Spending $20 Million: Would You Rather Makar or This Maple Leafs Duo?

When Cale Makar signed for $20.4 million, fans started posting “would you rather” scenarios online. Most of them were ‘I’d rather have Lane Hutson at his price than Makar’ and narratives of that nature. Some were ridiculous. Others would make you pause. Most were unlikely given the logistics of the moves and how contracts were structure, but that didn’t stop anyone from throwing ideas out there.

With that in mind, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the $20 million and not necessarily a player-vs-player swap. The idea is to see what $20 million can buy a team instead of the NHL’s most elite defenseman. Cale Makar is unbelievable, but he’s just one man. What if the option was a trade that included a two-for-one?

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Makar vs. Nylander and Raddysh

Some of the ‘would you rather’ scenarios included fans saying (maybe joking) they’d rather have Darren Raddysh at $8.5 million for eight years than Makar at $20.4 million for the same term. I even wrote about it at The Hockey Writers and noted, “This isn’t about pretending Raddysh is Makar’s on-ice equal. He isn’t. Instead, it’s about roster construction. What Toronto gets for $8.5 million — Raddysh puts up tons of points, can run a power play, and isn’t terrible defensively — and what they can build around it, may end up mattering more than what one dominant player provides on his own.”

Make no mistake: I don’t agree that taking Raddysh over Makar, even with the $11.9 million salary difference, is the right play. But, for Makar’s money, I could also have William Nylander. His combined AAV with Raddysh’s is $400K less than Makar alone. Does that change the equation?

It might.

If the Avalanche were given the choice between Makar or Nylander and Raddysh, they likely still wouldn’t bite. That said, it certainly would give them a moment of pause. For the same money, the Avs would be getting a 70-point defenseman and a point-per-game, potential 100-point winger. That’s a lot of offense without taking much away from their power play.

There would be a loss in terms of the blue line proficiency, but would adding Nylander to a group of forwards that includes Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Gabriel Landeskog, Brock Nelson, and Nazem Kadri be worth it?

On the flip side, would the Maple Leafs make that trade to get one of the best defensemen on the planet? He’d be an upgrade over Raddysh, but the loss of Nylander would sting.

This isn’t a trade that’s out there, being offered, or frankly, even possible given the trade protection each player has in their respective contracts. However, if the ‘would you rather’ narratives are a popular train of thought right now, this one is intriguing.

Next: Are the Hockey Gods Telling Oilers to Circle Back to a Serviceable Goalie?