Stop me if you've heard this before - the St. Louis Blues are on the cusp of a "mega trade" with the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's become almost a yearly thing at this point.
However, we've far surpassed the point where we should believe any of these boy cries wolf stories. It's just not realistic.
A little while ago, there was a big rumor saying the Blues were interested in acquiring Mitch Marner from the Leafs. Our own Todd Matthews discussed why that would be a bad idea.
This isn't even the first and it won't be the last. A couple offseasons ago, the big rumor was the Blues would swap Colton Parayko for William Nylander.
That clearly never happened.
In 2022, both Ivan Barbashev and Vladimir Tarasenko were put out there by some pundits as possibly donning the Maple Leaf. Those deals never happened.
The Blues would eventually trade Ryan O'Reilly to Toronto once they were clearly out of the playoff race. That was far from a blockbuster deal, however, as the Blues were in sell mode at that point.
The Blues traded Kyle Clifford to the Maple Leafs in 2021. That deal happened almost three years ago and I'm not sure the future considerations have ever been figured out.
The biggest recent deal for the Blues and Toronto was back in 2008. That was when the Blues picked up Alexander Steen and Carlo Colaiacovo for Lee Stempniak.
No offense to what Steen provided after he put on the Blues jersey, but there were not a lot of fans frothing at the mouth at that trade. Still, the reality is that nobody really knew that trade was happening.
The Clifford deal was a mercy trade because the Blues didn't have a spot for him. The O'Reilly trade was one we saw coming due to the team's spot in the standings, but few knew it was going to be with Toronto.
So, why do any of us let ourselves get suckered in by these Toronto rumors? There's no reason to think those trades will ever happen.
We've spent almost a decade with Alex Pietrangelo, and now Parayko, constantly being mentioned as heading to Toronto. The reality is that this is just big city media looking for content.
The Leafs have been searching for a number one defenseman for years. It's their version of the Philadelphia Flyers or Edmonton Oilers always looking for a goaltender.
Cardinals fans can sympathize. Their version is always needing an upper-level starting pitching. All these franchises make a minor move, sprinkle some glitter on it and say that's all it took.
That's an entirely different article though. The bottom line is almost none of these moves included a trade between the Blues and Leafs.
Some proposed deals made a little sense. When the Blues were clearly thinking of dumping Parayko, it made a lot of sense to get the biggest return.
Now that he's healthy and the Blues are building around him, giving up their best defenseman would be insane. Almost all the proposals regarding Petro were just as crazy.
I think some of these writers forget that the league isn't interested in just handing Toronto whatever they need. Draft a defenseman and develop them instead of just throwing money at it.
Honestly, I'm to the point where not only do I not believe these rumors, but I reject them. From a talent standpoint, it would be nice to have some of those point producers the Leafs have an abundance of. But, the Blues have rarely been a fit for those kinds of players.
Jordan Kyrou already suffers a beating on social media. Do we really want more guys that don't play a decent defensive game just to have a few more goals?
Nope. I'm out on all those "mega deal" rumors with Toronto until something happens. You should be too.