Leafs Nation poll results: ''Which captain would you rather see Kyle Dubas bring in at the deadline?''
The Leafs are rolling of late, especially in their last 3 games, securing 5 of a possible 6 points against 3 of the league's top teams in Boston, Carolina and Vegas. There are still some early-season kinks to iron out and some roster juggling that may need to happen in order to maximize performance.
As we all know, when the trade deadline rolls around every year, there always seem to be 2 or 3 players that everyone is clamoring over and then a few players a tier below them who can be very helpful pieces come playoff time.
For the Leafs, who are loaded with star power, it seems far more likely that Kyle Dubas goes after a complimentary player or two - but for the purpose of this piece, I polled Leafs Nation on who they'd prefer to have Kyle Dubas go out and get at the deadline if he narrowed it down to Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly and Canucks captain Bo Horvat - two Ontario boys who play a pretty complete game.
Somewhat surprisingly, the vote heavily favoured Ryan O'Reilly (63.2%), despite the fact that he's only registered 2 points in 12 games this season and is a -12 on the year. Meanwhile, Horvat (36.8%) has notched 12 goals and 16 points in 14 games, including 7 powerplay points and 2 shorthanded points this season.
O'Reilly is 4 years Horvat's senior at 31 years-of-age to Horvat's 27. O'Reilly also makes an extra $2M per season, at $7.5M against the cap to Horvat's $5.5M. Both players are pending UFAs who can sign with any team this summer.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that most people are leaning towards O'Reilly because of his Stanley Cup ring and the abundance of playoff experience, but I do have to say - give how strong Horvat has started this season, I thought it might be a little closer.
Either way, if the Leafs were to land either player, I'm sure everyone would be ecstatic. They're both players who can influence the outcome of the game in different ways. For Horvat, it's his relentless engine, scoring prowess and physicality and for O'Reilly, it's his experience, affinity for winning faceoffs, playmaking and solid two-way play.
So - which would you go after?
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 11 | 176 ANSWERS Leafs Nation poll results: ''Which captain would you rather see Kyle Dubas bring in at the deadline?'' If you were Kyle Dubas and you had narrowed it down to one of two players at the deadline, who would you go out and acquire? | ||
| Ryan O'Reilly | 100 | 56.8 % |
| Bo Horvat | 76 | 43.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
