Ranking the Top 5 Biggest Toronto Maple Leafs Trades of the Decade
By Jeff Borsuk
The Toronto Maple Leafs have executed multiple trades from 2010 until the end of 2019. We have compiled the top five trades of the decade.
In a decade full of Toronto Maple Leafs playoff disappointments, the club has been fortunate enough to have had some stellar talent pass through. Always bound by the NHL salary cap, the Leafs have managed to both acquire and ship out big names.
We have evaluated ten years’ worth of trades and narrowed them down to the top five. These are the most impactful transactions the organization has seen over that span.
5. Zach Hyman for Greg McKegg
There have been many trades that took place over the decade, but perhaps the most one-sided transaction was the deal that landed Auston Matthews his longtime linemate, Zach Hyman. All it took to get him was a player who had played a total of four games in the NHL at the time, Greg McKegg.
On June 19, 2015, the Leafs and Florida Panthers swapped prospects. The circumstances were right for the deal since Hyman, who was a fifth-round pick of the Panthers, refused to sign with the team unless they were willing to provide him an NHL job. They were not.
Playing for the University of Michigan, Hyman had just come off winning the 2014-15 Michigan Athlete of the Year award after tallying 54 points in 37 games. He was also a top-10 finisher for the Hobey Baker award. Instead, it rightfully went to Jack Eichel who recorded 71 points in 40 games.
McKegg was a third-round pick of the Leafs. The six-foot center had scored 19 goals and 28 assists in 65 games for the Marlies in 2013-14 and followed that up the next season with 22 goals and 15 assists in 62 games. It appeared as though McKegg might be someone who could put the puck in the net at the next level. He did. In his career, he has scored 14 NHL goals.
McKegg became a journeyman in the NHL. He has spent seven years bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL. In that time, he has played for six different organizations. Hyman has now been with the Leafs for five years and has scored 130 points including potting 59 goals.