The Toronto Maple Leafs should be targeting teams for potential trades based on a couple obvious advantages the buds have over the opposition.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have the ability to hit the cap ceiling and give up a couple draft picks. That means that teams that are up against the cap, missing significant picks, or both should be calling Lou Lamoriello.
Enter the New York Rangers.
Boston Globe writer Fluto Shinzawa wrote this yesterday:
"“If the Leafs shop any of their upcoming picks, expect Rangers GM Jeff Gorton to raise his hand. The short-term Bruins interim GM is facing years of grunt work to keep his team competitive and make it younger. The Rangers are currently without a first-round pick. It will be the fourth straight season the Rangers scouts duck out for coffee while their counterparts do their work in the opening round.” (Boston Globe)"
The New York Rangers are going to need cap space and they could also use a draft pick considering they have no first round pick this year and no second in 2016 or 2017.
The obvious dump the Rangers would like to get rid of is Dan Girardi, but unloading a bad defender with four years left at $5.5M isn’t going to be easy. In fact, it’s probably damn near impossible. Girardi is bad, really bad. His on-ice value equates to a two way, league minimum contract – certainly not four more years at $5.5M. Even a buyout isn’t a great option, even for a current non-competitive team. The hit just extends too far.
So what do the Rangers have to offer then, if anything, to gain cap space or recoup a draft pick?
They have a better chance at trading a pending RFA for a draft pick than they do of trading Dan Girardi because even the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t take that horrendous contract back. I don’t see anyone taking Girardi off their hands.
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That might have to be a realistic option for the Rangers for cap purposes, even though it’s an avenue they probably don’t want to take. The three RFA’s that are due for some more money are J.T. Miller, Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes, but if I’m Jeff Gorton I want to keep all three.
Avoiding a bridge deal, these are all $4M-$5M market value players. That’s not really ideal for a team with a roster size of only 14 and $18.3M in cap space. The ugliness of Dan Girardi’s deal could force the Rangers to part with one of the above players, but they aren’t going to give them away.
Does a prospect like Stuart Percy, who the Toronto Maple Leafs shouldn’t re-sign anyway, and a 2nd round pick get any of them? Maybe it gets Hayes, but not Kreider or Miller. I’m not sure how I’d feel about giving up the Penguins first round pick for one of those two either, but they’re probably worth it.
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The bottom line is the Rangers don’t have a trade-able bad contract that the Toronto Maple Leafs can capitalize on. They also don’t have any RFA’s they’re willing to simply give away. That makes them a pretty poor trade partner for the Toronto Maple Leafs.