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Toronto Maple Leafs Rumours: All Eyes on Jacob Trouba

By Josh Tessler

WINNIPEG, MB - OCTOBER 4: Jacob Trouba #8 of the Winnipeg Jets hits the ice during the player introductions prior to puck drop against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the home opener at the Bell MTS Place on October 4, 2017 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images)
WINNIPEG, MB - OCTOBER 4: Jacob Trouba #8 of the Winnipeg Jets hits the ice during the player introductions prior to puck drop against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the home opener at the Bell MTS Place on October 4, 2017 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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Jacob Trouba’s next NHL team could be the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Per a report from Ken Wiebe The Winnipeg Sun, Trouba and the Winnipeg Jets completed an arbitration meeting yesterday. In the arbitration meeting, both sides discussed the potential dollar figure for Trouba’s next contract. Arbitration is never good for a player and a team’s relationship, and if Trouba is moving on, you can expect that the Toronto Maple Leafs would be interested in the 24 year old right-hander, who has more or less been a constant in the Leafs rumour mill over the last several seasons.

In Wiebe’s article, he stated that Trouba and his agent have been pushing for a 7 million USD AAV deal. Per the report, Trouba is asking for 3 million USD more than what Kevin Cheveldayoff, the general manager of Jets is willing to dish out.

If Trouba is awarded 7 million USD by the arbitrator, that would make him one of the highest paid defensemen in the NHL. Per capfriendly.com, he’d be tied for 10th for the most expensive defensive contract in the NHL alongside Dion Phaneuf, Drew Doughty and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Plus, he’d cause the Jets to potentially put him on the trading block.

At this point in time, the Jets have 18.46 million USD in cap space this season and 36 million in cap space the following season. While that does seem like a decent chunk of change, the Jets will have to re-sign a bunch of RFA this off-season and next. Currently, the Jets have four other RFAs to re-sign including Brandon Tanev, Marko Dano, Tucker Poolman and Joshua Morrisey. The following off-season, the Jets will have 5 RFAs and 3 UFAs including Blake Wheeler, Andrew Copp, Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor, Tyler Myers, Ben Chairot, Joe Morrow and Laurent Brossoit.

With the amount of contracts that the Jets will have work on and fit under the cap, perhaps they look to move Trouba. I’m sure that Cheveldayoff is well aware of the Toronto Maple Leafs defensive struggles and his first call could be to Kyle Dubas.

The Question Is If Trouba Is Worth It?

There is no question that Trouba is a solid top four two-way defenseman, and at 24 he may have some more upside.

For those unfamiliar with Trouba, he’s a 6’3″, 202 lbs defenseman from Rochester, Minnesota. He played for the USNTDP prior to being selected by the Jets in the first round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. After being drafted, he joined the University of Michigan’s hockey team and had a phenomenal season. Once his freshman season was over, he packed his bags and headed to Mantioba.

Last season, Trouba posted 3 goals, 21 assists, 3 PPP, a 50.4 corsi-for percentage, 84 hits, 100 blocks and 28 takeaways in 55 games played. If he played a full season, he most likely would have had roughly 6 goals and 30 assists.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been linked to Trouba ever since he and the Jets first started having contract troubles a few years ago when he held out prior to the start of 2016-17 before signing a two year deal.

If Trouba is available, he sure seems to fit the bill of what the Leafs need: right handed defenseman better than Nikita Zaitsev.

Next: Leafs Defense Roundtable

What would it cost? Would the Leafs be able to fit him in under the cap and also retain all of their star players?  It’s a situation worth watching.

stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference.com, cap research from Capfriendly.com

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