Toronto Maple Leafs Roundtable: Most Likely to be Traded

Mike Stephens

At this point, it’s not so much of a question of who is “most likely” to be gone. It’s more a matter of “who NEEDS” to be gone. The Leafs are right up against the roster and contract limit, and no matter how you slice it, someone must go.

That someone, through necessity, is Nikita Soshnikov.

As his long-term conditioning loan comes to a close on Saturday, the Leafs are now forced into a predicament. They must either place him on waivers and risk losing him for nothing, trade him, or put him on the active roster and send someone else down.

Considering how dominant both Travis Dermott and Kasperi Kapanen have been in their NHL stints, there’s no logical justification in sending either of them back down.

Unfortunately, Sosh is the odd man out.

Luckily, every time he pulls on Marlies jersey, his trade value goes up. In the three games of his conditioning stint so far, he’s put up four points, all while looking far too good for the AHL.

There’s no doubt that Sosh is good enough for the NHL. As I’ve previously mentioned, a team like Edmonton could benefit greatly from his services. They’re extremely thin on the wings, and Peter Chiarelli seems to love those “crash and bang” types.

As for the price? Well, that’s the sticking point.

At best, the most the Leafs could command in return would be a mid-range draft pick, one in the third or fourth round range. While talented, Soshnikov’s health is a serious question mark, as he’s never managed to make it through a full season without injury.

Regardless, I’d bet a large sum on Soshnikov changing area codes once the trade deadline has come and gone.

Josh Tessler

I would love to say Roman Polak would be the one Toronto Maple Leaf who won’t be here after the trade deadline. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case.

Unless you can persuade Brian Burke and the Calgary Flames to sell Dougie Hamilton for Nikita Soshnikov and a seventh-round pick, that’s not happening. Then again, he’d have to have hit his head to do that anyway.

Instead, I believe that Matt Martin will be the Toronto Maple Leaf who most likely will not be here after the deadline. Martin’s contract runs till 2020-21 and will pay him $2.5 million per season.

That’s far too much for a fourth liner. The Maple Leafs will need to shed some salary to re-sign James van Riemsdyk at the season’s end too. JVR deserves a long-term contract after how he’s played so far this season, totalling 21 goals and 12 assists in 55 games so far.

Besides his goal scoring, Leaf fans would miss how JVR becomes a distraction for the opposition. He parks himself consistently in front of the opposition’s net to be a menace and, more often than not, sniffs out a deflection.

Come playoff time, that’s a valuable skill set to have.

The Leafs also need to dump Martin to ensure Kasperi Kapanen maintains a permanent role on this roster. Kapanen showed Leafs Nation on Wednesday that he can be a pivotal player on the penalty kill while being just as dominant at  5v5.

It would be a mistake to have him sit next to Paul Romanuk for the foreseeable. So, unfortunately, Martin needs to leave town.

Kyle Cushman

Being a good team sucks sometimes.

Go back a few years and the Leafs never had to worry about roster crunches. Now, Andreas Borgman is in the minors, Josh Leivo still exists (allegedly), and Nikita Soshnikov’s conditioning stint is slowly getting closer to ending.

As such, the Leafs are in an unusual situation at this deadline. Toronto needs to clear some room, both in terms of the 23-man roster and the 50 SPC limit. Much has been speculated about Leivo in recent days following his plea for ice-time, but I still believe Soshnikov is the most likely Leafs player to be traded by February 26.

At the deadline, contending teams are looking to add valuable depth. Soshnikov has the skill set that could provide interesting value to a contending team due to his combination of offensive ability and penalty kill experience. Leivo just doesn’t provide the attributes a contending team is looking for.

It’s been shown that Leivo needs to play in a top nine, making a landing spot for him much more likely to be with a rebuilding team. Soshnikov can play on a fourth line and provide value on a penalty kill.

Could a team like Columbus or Washington with bottom 10 penalty kills look to add Soshnikov, who has proven in the NHL that he is a quality penalty killer?

Combine Soshnikov’s skillset with the fact he is actually playing games that opposing teams can scout, and he seems like a much more likely candidate to go than Leivo.

Of course, I would much rather see Matt Martin and Dominic Moore go, but that is a conversation for another day.

Alex Hobson

In a perfect world, the answer is Roman Polak.

But, he’s been so bad for the Leafs this year that they would be lucky to find a suitor for him. So realistically, I would say Matt Martin will not be a Leaf after the deadline.

I personally like Martin. I think he’s a great character guy and he really hasn’t been that bad this year. My main issue is that there’s simply no space for him left.

With the recent emergence of Kasperi Kapanen on the fourth line, there’s no room for Martin anymore. Kapanen has played himself onto the team and to sit him for Martin would be silly at this point.

The main question mark surrounding him is his salary. He carries an annual cap hit of over $2 million, which is expensive for a fourth liner.

The Leafs could potentially ship him along with other assets to a rebuilding team with cap space.

And while the return may not be fantastic, it’s certainly better than wasting his salary on the bench.

Eduardo Razo

Matt Martin, whether it’s part of a trade or they place him on waivers, his days in Toronto are over.

Leo Komarov is on the fourth line where he belongs while Kasperi Kapanen has made it known with his play that he has no interest in returning to the Toronto Marlies. Martin no longer serves a purpose on the team.

At some point, the Roman Polak experience has to come to an end right?

If the Toronto Maple Leafs make any additions to the blue line, Polak needs to head out. Travis Dermott, Connor Carrick, and even Andreas Borgman have shown that they’re more than capable of taking over Polak’s minutes.

This name is a late addition but Josh Leivo will get his wish and will exit Toronto. It’s not someone I would like to see exit the organization; nonetheless, if he doesn’t see playing time there then there’s no sense of keeping him around.

Finally, names like Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk get tossed around due to their pending free-agency. However, subtracting rather than adding would make for a confusing move.

Martin, Polak, and Leivo aren’t notable names, but these are the players whose time in Toronto should come to an end after the trade deadline.

Cody Russan

The current roster is something that does not need too much in terms of addition.

The right piece, however, could help on the blue line. But, in order to get that defensive help, who will the Leafs have to shop?

James Van Riemsdyk will most likely be traded away for young defensive talent. Attached to the deal would most likely be either a first-round draft pick or a young talent within the minor league system.

That young talent could very well be Josh Leivo as he recently requested a trade.

On a statistical basis, Van Riemsdyk sits at 21 goals and 12 assists. Put those stats together and you get 33 points within his 55 games this season. The problem for JVR is that he is a big minus throughout his career.

The 2007 second overall pick of the Philadelphia Flyers has a -43 within his 583 career games.

Things for Leivo are positive in the +/- department.  He has played a total of 53 games with the Leafs and has an NHL total of 10 goals with 11 assists.

His career +/- sits at a positive four.

FanSided site, The Rat Pack, a site dedicated to the Florida Panthers has an article up on how the Panthers could pursue Leivo.

Come time for the deadline, it is not likely that the Leafs will be silent.

A deal will be made, whether JVR and Leivo are dealt or not. Though they do make solid trade bait in the search for a solid young defenceman.

Wilbert Timmermans

I think the easy answer might be Josh Leivo since the rumour got out he requested to be traded to have a chance to play regularly.

Now, Leivo might be a good rental for allot of teams that are playoff bound or need that little extra push to become playoff bound.

However, I don’t think Leivo is going anywhere.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will eventually need him for themselves, in the future. For me, there are two prime candidates that may be shipped out at the trade deadline by Lou.

First would be Matt Martin. It seems he lost his spot and will not likely regain it soon. I do, however, think that if Martin is traded it would be from a selling perspective. I don’t think he would be part of a deal in which Lou can land a new fourth-line centre or a veteran right-shot defenseman.

If the situation would be that Babcock indeed convinced Lou to be a buyer at the deadline, Andrew Nielsen would be the player who is traded.

He could be the prospect, along with some draft picks, that could convince a team to trade for a fourth-line centre or a right-shot defenseman that Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock probably has on his mentioned wishlist.

While I think Nielsen would be the prime target for selling teams, I don’t rule out the option that Frederik Gauthier and Kerby Rychel will be involved in these talks.

Remaining would be the question if Lou is willing to trade Rychel and if a team is willing to take Gauthier.

John Krpan

There are several players that could fetch a high draft pick and/or a really good prospect.

James Van Reimsdyk comes to mind as the one with that could bring in the biggest return. A first rounder and a grade A prospect is a realistic expectation. Five months ago I may have expected a deal like this to happen but I do not any more.

Babcock is here to win and let’s not under estimate that Lou is on his final year of his contract. He has a bit more incentive to go out and try to turn us into a Stanley Cup contender by the trade deadline. And yet I do not think this will happen, either. At least not by trading away our young assets that have a place on the roster in a year or two.

I’ll bet Lou makes a minor – medium sized deal BEFORE the trade deadline. Which leads me to my odd man out, Nikita Soshnikov. Soshnikov is about to finish his conditioning stint with the Marlies this weekend, he hasn’t been healthy all season, he requires waivers, has a clause in his contract that allows him to leave to the KHL for nothing, and the Toronto Maple Leafs will be at one too many contracts when he comes off his conditioning stint.

This is all set up perfectly for a trade of Nikita to some non-contender, say the Vancouver Canucks, for Erik Gudbranson. [Editors Note: Dear God, No!] Not necessarily straight up, but maybe some combination of lower drafts picks going back and forth. Vancouver wants to be younger and they would love a young speedster with a snipe of a shot. And the Maple Leafs simply do not have room for another winger on their depth charts. It was fun Nikita, best of luck in Vancouver.

James Tanner

The Leafs players most likely to get traded before the deadline is Matt Martin, because I think it’s obvious that he’s on his way out.

However, that isn’t my answer, since it’s such an obvious one.

I think the Leafs are going to make a move for a top pairing guy like Chris Tanev and it’s going to cost them Connor Brown. Brown is a nice player, but he plays a position where the Leafs are deep, and so that makes him expendable.

He kills penalties, has a good reputation for defence (debatable if it’s warranted) and he scored 20 goals as a rookie, so he’s going to have some value.

The Leafs just have too good of a team to waste a year by just tinkering.

Next: Marlies Notebook: (Un)Arrested Development

So, I expect a major move to address their biggest problem, which is that Ron Hainsey – as good as he has been – remains the single worst top pairing defenseman in the NHL.

Thanks for reading!