Toronto Maple Leafs Rumours Update
By James Tanner
The Trade Deadline is Monday, and if you’re a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, this is your Christmas.
We love the Trade Deadline. It doesn’t matter that it’s always a disappointment, that it inevitably fails to live up to the hype – we love it. If you’ve called in sick before on Trade Deadline Day, you know what I’m talking about. Olympics? Who cares when THE TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS COULD MAKE A TRADE AT ANY SECOND?!!!!!!!
So what’s gonna happen? We made a huge list of players we thought the Leafs could perhaps acquire, and we did a Devil’s Advocate thing about their strategy going into it. But even then, there are always surprises. (Or there aren’t any surprises, and the biggest move is someone acquiring Seth Giffith for a 7th round pick).
Leafs Rumours
So what’s the big rumour going around? As unlikely as it seems, talk about the Leafs being in on Ryan McDonagh just will not go away. Could their be something to it? Sure. The Leafs management wouldn’t be doing their job if a player of McDonagh’s caliber was available and they didn’t at least check to see what the cost would be.
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The thing about McDonagh though, is that while he’d instantly become the Leafs best defenseman (and one of the best in franchise history) he is left handed, as are Riley, Gardiner, Dermott and Hainsy. Additionally, he’s going to need money and term (two years from now) similar to what Matthews, Nylander and Marner will want, so the Leafs have to weigh what he’d cost against the possibility that they might only have him for two years.
Do you trade Dermott, a player you can keep for a minimum of five more years on a relatively cheap contract for a guy who you can take two swings at a Cup for? Me, I do it. The Leafs are never going to have three guys this good on ELCs, and they’ll never have luxuries like Bozak and JVR on the 3rd line, not to mention Komarov and Kapanen on the fourth. This is a team you can load up. Might as well take a big swing when you have a situation that isn’t repeatable.
Leafs Are Going to Load Up (Prediction)
Other than McDonagh, most rumours involve the Toronto Maple Leafs picking up a defenseman to help put them over the top. Nik Hjalmarsson is the one I hear about the most often, but to be honest, how can you even tell what’s a rumour and what’s just speculation? Even from plugged in, mainstream guys, everything phrased in such a way that you can rarely ever tell.
Personally, I’ve hear a lot people say the Leafs shouldn’t do too much. I find this laughably naive, but you know, respectfully, of course. The fact is, you don’t ever get 3 x super-star player on entry-level deals aligning with a Vezina season from your goalies, so you have to go for it. There isn’t even really a choice here.
Thanks for reading.