Toronto Maple Leafs: Assessing Viable Landing Spots for Patrick Marleau
By Kyle Cushman
Anaheim
The Anaheim Ducks are in in a weird position with talents such as Ryan Getzlaf and John Gibson, bad contracts such as Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler, but also a mix of exciting, young talent such as Sam Steel and Troy Terry.
The first team here that is not a playoff threat, the Ducks are a potential partner where a prospect or draft pick could get a deal done.
The fascinating possibility comes with Anaheim’s potential LTIR candidates, however. The Ducks are not a team that can stomach spending multiple millions on injured players, a luxury the Toronto Maple Leafs own. Anaheim has two players that are candidates to land on LTIR for 2019-20, which could open the possibility of a David Clarkson-Nathan Horton-esque swap.
Patrick Eaves played just 14 games split between the NHL and the AHL last year, recovering from post-viral syndrome. Ryan Kesler appeared in 60 games last season, but everyone knows he’s dealing with significant injury concerns after double hip surgery in the spring.
Do I see a Marleau-Kesler trade being a possibility? I doubt it, simply due to the fact Kesler has a whopping three years remaining at $6.875 million. That’s a massive amount to take on for just one year of Marleau’s contract.
Toronto would be eating over $20 million in three seasons in actual dollars to relieve themselves of Patrick Marleau’s $6.25-million cap hit for just one season. It simply doesn’t make sense, even for a massively rich club like the Toronto Maple Leafs.
One that does make a lot more sense is Patrick Eaves. With just one year left, Eaves is a prime candidate for this type of trade. If a deal were to occur after July 1, Anaheim would save $250 thousand in actual dollars in an Eaves-Marleau swap. It’s minor, but it would minimize the cost to move on from Marleau. A couple of mid-round picks or a B-minus prospect could get this sort of deal done.
An aspect that could put a halt in things would be Anaheim’s own cap situation. Even without Eaves or Kesler factoring in, the Ducks are projected to have only $14 million to work with. Marleau would eat up just under half of that, limiting other moves Bob Murray may want to make.
Despite their minor cap concerns, Anaheim is a fascinating trade partner from a pure fit perspective, though the Ducks have yet to be mentioned as an interested party.