For years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have desperately needed a top-pairing right-handed defenceman.
Jacob Trouba fits that bill perfectly. And given the 25-year-old’s rocky road with the Winnipeg Jets when it came to his contract status, and the fact that he is one year away from free agency and looking for a fresh start, now would have been the perfect time to the Maple Leafs to take a stab at prying Trouba away from Winnipeg.
The only hold up with that? They can’t. Because the New York Rangers beat them to it, and for a shockingly low price.
OFFICIAL: #NYR have acquired defenseman Jacob Trouba from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for Neal Pionk and the 20th overall pick in the 2019 #NHLDraft (originally from WPG). pic.twitter.com/rZTXYv4YG1
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) June 17, 2019
That is a ludicrously bad trade for the Jets. Like, “fireable offence” bad.
Trouba is a phenomenal defenceman, equally gifted at shutting down top opposition while, as evidenced by his 55-point explosion last season, chipping in offensively. Players like him rarely ever hit the open market, and in the odd cases when they do, they receive the massive 8-year extensions like Erik Karlsson signed this morning.
Somehow, the Rangers managed to snag Trouba for a below-average prospect and a first-round pick that they originally owned before trading it to New York at the deadline for Kevin Hayes. Again, I feel like I need to state just how hilariously the Jets were fleeced here.
It’s bad. Really, really, really, bad.
Comedy aside, however, this begs a very important question: HOW DID THE LEAFS NOT ACQUIRE TROUBA?!
If that was the price Trouba was going for on the trade market, the Maple Leafs should have thrown the sun and the moon at Winnipeg to acquire his services, bombarding their phone lines repeatedly until Kevin Cheveldayoff had no choice but to give in to their demands. What could have possibly been the holdup here? Neal Pionk is a bad defenceman. This is a 23-year-old rearguard “prospect” with a career-high 43.9% CF/60 at 5v5 and who scored a whopping 26 points last season in heavy usage, per HockeyReference. How was he the lynchpin in a deal for a borderline-elite defender?
Not to mention, the Maple Leafs have assets at their disposal, too. Perhaps a Nikita Zaitsev deal could have satisfied both sides, with some extra gymnastics to make it work. Zaitsev is right-handed (filling Trouba’s empty spot) and makes less (giving Winnipeg some cap relief). Sure, Pionk accomplishes the latter to a greater extent, but if the Jets are looking for a cap dump, it is highly doubtful that they’d choose arguably their best defenceman as the sacrifice.
What this all boils down to, frankly, is jealousy. Trouba would have completely changed the entire fabric of Toronto’s defence. His presence would have given the Maple Leafs the top-pairing RHD they’ve lacked since I was in middle school while taking the pressure off of both Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin, allowing Timothy Liljegren to marinate more in the minors, and ensuring that a Ron Hainsey reunion won’t be necessary.
And all it would have cost was an underwhelming possession driver and a money-laundered draft pick. Come on, man.
Thanks for reading!