The Toronto Maple Leafs and Arizona Coyotes Trade History

The Fleecing

Date: February 27, 2007

Leafs Acquire: Yanic Perreault, 2008 5th (Joel Champagne)

Coyotes Acquire: Brendan Bell, 2008 2nd (Roman Josi)

Don’t trade second-round picks at the deadline.

At the 2007 trade deadline, the Toronto Maple Leafs were looking to make a run to the playoffs. The Wayne Gretzky coached Phoenix Coyotes, conversely, were well out of the race.

Sitting at 30-24-9, the Leafs wanted to add centre depth, specifically someone who would win a significant amount of faceoffs. Yanic Perreault, already a two-time Maple Leaf, was enjoying a pretty solid campaign with the Coyotes with 19 goals and 33 points in 49 games.

And so, John Ferguson Jr. brought Perreault back to Toronto for a third time, sending 23-year old, depth defenceman Brendan Bell and a 2008 second-round pick to the Coyotes.

The risk you always run when making a trade like this is twofold. When acquiring an expiring contract, you better make the playoffs or retain the player to justify giving up assets. Then there’s the risk of the team hitting on the draft pick and making you look dumb a few years down the road.

In this case, all three happened.

Perreault wasn’t much more than a fourth-line centre in his 17 games back in blue and white, averaging 9:42 TOI/GP and scoring just five points. Even worse, the Leafs would go 10-7-2 down the stretch and miss the playoffs by one point (thanks Wade Dubielewicz).

The Coyotes then made the trade infinitely worse….by trading the second-round pick to Nashville.

On Draft Day 2008, the Predators had a target they wanted and were willing to trade up to get him. Holding pick 38 thanks to the Perreault deal, the Coyotes decided to move back, acquiring picks 46 and 76 from Nashville to do so.

Nashville would then select Roman Josi, and the rest is history.

The Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick in this trade, Joel Champagne, was never signed by the Leafs. After a strong QMJHL career, he has gone on to become one of the top players in the French league.

Next up in the Toronto Maple Leafs trade history is a big one, as I’ll be taking a look back at the 90-plus year history of deals between the Leafs and the Boston Bruins.