ROR Traded To Toronto

[DarthEbriate]

This is a good pickup for Toronto. It definitely makes the 2 remaining games against the Leafs more challenging for the Sabres in their quest for a playoff spot.

[nucci]

8 minutes ago, Night Train said:

 Understood but if your ceiling is a B-, C+ team for like 20 years, you start a new plan.  Are you a settler with just making it ?  Obviously, Toronto is. 

Ours was a D for a dozen years but with Adams and Granato recently arriving, I will give them a chance to better themselves. 

for now I'll settle to just make it. I miss being in the playoffs

[Flashsabre]

4 hours ago, \GoBillsInDallas/ said:

ROR is a UFA at the end of the season.

I understand that. I just don’t see the one piece that St. Louis got back that makes it worth retaining 50% on. The best piece is the first that will be very late.

This looks like a deal where St. Louis was desperate to get rid of their captain rather than a deal where they had a prime asset and waited for that one piece they wanted.

It is a quantity over quality trade especially since they threw in Acciari who is a valuable playoff piece.

Maybe other teams think ROR is shot based on this season and didn’t want to offer anything of substance.

[LGR4GM]

6 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

I understand that. I just don’t see the one piece that St. Louis got back that makes it worth retaining 50% on. The best piece is the first that will be very late.

This looks like a deal where St. Louis was desperate to get rid of their captain rather than a deal where they had a prime asset and waited for that one piece they wanted.

It is a quantity over quality trade especially since they threw in Acciari who is a valuable playoff piece.

Maybe other teams think ROR is shot based on this season and didn’t want to offer anything of substance.

He's not a prime asset. ROR is a UFA that St. LOUIS got a first for and moved on from. The salary retention didn't matter and is probably how they got the first. 

[Eleven]

18 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

I understand that. I just don’t see the one piece that St. Louis got back that makes it worth retaining 50% on. The best piece is the first that will be very late.

This looks like a deal where St. Louis was desperate to get rid of their captain rather than a deal where they had a prime asset and waited for that one piece they wanted.

It is a quantity over quality trade especially since they threw in Acciari who is a valuable playoff piece.

Maybe other teams think ROR is shot based on this season and didn’t want to offer anything of substance.

It works out to only about $1.3 M in actual dollars if my math is right.  This gives Saint Louis three (and potentially 4 if they move another guy) first round picks in a very deep draft.  I think it was a very shrewd move by the Blues--in fact, by all three teams.  The Leaves got creative with limited cap space, the Wild sold an expiring asset, and Saint Louis may not have to go through a lengthy rebuild with all the picks it's received recently.

EDIT:  Also, we're talking about the Blues--a team that traded and re-signed Tkachuk about seventeen times--so it's not inconceivable that they'll leave the captaincy vacant and get O'Reilly back over the summer.

Edited February 18, 2023 by Eleven

[Flashsabre]

12 minutes ago, Eleven said:

It works out to only about $1.3 M in actual dollars if my math is right.  This gives Saint Louis three (and potentially 4 if they move another guy) first round picks in a very deep draft.  I think it was a very shrewd move by the Blues--in fact, by all three teams.  The Leaves got creative with limited cap space, the Wild sold an expiring asset, and Saint Louis may not have to go through a lengthy rebuild with all the picks it's received recently.

EDIT:  Also, we're talking about the Blues--a team that traded and re-signed Tkachuk about seventeen times--so it's not inconceivable that they'll leave the captaincy vacant and get O'Reilly back over the summer.

Rags and Leafs 1sts should be 25-30 range so they are far from guarantees. They won’t speed up a rebuild but are assets that maybe valuable 3-5 years from now if they hit on them.

I understand the deal I just don’t feel St Louis got enough value. Time will tell. They got quantity time will tell about quality.

If ROR is revitalized for a playoff run and Acciari continues to play well this season then Dubas did a great job with this deal. Leafs are in a unique situation where they know their opponent before the TDL. How do they get past TB. I think these are big pieces for them but Dubas can’t stop here. He needs another quality dman. I don’t trust their goaltending going up against Vas either.

[Eleven]

5 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Rags and Leafs 1sts should be 25-30 range so they are far from guarantees.

Oh I very much agree.

But buyers near the trade deadline usually aren't teams with top ten picks.  When draft picks are the currency, this is the expected return.  I don't think any team would have given two #1s, for example.  A 1, 2, and 3 is a pretty decent haul, and chances are the Blues will hit on one or the other of the Rags/Leaves picks.  (Or they can package them and move up.)

Meanwhile, a whole lot of us are wondering whether the last pick in the 2019 first round will sign here--coincidentally, also from a trade involving the Blues.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

He must have been really bad to be sent to The Great Satan.

He is there for the playoff as The Great Satan GM is at the plate with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth and the count on him is at least 0 and 2.  Not sure he has more than one strike left.

There is no possible way they sign ROR in July.  No team can retain salary then like the Minnsies did this time.

[inkman]

2 hours ago, \GoBillsInDallas/ said:

I feel like I’m witnessing someone’s death here 

[SHAAAUGHT!!!]

11 hours ago, Digger said:

I think this is a great pick up for the Leafs given that they need to push for winning now.  Surprised they were able to make the salary work.  Minnesota only gets a 4th for picking up a 1/4 of his salary (seems low to me).

It cost Toronto A LOT to make that salary work with their cap.
 

1 hour ago, steveoath said:

Last throw of the dice for Dubas? 

I’m shocked he was allowed to make this trade. This screams “last ditch effort” to make it out of the first round.

It’s great for him either way though.  If it works he looks like a GM that isn’t afraid to make hard decisions to push his team to the next level, if it fails he gets fired and starts over with a new team with actual assets left to work with.  Well played doobie.  

[mjd1001]

Its a good deal for both teams.

ROR has been injured this year, but the 'eye test' shows he has lost more than one step (due to age or injuries), and so do his basic stats.  But he STILL is a defensively sound, 3rd or 4th line center who can contribute offensively.  If leaf fans think they are getting a Selke quality Center they are mistaken, but he still will be above average defensively and will put up some goals. He HELPS Toronto this year.  Personally, I would have waited to see if i could have gotten something better if I'm giving away my first rounder, but he SHOULD make the Leafs better.

Don't forget, Acciari isn't nothing either. He is a depth piece for sure, but a player who has scored 20 before and this year...on a bad team, was on pace for the mid teens in goals.  That isn't nothing...if you have an injury he is a piece than can fill a hole.

Finally for the Leafs, they have a window for the next 5 years with this roster, but the biggest part of that window is the next 2 years. Even if this is a 'deep' draft, whoever they were going to get was not going to help this core win a cup, they would be years away.  You can't get out of the first round, you have the most talented core of forwards that you have seen in decades, they are all entering their prime now....do what you need to do to WIN NOW!  If they think he makes the better on the ice, and he does provide depth, go for it.

And they got a rental back. Normally that is a bad thing but for them....it may be good. They don't have to worry about fitting in an existing deal under their cap next year.

As for St. Louis, they need a teardown.  They are an aging team. They have less than a handful of young guys to build around...and while a couple of them are very good, none are franchise level superstars.  I think they have picked above 15th overall like one time in the past decade. They have an aging, fading team that is no where near the cup, going the wrong way, and just about nothing young coming up to turn that around. They desperately need a tear-down/rebuild...maybe even mroe so than that Sabres 'needed' it a decade ago when they started theirs.

Edited February 18, 2023 by mjd1001

[LabattBlue]

1 hour ago, Night Train said:

 Understood but if your ceiling is a B-, C+ team for like 20 years, you start a new plan.  Are you a settler with just making it ?  Obviously, Toronto is. 

Ours was a D for a dozen years but with Adams and Granato recently arriving, I will give them a chance to better themselves. 

A “D”?  How about a “F”. 

[mjd1001]

20 minutes ago, SHAAAUGHT!!! said:

It cost Toronto A LOT to make that salary work with their cap.
 

I’m shocked he was allowed to make this trade. This screams “last ditch effort” to make it out of the first round.

It’s great for him either way though.  If it works he looks like a GM that isn’t afraid to make hard decisions to push his team to the next level, if it fails he gets fired and starts over with a new team with actual assets left to work with.  Well played doobie.  

Toronto should have a shot at competing for a deep playoff run for quite a few years now. As I stated above I think their BEST shot is in the next 2 years, but if they resign matthews, they will have Matthews, Marner, and Nylander for 4-5 more years with them ALL under 30 years of age, and have a still useful Tavares for a least a couple more.  You really shouldn't worry about the future 5 years from now (when this pick they traded might be useful and contributing).

The Leafs have to take their shot now. 

The biggest problem they have is not their team, but the rest of the league, the divisions, the playoff format, and just how all of that is falling the last few years.  To win the cup, Toronto could possibly have to:

1.) beat a Tampa team that is the conference champs, that beat them last year, AND has pulled ahead of them this year (statistically at least). 

2.) Beat a Boston team that, for most of this season, was playing like the best team we saw in the league in decades. 

3.) Beat a team as good as Carolina in the next round, who is well ahead of you in the standings, and over the past month playing better than anyone, indcluding both you and Boston. 

4.)  Then beat in a 7 game series the best of all the teams that come out of the West (A McDavid/Draisatle led Edmonton team, a potentially dominant Colorodo team if they get healthy maybe?)

[Norcal]

I remember when he was traded to Buffalo and claimed it was close to home but not In Toronto which was what made it so good for him.

Let's see how this works out for him this time. 

[Buffalonill]

Good trade for both 

[Sabel79]

This is just going to make it funnier when Tampa runs them out in 5 games, imho.  
 

At least there’s one good thing about the indefensible playoff format.  

[Taro T]

Not sure if O'Reilly has anything left in the tank but these 2 could help shore up the Loafs major deficiency.  Me no likey.

Would much rather have seen them get Patty Kane.

[French Collection]

Acciari might be the better player of those two.

[dudacek]

Tampa and Boston remain a tough hill to climb, but the Leafs as a soft team that can’t play defence has become wishful thinking these days, and this just cements that.

Heres hoping their goalies let them down.

[steveoath]

St. Louis quietly, if you can do that nowadays, have 3 picks in the first round on this apparently deep draft. Very good piece of business for the organisation.

[French Collection]

3 minutes ago, steveoath said:

St. Louis quietly, if you can do that nowadays, have 3 picks in the first round on this apparently deep draft. Very good piece of business for the organisation.

Leafs and Rangers picks are late ones but it will be interesting if they try and move up by bundling. Blues won’t really have a shot at Bedard but it is a good year.

[Eleven]

2 hours ago, Sabel79 said:

At least there’s one good thing about the indefensible playoff format.  

I like this format because it's similar to what I grew up with.

Also, think of how much better the Sabres would have fared with first round matchups against the Habs in 2010 and again in 2011.

[Porous Five Hole]

2 hours ago, Norcal said:

I remember when he was traded to Buffalo and claimed it was close to home but not In Toronto which was what made it so good for him.

Let's see how this works out for him this time. 

I remember that too. Looks like time has changed that though:

 

[Buffalonill]

What is interesting about all this where is pat kane going now .

Said he only accept a trade to NYR or  Toronto and both moved on 

[Sabel79]

21 minutes ago, Eleven said:

I like this format because it's similar to what I grew up with.

Also, think of how much better the Sabres would have fared with first round matchups against the Habs in 2010 and again in 2011.

Yeah, I get the Prince of Wales of it all, but there aren’t 16 teams anymore.  Add that that the lopsided nature of the current conferences/divisions and it’s just, like…. Bleh.