Toronto Maple Leafs Expansion Draft Problem Easily Solved

The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t faced with the dilemmas some teams are facing because of the expansion draft, but they still risk losing key players.

The main problem facing the Toronto Maple Leafs is that if they protect the standard seven forwards, three defenseman, one goalie, they are probably going to lose a young player that they’d rather keep.

I wrote about this in detail here, but the short version is that on D and G, they likely protect Andersen, Gardiner, Reilly, and Carrick. That leaves seven forwards: Brown, Kadri, JVR, Komarov, Leipsic, Leivo and Bozak are the commonly suggested protections, which leaves Martin Marincin, Matt Martin, Seth Giffith and Kerby Rychel exposed.

In my article, I suggested exposing Bozak because a) he’d get picked for sure and allow you to keep all the young, cost-controlled players and b) you know what you’re losing in Bozak, whereas all the other players may have untapped potential. Despite the unpopularity of this choice, it is the correct course to take for the Toronto Maple Leafs if no trades or transactions are made before the draft.

How to Fix the Toronto Maple Leafs Expansion Problem:

The Leafs, like most other teams, have players they’d like to keep, or at least get assets for if they lose. The difficulty here is that if you trade a player and you get a player back that can help you now, you are no further ahead because you also would have to protect that player.

Luckily the Toronto Maple Leafs are in a situation where their current roster is strong, but they also have players waiting in the wings to take over. In this case, it makes sense to trade for prospects or picks. You just have to find a team that doesn’t have a lot of protection slots taken up.

Enter the Arizona Coyotes.

The Coyotes have only two forwards – Tobias Reider and Anthony Duclair – whom they absolutely have to protect. They also are a young team that could use some veterans in their prime who can complement all their young talent.

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So the Leafs should trade them Bozak and Komarov in exchange for picks or prospects.

That would leave the Leafs with the Spots to protect the following players: Brown, van Riemsdyk, Kadri, Leipsic, Leivo, Griffith and Rychel. Not only do they avoid losing any of their young cost-controlled players, but they open up roster spots – Kapanen very clearly belongs in the NHL and playing above the fourth line, and Nylander should be at centre, despite what anyone says.

They expose Matt Martin and he probably isn’t picked anyway. The Leafs will lose Martin Marincin or Alexey Marchenko – much preferable to losing Rychel or Leipsic.

Solving this problem is easy, it just involves trading away two (mostly) beloved players.

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