[3-Way Trade] Maple Leafs acquire Ryan O'Reilly, Noel Acciari, Josh Pillar; Blues acquire Adam Gaudette, Mikhail Abramov, 2023 1st-round pick, 2023 3rd-round pick, 2024 2nd-round pick; Wild acquire 2025 4th-round pick

[Rick_theRyper]

21 hours ago, Alflives said:

As 

long as Horvat loses, Alf is happy. 

I would love to see Boho53 lift a cup, not like we deserve one yet. Here we are praying for a quick turn around or we're waiting another 10 years..

[stawns]

42 minutes ago, PistolPete13 said:

First they have to get by the Habs tonight.

1-0 for Mtl. ROR -1. 
 

It’s early days mind you, but I am confident the the Leafs will find a way to muck things up. 

He's got an assist though, so contributing to n the score sheet.

 

I know it's hard for Canucks fans to admit anything good about TO, but this trade makes them much better this year.  I don't see them losing in the first round this year.

[redhdlois]

21 hours ago, Alflives said:

Which frees up Tavares to play a more offensive roll. I don’t see any team stopping the Leafs this playoffs. The players in the Leafs’ room are ecstatic. 

Mrs. Alf…..is that you ??

[NMHockey]

Highmore - Gaudette - Leivo

 

The Blues were really angry that we took

Joshua from them.. Funny at this point that Joshua is basically a combination of all three of those players and a better forward than all three combined 

[*Buzzsaw*]

My Perspective:

 

Leafs mortgage their future for a 32 year old highly skilled two way player.

 

They seem to think they can win the Cup with high scoring forward lines... with one Center who knows how to play D.

 

Forget the goaltending, forget the D.

 

This is what Dumbass has been doing for the last 6 years.... trying to win a Cup with overwhelming forward firepower, and mediocre defense and goaltending.

 

It didn't work the last 4 years, and I doubt it will work this year.

 

Too bad they don't seem to realize that even when O'Reilly was at his best Captaining a Cup winner, he had an awesome defense behind him... and a hot goalie.

 

Look at Pietrangelo, Parayko, Bouwmeester, Mikkola, Faulk, Bortuzzo, etc.  None of them under 6', none of them under 200 lbs....most 6' 4'' or taller.

 

Plus Jordan Binnington on fire.

 

Now look at the Leafs' D and their goaltending.

 

I doubt they get it done.

[-Vintage Canuck-]

Ryan O’Reilly’s kids watching dad hit the ice for the first time as a Leaf.

 

[King Heffy]

18 hours ago, Alflives said:

Dubas is kind of like Gillis. 

You're right, in that neither were qualified for the job, and both caused permanent damage to their organizations due to their gross incompetence.  Only Millbury was worse then these idiots.

[Toyotasfan]

Yeah , that’s a really nice addition there, but the most pressing need for the Leaves is a defenceman, it would be like the Canucks adding Conner Mcdavid and thinking that’s going to win them the Stanley cup with their current team.

[The Lock]

Honestly, this trade tells me the Leafs are all in. It may seem like an overpayment for them, but perhaps not when you consider what they are getting out of it as well as their situation. They have a ton of UFA's due by the end of the season and then half of their actual core needs to be resigned the season after that.

 

This could literally be a make or break season for them. They might have a shot next season as well, but after that I say it's questionable at best.

[The Lock]

16 minutes ago, Toyotasfan said:

Yeah , that’s a really nice addition there, but the most pressing need for the Leaves is a defenceman, it would be like the Canucks adding Conner Mcdavid and thinking that’s going to win them the Stanley cup with their current team.

I say it's important to stress that they need a GOOD defenseman which really is the situation for a lot of other teams too and not something you can always just trade for. They don't just grow on trees and I would imagine that sometimes you just have to go with the next best thing that's going to improve your team.

 

Just because you need something, it doesn't mean you can just magically trade for it.

 

Think of it this way: if this was the price Toronto paid for for these players, think about just how much more expensive that good defenseman would be.

Edited February 19, 2023 by The Lock

[BlakeQuinnAndEggs]

56 minutes ago, King Heffy said:

You're right, in that neither were qualified for the job, and both caused permanent damage to their organizations due to their gross incompetence.  Only Millbury was worse then these idiots.

Gillis > Benning 

[HKSR]

And the worst team in the league shows the Leafs how it's done tonight lol

[Alflives]

9 hours ago, BlakeQuinnAndEggs said:

Gillis > Benning 

Gillis built teams that won two President troghies and got to a Cup Final. I think he’s better compared to Pat Quinn. Benning is better compared to a bucket of old pucks.  And the chipped, stinky, dirty ones with no logos. 

[Attila Umbrus]

20 hours ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

Ryan O’Reilly’s kids watching dad hit the ice for the first time as a Leaf.

 

That got me right in the heart strings. Love it lol. So damn cute!! Thx

[AnthonyG]

32 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Gillis built teams that won two President troghies and got to a Cup Final. I think he’s better compared to Pat Quinn. Benning is better compared to a bucket of old pucks.  And the chipped, stinky, dirty ones with no logos. 

Gillis built??? BUILT??? He didnt build sh*t except a talent defecit. Thats all he built was a hole in the prospect pipeline.

didnt draft, develop or acquire: Henrik, Daniel, Kesler, Bieksa, Luongo, Edler, Hansen, Raymond, Burrows. You know only like half the team and the BIGGEST PIECES. My god man, you must be Gillis trying to spread good words about the things he “did” that he actually didnt do like build the biggest part of the team the main pieces outside Hammer and Erhoff, he didnt really do much else, aside from destroying those Teams he “built himself” in under 5 years.

 

Riddle me this. How does a guy who “built” such memorable teams, who dominated so heavily… NOT GET ANOTHER SHOT AT AN NHL GM JOB???!!

[J-Dizzle]

On 2/18/2023 at 6:59 PM, stawns said:

I don't see them losing in the first round this year.

[J-Dizzle]

13 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Gillis built??? BUILT??? He didnt build sh*t except a talent defecit. Thats all he built was a hole in the prospect pipeline.

didnt draft, develop or acquire: Henrik, Daniel, Kesler, Bieksa, Luongo, Edler, Hansen, Raymond, Burrows. You know only like half the team and the BIGGEST PIECES. My god man, you must be Gillis trying to spread good words about the things he “did” that he actually didnt do like build the biggest part of the team the main pieces outside Hammer and Erhoff, he didnt really do much else, aside from destroying those Teams he “built himself” in under 5 years.

 

Riddle me this. How does a guy who “built” such memorable teams, who dominated so heavily… NOT GET ANOTHER SHOT AT AN NHL GM JOB???!!

Gillis was a great gm. He supplemented the talent on those teams really well AND was a huge part of building a winning culture. 
 

His biggest downfall was the prospect pool but it sure seems like he recognized it was time to rebuild a good ways ahead of most of us. 

[AnthonyG]

25 minutes ago, J-Dizzle said:

Gillis was a great gm. He supplemented the talent on those teams really well AND was a huge part of building a winning culture. 
 

His biggest downfall was the prospect pool but it sure seems like he recognized it was time to rebuild a good ways ahead of most of us. 

I will give Gillis this, he brought things to the NHL that no one else was thinking of. Not that it was his own idea’s, but nonetheless he did take into account any and all research to maximize players performance with sleep doctors and dieticians etc. He was also went above and beyond to attract UFAs with helicopter rides around the city and big attractions such as Whistler etc. BUT its not like it was hard to attract guys from the area and anyone who wanted to play on a contender. Overpaying for players is easy when you’re dominating, you dont need the picks right now. However down the road, those sacrifices are going to come around to bite you in the butt. Which is exactly what happened. We saw development under Burke and Nonis, we saw almost NOTHING under Gillis. 
 

 

Would you trust him with a rebuild, when drafting is your single most important aspect, yet Gillis after 5 years had almost nothing to show for it from 2008-2013? 6 drafts and even in Horvats rookie season, it was looking really bleak for his future. He struggled to skate, luckily he worked really hard that offseason and came back a much stronger skater. 

[J-Dizzle]

11 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

I will give Gillis this, he brought things to the NHL that no one else was thinking of. Not that it was his own idea’s, but nonetheless he did take into account any and all research to maximize players performance with sleep doctors and dieticians etc. He was also went above and beyond to attract UFAs with helicopter rides around the city and big attractions such as Whistler etc. BUT its not like it was hard to attract guys from the area and anyone who wanted to play on a contender. Overpaying for players is easy when you’re dominating, you dont need the picks right now. However down the road, those sacrifices are going to come around to bite you in the butt. Which is exactly what happened. We saw development under Burke and Nonis, we saw almost NOTHING under Gillis. 
 

 

Would you trust him with a rebuild, when drafting is your single most important aspect, yet Gillis after 5 years had almost nothing to show for it from 2008-2013? 6 drafts and even in Horvats rookie season, it was looking really bleak for his future. He struggled to skate, luckily he worked really hard that offseason and came back a much stronger skater. 

I would absolutely have trusted him with a rebuild. The guy was smart and knew how to manage. He was already beginning to trend towards adjusting that big issue of development/drafting when FA canned him. 
 

certainly he couldn’t have done worse than our recently departed trader Jim did….

[AnthonyG]

9 minutes ago, J-Dizzle said:

I would absolutely have trusted him with a rebuild. The guy was smart and knew how to manage. He was already beginning to trend towards adjusting that big issue of development/drafting when FA canned him. 
 

certainly he couldn’t have done worse than our recently departed trader Jim did….

Yea FA canned a player agent and brought in a guy with a scouting background… makes a ton of sense.

JB has drafted more NHL talent than most GMs around the league without a top 3 pick/generational talent. 
 

Gillis trying to rebuild with almost no valuable assets to move would have been an absolute nightmare. He already proved he couldnt draft.