YEAH I doubt the will either...tho a trade with Buffalo for Risto would be a good move for the Leafs. You won’t get much better than that in trade and he’s still young, on a good deal and improves the defence while as good as Willy is, he’s sorta expendable , considering the Leafs forward depth.
- HonkyTonkMan

Sabres would get burned in this trade... Nylander only looks good because he gets to play with Matthews.... No Thanks

Sabres would get burned in this trade... Nylander only looks good because he gets to play with Matthews.... No Thanks
- pwasil7

Yeah, no. The Sabres would win the trade easily.

That's why the Leafs would never do it.

Sabres would get burned in this trade... Nylander only looks good because he gets to play with Matthews.... No Thanks
- pwasil7

Yep, we'll take him continuing to look good with Matthews too.

Hell maybe he can even be made to look good by playing with Tavares.

I don't think anyone is against trading Nylander for the right defender. The problem is Ristolainen is not the right defender. You want to say awful is harsh, that's fine, but the reality is he is below average to very bad in his own end. Where does he play on the leafs defense? He isn't better then Rielly, and I don't think he is better then Gardiner either. At the same time, unless on the PP, or late in the game when down a goal, playing any combination of these 3 at the same time is asking for trouble. So were does he fit?

I guess if they trade Gardiner, he can replace him, but then we would be wasting are biggest trading chip to do nothing but move sideways, because if Nylander can't bring the top 4 D the leafs need, I doubt Gardiner will either. Gardiner probably brings back a forward worse then Nylander.
- VT001

That makes perfect sense, and it does not even appear that upgrading the D is all that great a priority for the Leafs anyway.