Connor McDavid has been at the forefront of contract talks lately because of Leon Draisaitl's contract extension and personal opinions from many analysts saying he will stay. But, if there were a chance he would walk, Edmonton would trade him. If there was no deal, the team he would be traded to would have to have the appropriate pieces in return to make it a fair-value deal for the ages.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Mitch Marner
Mitch Marner's history with the Toronto Maple Leafs, including his relationship with the City of Toronto. Being a hometown boy and has been playing in Toronto his whole career thus far. It would perhaps define a significant trade in the ages of the NHL and give the fans a shakeup of the system of two organizations in a roar.
Marner has also been speculated to be traded with the last year of his contract in play this season, and he made comments about being traded after being eliminated from the first round of the playoffs last post-season.
McDavid and Marner have similar abilities on-ice and a similar outlook to their contract structure. Also, being part of historic teams they have played for all of their professional careers, this would be a blockbuster in the making of a landmark trade.
Marner is a natural leader and skilled forward who would benefit from head coach Kris Knoblauch's coaching system and be part of a team that would define drastic depth amongst star power. His stats speak for themself.
The most entertaining scenario for a line for Marner to play on would be with Jeff Skinner and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, where Marner would quarterback the play in the offensive zone. Not to mention playing with Draisaitl, Evander Kane, and Victor Arvidsson in the top-six formation.
Being reunited with Zach Hyman would give them many options to move forward in the league with a potential run in the playoffs. This would be a team Edmonton has yet to see, and the city would have to swallow the toughest pill of its life in trading away McDavid since Wayne Gretzky.
The Toronto Maple Leafs aspect of life
Connor McDavid
McDaddy, playing on the first line of the Toronto Maple Leafs alongside captain Austin Matthews and William Nylander, would bring chills to the city of Toronto and give the team a higher chance of winning the coveted NHL Stanley Cup.
With the brilliant mind of Craig Berube and a well-rounded level of competence related to the assistant coaches brought in by the team. This addition of McDavid would give the coaching staff an unlimited amount of flexibility to work with to form the precise order the team would like to go within tough matchups in the regular season to tweak out the problems when playing in the post-season against a higher-percentage team.
McDavid may have to play on the second line as a center, but when the team faces a lower-percentage team, go with the flexibility the team has to use in this scenario. The combination of lines the Leafs' coaching staff can utilize and place the players anywhere on-ice in respect to the forward's lines creates a juggernaut of offense the team has seen since the 1998 Toronto Maple Leaf roster.
On the special teams, McDavid could play with Matthews or Nylander, both lines presenting the ultimate threat on-ice. How would an injury be handled in the scenario if an injury were to occur?
The package of the mega-trade
The trade between both teams would involve a particular package to complement the deal. For Edmonton, McDavid and a second-round pick would be the ideal pieces to trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, trading Marner with a second-round pick, including a defenseman with a mid-range contract to play with defenseman Darnell Nurse, and finally, a prospect would have to be the Toronto Maple Leafs side of the business to complement all contracts honoured in this trade package.
The trade value would be fair as the contracts and assets all match the value of both franchises involved in the trade. Which is handled professionally, and the trade fits into a cap space-compliant figure.
This trade would be the Mega-Deal of the century, and the frustrations coming from both players would be handled diligently.