Toronto Maple Leafs: Why I Don’t Like The Nazem Kadri Trade

The Toronto Maple Leafs trade Nazem Kadri, Calle Rosen and a 2020 3rd round pick for Tyson Barrie, Alexander Kerfoot and a 2020 6th round pick (Avalanche retain $2.75 million of Barrie’s salary).

There it is. The trade that most Toronto Maple Leafs fans love, excluding me, of course. There are many reasons why I don’t like it and there aren’t many reasons why I do like it.

I’ll start with why I like this trade.

It addresses the Leafs’ number one need, which is a right-shot defenseman. Tyson Barrie is not a bad defenseman either, as he was 7th in defenseman scoring with 14 goals and 45 assists for 59 points last season.

The other reason why I believe it’s a good trade is because of the salary retention. Colorado retained half Barrie’s salary, which evens out to around $2.75 million. The Leafs get a good defenseman on a cheap contract for one year.

Alexander Kerfoot also came over to Toronto in the trade. He’s essentially Kadri’s replacement at 3C. The trade is good for Kadri because he gets to go to a team where he will get second-line minutes and, in return, we get an actual third-line centre.

Why I Don’t Like the Trade

When I saw the notification on my phone that Kadri was traded for Barrie, I was ecstatic. However, I then looked at the salary and the structure of the contracts and my mind changed.

This is the last year of Barrie’s contract and if he has a year like last year, he will probably be looking for $6 million plus. A comparative to Barrie is Jake Gardiner, but Barrie might have the edge.

He has had two career years posting 57 points in the 2017/18 season and like I said before, 59 points last year (2018/19 season). The most points Gardiner has had in a year is 52, which came in the 2017/18 season.

Even though Gardiner has not been signed yet there are rumours that he’s asking for $6 million plus, which is why the Leafs are not re-signing him yet. If Gardiner can get that much, I expect Barrie to get that too.

But, who knows if Barrie will want to stay after this year. He may want to test the open market like a lot of UFAs did this year.

The other player in the trade is Kerfoot. While he’s a good player, that’s not the reason why I don’t like the trade. The reason is that he’s an RFA right now, so just like Marner and now Cody Ceci as well, Kyle Dubas has a lot of work on his hands.

While I believe he can and he will sign them all, it still makes me a bit nervous. The two players coming to the Leafs had no term and the player they sent the other way had the better value. For me, I would’ve liked to see a player with more term come in and fill that right-shot defenseman role.

However, I don’t know what the market was like or what teams were offering, so I’m thankful either way. I’m just very interested to see how Dubas can sign all of these players and stay under that cap and not have to trade players.

I know he has the brains, it is now the time to use them.