There’s no goddamn reason the Leafs should acquire Luke Glendening

According to Frank Seravalli of TSN, the Leafs have “kicked tires” on Luke Glendening again and it’s such a stupid idea.

Mentioned in his latest Trade Bait post, Seravalli does not go into too much detail, but he is clearly a Babcock favourite and someone he’s familiar with. Glendening was in Detroit with Babcock for a total of two years and saw his TOI increase as a clutchy, gritty, heavy forward. All that bullshit.

Not even mentioning that Glendening carries a $1.8M cap hit for two more seasons after this one, he is just such a bad player.

Eight goals and ten assists this season, but he is playing almost 16 minutes on average – the highest of his NHL career. He also has the worst 5v5 CF% (42.65) among all Red Wings forwards and they are one of the most out-shot teams in the league. The only reason he has any points is because of his insane 105.4 PDO, the puck is just always going the right way for him this season but regression is inevitable.

Also, the Leafs already have a better, younger, less expensive, fourth-line center in Frederik Gauthier. A cult hero for this team, Gauthier has certainly surprised a lot of people with his “being an actual NHL-level forward” ability.

To acquire just a “culture guy” for the playoffs is asinine. He sucks shit when he’s on the ice and can solely cause some devastating loses. For all of those intangibles, he hasn’t even won a cup – that’s usually the bare minimum for a character-type player.

Rumoured in the post is also the price.

“Last year, the asking price from the Red Wings was believed to be a second-round pick, a price that was too rich for then-GM Lou Lamoriello’s blood.

This year, that price would seem to be the starting point, given that older rental Boyle – who has not scored in his last two playoff runs – fetched a second-round pick from Nashville earlier this week.”

How fucking stupid.

To pay a second-round pick for Glendening would be absolutely baffling. Giving up anything for a player of his ilk is bad no matter what. He doesn’t do anything that can win you hockey games, which is the whole point I think.