Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Rumours, News and Notes

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 23: Kasperi Kapanen #24 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates against the Boston Bruins in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden on April 23, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 23: Kasperi Kapanen #24 of the Toronto Maple Leafs skates against the Boston Bruins in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the TD Garden on April 23, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators in a thrilling 2-1 overtime win last night.

Of course you’d like to see the Toronto Maple Leafs destroy the Senators by several goals, but you’ve also got to hand it Craig Anderson for a great game.

The win was the third in a row for the Leafs coming out of the all-star break.

It was an excellent game for Toronto, who dominated the entire game (getting around 60% of the shot-attempts, shots, scoring chances and expected goals) (Naturalstattrick.com).

The best player for the Leafs was William Nylander who had about six grade A scoring chances and helped set up the winning goal.

The overtime was fun to watch and the best team won: what more could you ask?

The win put the Toronto Maple Leafs into third in the Atlantic, giving them two points on the Panthers.  The Eastern Playoff race is crazy right now, with ten teams fighting for eight spots and all but four of them having roughly the same amount of points.

Toronto Maple Leafs Rumours

The Leafs started a massive set of rumorus by having Kasperi Kapanen sit out the game for what turned out to be disciplinary reasons.  One assumes he was late for practice or something, but we’ll find out Monday when the Leafs said they’d talk about it.

With Kapanen out, combined with the trade deadline being right around the corner, everyone was wondering if the Leafs had made a trade.

One rumour – it preceded the Kapanen news- came from hockeybuzz.com and talked about the Leafs trading for San Jose Sharks defenseman Brendan Dillon.

Kyle Dubas has tried to acquire left handed defenseman in the past when he already had a lot of them, so Dillon being a lefty doesn’t immediately rule him out, but I just don’t see the Leafs being interested in this player.

Dillon isn’t going to play ahead of Rielly, Muzzin or Sandin on the left side.  He won’t displace Holl or Barrie.  Would he be an upgrade of Travis Dermott?

I doubt it, but I guess we’ll find out.   I just don’t see  the Leafs moving the assets to get another lefty for the #6 spot who isn’t significantly better than what they already have.

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With less than a month until the NHL trade deadline, it’s going to be a non-stop rumour roller coaster, but the Toronto Maple Leafs do have a history of acting early, so we could see a trade at any time.

But one about Brenden Dillon? I’m not sure it makes sense for the Leafs to pursue this player.