The Toronto Maple Leafs are in desperate need of a trade.
It’s hard to make trades in the NHL – they seem to become increasingly rare by the year. But Toronto Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello is going to have to find a way to get one done.
Losers of six of their last eight games, the Leafs remain a talented team with a ton of potential. They have one of, if not the deepest groups of forwards in the NHL. They have a well-above average starting goalie and a defense group that is not terrible. Although, it is also not great.
In my opinion, the Leafs are not doing all that badly. They average over 50% of the total shot-attempts and scoring chances in their games so far. If their goaltending improves – and it will – they’ll be completely fine.
While I wrote earlier that Andersen has been a disaster this year, the good news is that it’s still early November and he’s far more likely to turn it around than he is to keep playing so poorly.
Honestly, the Leafs are a good team currently under-performing. They were always going to need to make a trade. The team is in its last year where Nylander and Matthews and Marner will all be cheap, and they are weak on defense and deep on forward.
Additionally, we know that they already tried to trade van Riemsdyk. We know for sure that they would like to add a defenseman. They’ve got cap space, tradable players and all their draft picks. A trade – this season, to improve the team for the immediate future – has always been guaranteed.
The recent play just brings this fact into focus. But, good play or bad play, it was always going to happen.
What to Do?
The Leafs need to improve their defense. They also desperately need a back-up goalie who can spell Andersen without guaranteeing a loss. Calvin Pickard was picked up on waivers, but he’s probably not the answer.
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The Leafs have Rosen, Liljegren and Dermott in the system, so it may seem crazy to go overboard and pay a huge premium for a premier defensemen. At the same time, none of those guys is going to be a top-pairing player today, and the Leafs could theoretically win a cup this year – meaning they shouldn’t be shy about improving now.
The overall state of the Leafs defense isn’t necessarily bad. With Polak out of the lineup, the top six is filled with six decent puck movers, and if Carrick or Borgman is your worst guy, you’re not doing too badly.
The obvious missing piece is a 25 minute top pairing guy.
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It’s difficult to acquire those, but the Toronto Maple Leafs have a ton of assets and as long as they don’t consider trading Nylander or Marner, I think it’s time to try and pull something like this off.
Yes they’re in a bit of a rough patch, but this shouldn’t be seen as a panic move. It’s simply about time to fix a problem that has been obvious for months.