19 Nov 2021 12:36:40
Devils Trade
Zacha
4th Round Pick 2022*

Leafs Trade
Kerfoot
Dermott
2nd Round Pick 2022

*Devils pick one of their three 4th Round Picks 2022 that will be traded to Toronto.

Posted this a few weeks ago, as this season goes forward this proposal makes more and more sense.



Thoughts ?

19 Nov 2021 15:25:37
Devils say thanks but we'll just keep Zacha.

If he could be had that cheaply teams would lining up with better offers.

19 Nov 2021 16:11:31
Furthermore the Devils are rebuilding and have plenty of cap space. Zacha is a pretty good young center with speed, size and skill on a very reasonable contract though he is UFA after this season.

He's their best center now (top point producer last year and again this year so far) but he's probably 3rd on the long term projected depth chart (behind Hischier and Hughes) .

IOW, they aren't looking to trade him but if a deal comes along that makes sense they'd probably do it.

Enter my Flames offering.

Monahan @2 mil retained
Valimaki
2023 conditional 1st round pick (downgraded to a 2nd if Monahan outperforms Zacha next year) .

Jersey considers it because they're getting a big talented young defensemen with loads of potential to play behind Hamilton. They can wait for Valimaki to develop, Calgary can't.

With nearly 10 mil in cap space the Devils can easily absorb the extra 2 mil of Monahan's contract this year. Next year Zacha will certainly be getting a raise bringing the cap hits closer. If Monahan finds his old form again (they can afford to wait a while for that too) it's a great deal for the Devils. If he doesn't then they get a first round pick.

For Calgary they gain 2 million in cap space for this year, shake up the core and get a pretty good 24 year old center to replace Monahan.

19 Nov 2021 16:23:14
My bad Zacha is RFA, not UFA next year. If he was UFA it wouldn't make sense for the Flames to give up that much for him.

19 Nov 2021 17:29:07
No offense Pinball but most of your trades involving the Leafs heavily favor them by taking a good player from another team and dumping fringe Leaf NHLers. You would have more credibility from posters if you were a lot less biased when dealing with Leaf trades.

19 Nov 2021 23:29:40
@MoxNix, That's too much for Zacha. I'll post a blockbuster between Calgary and New Jersey, let me know your thoughts.

20 Nov 2021 03:37:00
@TrevorA Yeah it's probably a bit of an overpay but what would you change without turning it into a giant blockbuster of the decade?

Change the conditional to pick to 2nd/ 3rd or what?

20 Nov 2021 19:51:47
I haven’t given up on Monahan just yet. Will he get back to his peak performance, maybe not, I still think he’s a decent player and will get better from his surgery.

No retention in Monahan, as New Jersey can afford it and if we send Valimaki (= 1st RD Pick) and another 1st RD Pick, we should just get Andreas Johnsson too instead of making it a conditional pick IMO. If that’s not enough, replace Valimaki with Dillon Dube and we’ll package Valimaki and/or Zadorov elsewhere for a Top-6 RW or a defensively minded LD with better salary and term for the 3rd Line for this year and in case Connor Mackey isn’t quite ready next year.

And for whatever reason, I want to add Chase Stillman in exchange for Jakob Pelletier too. Just seems like a better fit for the Flames (more grit), but I’d like to see Pelletier play with the Flames to know for sure, especially if we lose we end up losing Gaudreau and need a puck handling guy with vision to skate the puck up and set up goals.