TLN Monday Mailbag: December 5th

Matt Hunwick isn’t at practice today. Matt Martin isn’t at practice today. Peter Holland isn’t at practice today. IS IT A BLOCKBUSTER TRADE?! Nah, probably not. Probably just maintenance for the former two and Holland doing his best to not get hurt before being moved. But it’s fun to speculate in the meantime, no?

Anyway, it’s Monday, so I’ve reached into the mailbag and grabbed a few of your questions to answer.

The situation isn’t quite as dire as it looks as. As you allude to, Nylander is better suited to playing centre, and players like Brown, Soshnikov, Kapanen, Korshkov, and Johnsson are all capable of playing on the left side.

At some point, a few of these players will end up being moved, or moved on from, depending on where they are in their development. It’s just the reality of the situation. That should be seen as a good though, though; it gives Toronto the potential to fill areas of weakness using an abundance of assets, and also allows for them to run a chain of cost-controlled talent as the rest of the young core beings to receive new contracts.

I doubt that’s the direction they’re looking at. The reality of the matter is that those running the team are talking about this team as one that should be winning games, and that they have a goal of winning a lot of games. If they were intentionally playing players they thought weren’t as good solely for the sake of creating value, that would go against that.

There probably isn’t a Corrado sheltering plan. They likely just don’t believe he’s good (but also believe him to be better than the waiver wire). If a vet gets moved, it’s likely because someone swooped in with an offer that exceeds his worth, not because they’re planning for such a scenario.

Dermott was injured in a game against the Albany Devils on October 29th. There isn’t a public timeline for his return yet and William Wrenn has been playing in his place. You obviously don’t want any of your prospects getting injured, but as far as worrying goes, I’d wait until he returns to the lineup to start getting a feel for whether it’s caused a setback beyond time.

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the arbitrator’s decision is due by Wednesday. I’d assume we’ll hear something this week, as a result.

Always the best player available, my friend. As mentioned in the Right Wing question, you can always trade from positions of strength to fill positions of weakness. Getting 11 defencemen doesn’t matter if you’re picking solely for position and end up with eight ECHLers and a couple of career Marlies; the goal is to turn your picks into as much combined NHL impact as possible and best player available is the easiest way to do that.

The defence will get better. They’re one pair away. Don’t let your mind get too far astray.