Do the Islanders Really Make Good Trade Partners for the Toronto Maple Leafs?

The Toronto Maple Leafs began their offseason by re-committing to coach Mike Babcock.

The next thing the Toronto Maple Leafs need to do is sign Mitch Marner, and we know that the team and player have met.  We hope this doesn’t drag on, and my guess is it won’t.

But what else will the Leafs do this summer?

On sister site Eye on the Isles Christopher Lizza wrote an article yesterday saying how the Leafs and Islanders are good trade partners. 

Let’s check it out and see if we can agree.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Islanders

First thing is first: If the Leafs and Islanders make a trade, I am excited for Kyle Dubas to take his old Mentor Lou “My Best Move Was Trading for Matt Martin” Lamoriello to school.

It’s unbelievable to me that anyone would continue to let Lou anywhere near the keys of the franchise after what he did in Toronto (Zaitsev and Marleau anyone?).   I personally think he’s one of the worst GM’s in the NHL and that the Islander’s success this year is the result of one thing: randomly good goaltending.

Second thing that needs to be mentioned: The Leafs Salary Cap situation is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Yes, they will need to address it, but no, it isn’t going to cost them a major player.

The Leafs have Marleau, Zaitsev, Hainsey, Brown and Hyman who combine to make 17 million dollars.  Any or all of those guys can be moved.

This means that there is a zero percent chance that the Leafs will move William Nylander, as the article suggests.  It’s just never happening.

The fans can say what they want, but the Leafs aren’t investing heavily in analytics only to trade their best puck possession and zone-entry player.  (Also one of the best at both things in the entire NHL).

Secondly, if Nylander was going to get traded to the Islanders, they have exactly one player who would be acceptable in such a trade: Matt Barzal.  I know Lou is a bad GM, but that still isn’t likely to happen.

If they are interested in Kapanen, I am somewhat interested in that too, in exchange for Devon Toews.

I think the Leafs can probably re-sign Kapanen and Johnsson if they want to, but with Jeremy Bracco and Iilya Mikhalev possibly making the team, the Leafs are insanely deep at right wing and Kapanen would make sense as a trade asset.

The Islanders mentioned in the article though are not players the Leafs would have interest in. Scott Mayfield and Adam Pelech aren’t going to get you Kasperi Kapanen in a trade.  As you can see if you click this chart, the Leafs would have zero interest in either player.

They aren’t going to beat out Timothy Liljegren, Rasmus Sandin, Calle Rosen and Andreas Borgman for jobs either. So no dice on that one.

The fact is, the Toronto Maple Leafs have smartly loaded their team with cheap assets, so they really don’t need to trade for guys like Mayfield.  The first round pick for Kapanen might be interesting but the Leafs are playing for now, now later.  If they would take Marleau in addition to Kapanen, I’d do that trade for the first rounder.

Ultimately, if the Islanders want Nylander, they better be prepared to give the Toronto Maple Leafs Matt Barzal.  If they want Kasperi Kapanen, they better be prepared to give the Leafs more than Pelach.

I don’t think that our friends at the Eye on the Islanders will be receptive to our demands. I highly doubt they are interested in trading what are probably the two cornerstones of their rebuild.

The Nylander thing is a non-starter though. I would prefer Nylander over Barzal, and they wouldn’t do that anyways.  As for Kapanen, Toews is probably a bit too much for him, but you can’t blame me for asking.