a nutshell. No reasoning behind it, no logical way for it to happen, nothing the Leafs can offer St. Louis to make it worth their time. But let's bring the best potential defenseman on the market  (who is actually probably off the market at this point) to my home team and fucking make a run!

God I'm going to hate the Leafs so much in two years when they're good.
I guess the logic behind this kind of makes sense. Chicago could add Parenteau to their middle six, then add Ladd/Staal to their top line, and be a prohibitive favorite to win the Stanley Cup this year.

But come the fuck on, Leafs fans, they aren't going to give up their best prospect and two solid picks for a crappy winger on a one year contract. This trade would also leave the Hawks without anything left to trade to actually acquire Ladd or Staal.
This is a much more reasonable return for Parenteau. Good job, Max.

God damnit! Does this person think that New Jersey would send their goalie of the future back to Toronto - who is now managed by the man who ditched NJ - for a rental in a year where they have no realistic shot of making any noise in the playoffs?

I mean, yeah, obviously it'd be nice to turn an aging player on an expiring deal into a goalie prospect to replace the hot mess they currently have in Toronto, but this guy might as well have suggested a Parenteau for Lundqvist swap.
The trend I'm seeing out of Maple Leafs Twitter is they're supremely overvaluing P.A. Parenteau. He's 32. He's never scored more than 20 goals in a season. He's been declining since 2011.

JVR is a much more interesting candidate. He's just 26, he's under contract until 2018, and he'd be a 30 goal/60 point guy if he could stay healthy. I just don't think he's a good fit for the Hawks because his cap hit is upwards of $4 million. He's probably more valuable to the Leafs if they keep him for their rebuild, to be honest.

The one big intangible with JVR is the fact that he's a #FormerFlyer. That's something that can't be measured on the ice during the actual game, but it carries a lot of weight with the Hockey Gods, and it means he's probably going to eventually win a Cup.
Yes please, I would like to see this happen.
Elliotte Friedman mentioned the idea of Kadri to St. Louis yesterday in his Reddit AMA. Kadri is 25, and a restricted free agent this summer. He figures to get an offer sheet that's in the range of compensation which awards a 1st and 3rd round pick. So, at a minimum, he should net a first and a third at the deadline.

Throwing Parayko into the mix is interesting - he was drafted in the third round and has developed almost as well as a third-round defenseman can (see #53 in Philadelphia). I'd guess there's no chance that the Blues give up both picks plus Parayko - but what if the offer goes to Parayko and the 3rd rounder?
 This is along the same lines, and if St. Louis wants to really challenge Chicago this year, I think they should consider upgrading Fabbri. It'll hurt long term when Fabbri is a stud on a cheap deal in Toronto, but there's no doubt Kadri could slide nicely into their top six.
This is an option that most Leafs fans are not considering.
I will bet you one million dollars that David is a Rangers fan.

(Checks his timeline)

Well consider my mind blown, because it looks like he's a Jets fan. What? How? Why would he be content with a late first round pick, a thug defenseman, and a Russian prospect whose KHL team has expressed desires to extend his contract and keep him there? Ladd is the best rental chip available on the market, and they'd be getting like a 50% chance at nothing for him.

Reminder: hockey fans everywhere are the worst. I love reading through the CrossingBroad comment section for all of the hot takes, but sometimes I question if people are actually as dumb as they seem online.

This blog alleviated that a bit for me, because Leafs fans might even be dumber than Flyers fans.

-

(Update: PSG tweeted a link to this blog, so this will likely be our most-viewed post in months - please let me know how you initially found it, if you're reading this. I feel like I should just clarify one point:

 This wasn't a Leafs fan hit piece, just more of an observation that every fan base has the "Trade Giroux" or "Trade Subban" or "PA Parenteau Is Worth A First And Dano" or "Crosby Is A Good Captain" group. Not everyone can be the type of fan that focuses on possession and exit/entry metrics and things that we generally associate with "smart" hockey fans. 

 The question in the original tweet was posed from a Leafs blog, and obviously most of the responses were Leafs-centric. It was nice to see that it's not just Flyers fans that may not have realistic hopes or opinions on the internet - but it's also not just Leafs fans, either. That's the takeaway, I guess. We're all kind of dumb. 

 But I still hate you, though, Leafs fans. And I hope Stamkos signs with Buffalo this summer.)
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