The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded Kasperi Kapanen to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas has sent Kasperi Kapanen and his three million dollar cap hit to the Penguins in exchange for a first round pick, an excellent prospect, and some assorted non-entities.
This is a trade that will not only pay long term dividends for the Leafs, but one in which they win outright instantly. It is extremely hard to understand what the Penguins are thinking here.
This is a Leafs site, and we love the Leafs, but we aren’t shy about criticizing them when we don’t like their moves, and we love this move.
Love it.
Kapanen and the Toronto Maple Leafs
Before we get into this trade from the Leafs perspective, let’s talk about Pittsburgh for one second. With eight teams still not able to make trades, and the draft an indeterminable amount of time away, and the reality of a flat-cap and the subsequent fall-out not yet apparent, why would they make this move now, when the pick is all but guaranteed to increase in value between now and the draft.
Especially for a player who is essentially a fourth liner with a ton of untapped potential.
Kasperi Kapanen is a speed demon who tantalized with his talent, but never lived up to it, save for one season. He could still be decent, but he has failed to score when given prime minutes with some of the best players in the world.
Kasperi Kapanen is a goal-scoring bottom six forward who has been extremely inconsistent so far in his career. The Penguins will hope that he can regain his 18-19 form, the only season in which he was a difference-maker. #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/YXfJGVjQnz
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) August 25, 2020
As you can see above, Kapanen is also not a good defensive player or good on the penalty kill, despite having a reputation for being good at both. He has been a replacement level player for two of the last three seasons.
That means that Alex Barabanov, who the Leafs signed earlier this year, can replace him on the roster with absolutely zero risk. Barabanov is considered one of the better non-drafted non-NHL players in the world, and he will be asked to face bottom six competition while replacing a guy who had negative value. Sure we don’t know what he will be, but literally anyone could have done what Kapanen did last year, so it isn’t an issue.
In fact, by replacing Kapanen on the roster with Barabanov, the Leafs saved two million dollars for next year, got a sixth-round pick, a very good prospect in Filip Hallander (2018 second-rounder), and got rid of Patrick Marleau, and all it cost them was moving down two spots in the draft and a seventh rounder that is offset by the sixth.
You really have to give Dubas credit here because saved money, added a cost-controlled young player with a pretty big upside, and got a really big asset for an upcoming trade.
Another way to look at it is: Kapanen, Marleau, 7th, two spots in the draft, for Barabanov, Hallander, a sixth, and eight million dollars worth of cap space spread across two years. Pittsburgh should seriously not have done this deal.
The Leafs can now go shopping for a defenseman with a first round pick, Travis Dermott and eight million in cap space.