Toronto Maple Leafs: Pay ANYTHING for Panarin

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going for it in 2018-19.

Sure, they want to build a sustained winner, but this isn’t my opinion: the Toronto Maple Leafs are all-in for a Stanley Cup this upcoming season.  And that means you take a huge shot and pay what it costs for someone like Artemi Panarin.

. But if you read and write Leafs blogs for a living as I do, you might have noticed that fans get angry if you suggest trading draft picks and prospects in an attempt to go ‘all-in.’

They shouldn’t be.

Fans are Gun-shy but Management isn’t

If you write any piece suggesting the Leafs trade prospects and draft picks, people go nuts. “You can’t trade Liljegren, he MIGHT be good one day!!”  etc.

If you suggest this is the year, they tell you all about bast mistakes like Tom Kurvers and Owen Nolan.

But all that is irrelevant because the Leafs are in a dream situation and something like this will never happen to them again, maybe not to any team.

The Leafs are near perfectly constructed, in the following sense:

• 1. Two elite players on the last year of their entry-level contracts, meaning no cap hit.
• 2. Multiple players in their prime- Tavares, Kadri, Rielly, Kadri, Gardiner, Andersen.
• 3. Elite goalie
• 4. Cap Space
• 5. Players still improving – Nylander, Marner, and Matthews
• 6. NHL ready cheap talent – Kapanen, Johnsson, Carrick,
• 7. Ideal mix of youth, prime and vets.
• 8. Best centre depth in the NHL.
• 9. A bunch of team friendly contracts – Kadri, Gardiner, Rielly, Andersen.

The fact that the Leafs have the cap space to add because they don’t have to properly pay two of the best players in the NHL is just one facet of what makes their situation so unique. They’ve got the young stars who will keep them competitive for years to come, but this situation is not going to happen again. Ever.

Matthews and Marner and Nylander are approaching their peaks, while half the roster is in their prime and their depth players (Brown, Hyman, Marleau, Carrick) are ridiculous and wouldn’t be depth players on very many other teams.

Everything has combined to make this season the best chance they’ll ever have.  So given their cap space, they’ve got to do everything they can to give them the best shot at winning.

This means that Travis Dermott, Timothy Liljegren and every first round pick for the upcoming future are on the table.  If they can put together a package for Artemi Panarin, they will.

Go For It

Panarin – according to Goals Above Replacement – was tied for the second best player in the NHL last year with fraudulent MVP Taylor Hall., and behind legitimate MVP Connor McDavid. On a three year average, he’s 10th highest.

You could argue that if the Toronto Maple Leafs traded for him, he’d be as good or better than Matthews or Tavares.  So you’re not getting him – even for just one year – without paying a huge price. But that price is worth it, whatever it is.

And please don’t tell me the Leafs need to upgrade their defense.  They surely do, but if you can add a top three player in the NHL, you do it.  If the Leafs traded for Chris Tanev their defense would be miles better than it is now.  But if they added Panarin instead, they’d have a better team.  It really doesn’t matter where you improve, just that you do.

Frankly, when Matthews, Panarin and Tavares are on the ice, it really doesn’t matter who the defenseman are – those guys dominate games.  If you could have a situation where one of them is on the ice at all time, you’re going to be nearly unbeatable.

We’re talking about how Tavares is going to have a feast playing against secondary defense units for the first time in his career, but can you imagine Panarin slicing through tertiary defense?

Give me a break.

Next: The Ten Sweetest Plays of the Year

Artemi Panarin is available and he is worth literally whatever he costs, even for just one year. The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to win the Cup next year.