Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Patrick Marleau

The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded Patrick Marleau.

Long rumored to be going back to San Jose, the Toronto Maple Leafs have surprisingly sent Patrick Marleau to the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Leafs receive a 2020 6th round pick.

The Hurricanes receive Marleau, and a conditional 1st round pick, and a seventh round pick in 2020.

Patrick Marleau

This is a solid move for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Hurricanes will more than likely buy-out Marleau and make him an unrestricted free-agent.

The Leafs could not buy out Marleau though, because of his age there would be no cap savings if they do so.  The Hurricanes apparently care less about the cap space than the Leafs do.

This is a fantastic trade for the Leafs.  They were saddled with this horrible contract ($6.25 cap hit) ever since the day it was signed.

Lou Lamoriello, who should never have been in charge, and who is still unbelievably in charge of a different NHL team, signed Marleau two summers ago.

At the time, the bad deal was written off as worthwhile for the leadership Marleau would bring.  But last year, when Marleau declined to the point where he was scoring less per minute than Frederik Gauthier (which makes him a sub-fourth liner) it became intolerable.

Making it worse was the fact that Mike Babcock refused to recognize how bad Marleau was and continued to play him only one minute less, on average, than Tavares and Matthews. (During the regular season 5v5)

In the playoffs, there was Marleau, out on the ice in the dying seconds with the goalie pulled.  Babcock’s bizarre fidelity to Marleau cost him every bit of good will he had with the fan base, as the Leafs lost to the Bruins. Again.

There are those who will say this is too much to pay to get out of a contract, but those people will be wrong.  The Leafs had to do what they had to do.

The fact is, without moving the Marleau contract, there was no way for them to sign Mitch Marner and fill out the rest of their roster.

With Marleau gone, and Zaitsev sure to follow, there will be over $10 million dollars to spend.

The cost of the trade isn’t as high as it seems. People intensely overrate first round picks, and the fact is the Leafs are highly likely to be picking near the bottom of the first round.

Yes you’d ideally like to not trade the pick, or at least trade it for a player, but cap space is almost as good as a player at this point.