Toronto Maple Leafs: Should Lou Trade For a Defenseman?
By Josh Tessler
In order to fill some of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defensive gaps, Lou Lamoriello must explore defensemen outside of the Leafs organization.
Yesterday on Leafs Lunch, Andi Petrillo, Gord Miller and Dave Poulin discussed the possibility of the Toronto Maple Leafs pulling the trigger on a trade prior to regular season.
At this point, I agree with my fellow journalists. The Leafs must make a trade.
Could a Trade Have Been Avoided?
Absolutely. The Leafs could have signed some free agents that actually have defensive talent. But, instead, Lamoriello decided to ink Ron Hainsey to a contract. My colleague, James Tanner wrote a thorough post on his thoughts on Hainsey. My thoughts pretty much echo his.
Signing Hainsey was a mistake.
Although, it could have been ten times worse.
Lamoriello could have signed a so called “shutdown defenseman” like Karl Alzner or Dan Girardi. But as it turned out, both defensemen were severely overpaid.
Alzner was signed by the Canadiens and we can all agree that Montreal’s defensive depth is terrible. Montreal could have signed a few solid shut down defensemen instead of paying Alzner an obscene amount of money. But, Marc Bergevin isn’t the brightest general manager. Similar situation in Tampa with Dan Girardi.
The Leafs could have gone out and signed defensemen like Paul Postma and Patrick Wiercioch. Sure, I’d rather have Alzner than Postma or Wiercioch. But, not for the price.
Instead, the Leafs chose to overpay Hainsey and left no cap room for the Leafs to bring in solid defensive options for the third pairing.
Additionally, Lamoriello could have signed defensemen like Mark Stuart and Rod Scuderi to PTOs prior to training camp. Bringing Stuart and Scuderi to camp, would have raised the competition level for the last spot. Plus, who knows, maybe Stuart or Scuderi could have been a cheap solid option depending on how camp and preseason turned out.
The Leafs decided to go a different route. Lamoriello brought Roman Polak back to Toronto on a PTO contract.
Big mistake. Look at Polak’s advanced statistics from last year. His corsi-for and fenwick-for were the second lowest of his career.
Can’t We Use a Rookie or Connor Carrick?
Sure, you can. But if you want the Leafs to contend for the Stanley Cup, that might be a mistake.
Timothy Liljegren, Calle Rosen, Andreas Borgman, Travis Dermott all look like great defensive prospects, but the Leafs truly need NHL experience. The rookies are better off going to the Toronto Marlies and spending time developing.
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Let’s move to Carrick. Carrick had so much promise. Looked like a solid two-way defenseman in his days playing for the Plymouth Whalers in the OHL. When the Washington Capitals brought him to the nation’s capital, Carrick struggled. He ended up splitting his time between the Capitals and their farm team, the Hershey Bears.
Washington then dealt Carrick and Brooks Laich to Toronto for Daniel Winnik. Carrick looked ok last season in Toronto. Carrick had a solid corsi-for and fenwick-for last season. But in the first preseason game against the Ottawa Senators, he looked terrible. He ended up allowing three Senators goals on his watch.
I do believe that Mike Babcock and Lamoriello should give Carrick one more preseason game. But, I’m not confident that Carrick will deliver.
The Trade Market
Several names come to mind. I think the Toronto Maple Leafs should look into Toronto natives, Jamie Oleksiak and Christopher Tanev.
You might Google Tanev or Oleksiak’s advanced statistics and call me crazy. But, their sample size is small. Neither, Tanev nor Oleksiak have played a full 82 game season.
Oleksiak and Tanev would be fairly cheap options for the Leafs. They wouldn’t have to send multiple prospects or draft picks.
The Toronto Maple Leafs could potentially part with Nikita Soshnikov or Andrew Nielsen. As both Soshnikov and Nielsen, haven’t truly been developing in the right direction. Perhaps they need a new voice and fresh scenery.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind Tanev or Oleksiak in the Leafs’ top six.
Worst case if they don’t work out, the positive thing is that you didn’t end up trading too much for them.
Stats from naturalhattrick.com