Over the Toronto Maple Leafs 103 year history, many good and bad trades have been made.
In this series, I’ll be taking a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly from this century-long history of deals that the Leafs have with each franchise in the NHL. Beginning with the Anaheim Ducks today, and ending with the Winnipeg Jets, I’ll be breaking down the most important deals the Toronto Maple Leafs have ever made with each franchise.
It’s unfortunate we begin with the Anaheim Ducks, to say the least.
Coming into the league in 1993 as the Mighty Ducks, it seems every trade the Leafs have ever made with the Anaheim franchise has ended up heavily in the favour of the Ducks a handful of years later.
In fact, some of Toronto’s worst trades over the past decade have been with Anaheim, usually taking place on the draft day floor.
Let’s kick this off with a less stressful trade, looking back at the most recent deal the Leafs have made with the Anaheim Ducks.
The Most Recent Trade
Date: December 10, 2018
Leafs Acquire: Steven Oleksy
Ducks Acquire: Adam Cracknell
Nothing like a quality minor league swap.
Back in December 2018, the Marlies were stacked to the brim with offensive talent. Their roster featured the likes of Dmytro Timashov, Pierre Engvall, Jeremy Bracco, Trevor Moore, and multiple other high-end AHL forwards, but the defensive depth was significantly lacking.
On the right side of the blueline, Toronto had a rotation of Timothy Liljegren, Vincent LoVerde, Frank Corrado, and Jordan Subban, nowhere near the quality of their forward group.
So, on December 10, Marlies GM Laurence Gilman swung a deal with the Ducks, sending Adam Cracknell over to San Diego for Steve Oleksy.
At the time of the deal, Cracknell had played in just 14 games for the Marlies due to injury, though he had scored 10 points in that time. Coming back the other way, Oleksy was coming back to a Marlies organization he had already played in at the end of the 2016/17 season. He had appeared in 15 games for San Diego.
The fallout? The Ducks certainly got the higher quality player, as Cracknell would become one of their premier AHL forwards, scoring 28 points in 32 games with the Gulls and earning a two-game call-up to the NHL.
Oleksy, meanwhile, was a sturdy veteran presence, rotating into the Marlies blueline for 23 games in the regular season.
Both teams got what they were looking for out of this minor-league deal, but as we’ll see in some of the following trades, not all deals the Ducks and the Leafs have made were as harmless as their most recent transaction.