Toronto Maple Leafs Could Trade for Pageau at Deadline
By Josh Tessler
Lou Lamoriello should negotiate a trade with the Ottawa Senators to bring Jean-Gabriel Pageau to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Currently, the Senators are seventh in the Atlantic Division and should be active prior to the deadline as they have assets that they’d like to cash out on. According to the TSN Trade Bait list, the Senators will be most likely looking to move Pageau, Mike Hoffman, Zach Smith and Dion Phaneuf.
Pageau will be owed 3.1 million over the next two seasons and could be a decent fit in Toronto since the Maple Leafs will likely lose Tyler Bozak on July 1st.
More from Editor In Leaf
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Nick Robertson Healthy and Ready
- Ryan Reaves Will Have Zero Impact on Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Playing Max Domi In Top-Six a HUGE Mistake
- Top 10 Scandals in the History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Results from the Traverse City Prospects Tournament
This season, Pageau posts a CF% of only 44% and has six goals and nine assists. It’s been a rough year for Pageau, but perhaps a change of scenery will reflect positively in his game.
How Pageau Fits into Toronto’s Puzzle
The Toronto Maple Leafs badly need a fourth line centre upgrade, and Pageau might be the guy to provide.
The Leafs should acquire Pageau and play him over Frederik Gauthier and Dominic Moore. Gauthier and Moore have been terrible this season. In seven games this season for Gauthier, he has oiGA of 4 and a Fenwick for percentage of 34.2%. Moore has been a bit better than Gauthier. Moore’s Fenwick for percentage is 46.8% and he owns a oiGA of 12 in 31 games.
The one characteristic that Gauthier and Moore don’t have is an offensive skill-set. This season, Gauthier only has 1 goal in 7 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and 5 in 27 games with the Toronto Marlies. Moore also is weak in the offensive zone. To Moore’s credit, he did have some offensive skills early on in his NHL career. Unfortunately for Moore as he got older, his scoring and play-making took a turn for the worse.
What Would Ottawa Expect In Return?
Most likely, the Senators will be asking for a similar return to what the Detroit Red Wings received from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Riley Sheahan.
Based on the Red Wings – Penguins trade, I’d guess that Lou Lamoriello would have to part with Nikita Soshnikov and a fourth or fifth round pick.
. Soshnikov has put up consistent numbers with the Marlies, but he hasn’t been great in the NHL. When Soshnikov returns from injury, I’d still prefer the Toronto Maple Leafs to plug Josh Leivo or Kasperi Kapanen in the lineup over him. While Kapanen hasn’t had much success in Toronto, he needs more playing time with the Maple Leafs before we can jump to the conclusion that he’s not a good fit.
This would be a solid trade for the Toronto Maple Leafs that upgrades them at a current position of weakness.