“No worries. But if you could hammer out 2 articles for tomorrow, one for, and one against signing AP, that would be much appreciated.”

Posted by GilDugmore on Sep 24, 2020 | 2:44 PM

This is for you, Gil. Not quite two articles, but one is in the mail.

Pro
Alex Pietrangelo is a really great first pairing defenseman that would anchor the top pair for half a decade.

Con
He’s 30 and might fall off too quickly.

Pro
He doesn’t cost any assets to acquire and the resulting cap dumps should bring in more assets.

Con
We’ll be forced to lose Morgan Rielly, Frederik Andersen, or William Nylander.

Pro
No they won’t, no they won’t, and lmfao.

Con
It kills the depth on defense.

Pro
He’ll make the jobs of everyone behind him easier and while they’ll probably lose Travis Dermott, there are lots of depth defensemen available on the Marlies in Lehtonen, Marincin, and Rosen.

Con
The bottom six will be gutted.

Pro
The bottom six was arguably overpaid for their production last season so a cheaper version of the third line could provide as much or more value than what was there last season.

Con
Any injury will decimate the team.

Pro
Any injury to a top-tier player will hurt the team, but Pietrangelo has played at least 70 games in every season since 2010 (47 in 2013), he doesn’t have a major injury in his past, and Rielly has gotten by with much worse partners before!

For an injury at forward, yeah it’ll suck, but unless the Leafs can trade Marner for two guys making half as much, they were always going to have that problem. It’s going to be time soon to get uncomfortable with the constant need to find bargain bin depth players either through free agency, trades, Europe, or developing prospects. Mikheyev, Rodrigues, Barabanov, Engvall, Robertson, Spezza, Korshkov and in the future with Hallander, SDA, and the 15th overall pick.

Who won the debate?

Hardev84
Hardev85

Various Leafs Branches

The NHL announced their offseason protocols that will begin six days after Free Agency opens. — Katya

Pierre LeBrun provides some insider updates on the Pietrangelo negotiations. — The Athletic

Frank Seravalli’s trade bait board from yesterday. Johnsson and Andersen are on it. — TSN

Ratings for the Stanley Cup Finals are struggling, largely because Tampa Bay is kicking Dallas out of the water when it comes to their internal shares in viewership. — Sports Media Watch

The trade is official, now with a splash of Colton Sceviour!

From The Branches