Toronto Maple Leafs: Most Likely to be Traded Next
Toronto Maple Leafs – Kyle Dubas and Brendan Shanahan at the draft (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
A couple players on the Toronto Maple Leafs could find themselves traded this off-season.
It’s no secret that the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to improve their team and get themselves closer to their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup. With Nick Robertson, Rasmus Sandin and the Euro signings of Alex Barabanov and Mikko Lehtenon set to take roster spots for the league minimum, the team has several trading options and a lot of flexibility.
With the salary cap unlikely to increase for the 2020-21 season due to the financial ramifications that the league has suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyle Dubas will likely need to make a few more moves to have spending money to retain restricted free agents, pending unrestricted free agents and new players.
The Leafs currently have $72,508,533 committed to 16 players for the 2020-21 season. Add in Nick Robertson, Alexander Barabanov, Timothy Liljegren and Mikko Lehtonen which brings that total to $76,071,866 given out to a combined 20 players. That means that he currently has about just under $5.5 million to give to another five players to fill out the roster.
The Leafs have the option to trade, walk away from, or give contracts to restricted free agents Evan Rodrigues, Frederik Gauthier, Ilya Mikheyev, Denis Malgin and Travis Dermott while Tyson Barrie, Jason Spezza, Cody Ceci and Kyle Clifford are free to sign with any team.
They won’t give contracts to all these players while the Leafs may not even go after some of their own unrestricted free agents meaning they will have to go after new players, whether it be via trade or free agency.
In order to do that though, they will need to trade players from within their organization to make room financially to sign other players. Here is who could find themselves out of Toronto before the 2020-21 season starts, whenever it does.
Andreas Johnsson
Perhaps the most obvious trade candidate on the Toronto Maple Leafs, Johnsson is sure to be moved for the right deal if it comes to Dubas’ table. Johnsson is set to make $3.4 million each year until the end of the 2022-23 season.
Johnsson’s deal is largely based off his 2018-19 season where he potted in 20 goals along with 23 helpers in 73 games. This season, he disappointed as he only scored eight goals in 43 games. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Despite his down year, he still managed to be a quality bottom-six forward for the Leafs where he logged quality minutes, averaging 15:45 a night.
While the Toronto Maple Leafs would be more than happy to keep him, the front office is probably looking to move him to create financial flexibility to sign some of their restricted free agents as well as some new players to fill areas of need on the roster.
Teams would be interested in Johnsson due to being able to control him for the next three seasons, his young age of 25 and the fact that he could still have some untapped potential in him.
He would be expendable to the Leafs due to the immense forward depth the team possesses and that he could be replaced with a younger and possibly a better player in a forward like Nick Robertson.
He would be a good fit for teams that are looking for forward depth or someone to fill on their third or fourth line. The Leafs could net perhaps a mediocre prospect or some picks for him.
Alexander Kerfoot
Kerfoot has been on the Toronto Maple Leafs for one season and it could possibly be his only one. He was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche last season as part of the Barrie/Nazem Kadri swap and he’s apparently been made available for trade again despite signing him to a three-year contract as soon as the Leafs got him.
Kerfoot is a quality third-line center, especially on this loaded Leafs team up front. His first year in Toronto was the worst of his short, three year career tallying 28 points after putting up 40+ points the seasons prior.
His impact isn’t just on the stat sheets though. He’s a center that contributes on both ends of the ice which is a trait that is crucial in a center who kind of acts as the “third defenceman” when the puck is in the other teams’ possession.
Kerfoot is a player the Toronto Maple Leafs should look to keep as he’s a valuable asset to the team but if there’s an offer Dubas can’t refuse, he shouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger and trade him. If the Leafs were to trade him, they would probably need a combination of picks and prospects or picks and a defenseman that can contribute at the NHL level right now.
A team that is in need of a center would really benefit from having Kerfoot on their team. Perhaps a team like the Florida Panthers or Carolina Hurricanes would be interested in Kerfoot and would have what the Leafs need to get him.
Pierre Engvall
Engvall made his NHL debut during the 2019-20 season after spending four seasons in the minors. For a fourth line player, he did decently well registering 15 points in 48 games. During the season, the front office gave him a two year, $2.5 million contract which guarantees him a spot on the Toronto Maple Leafs roster going forward.
One thing that is overlooked with Engvall is his connection with head coach Sheldon Keefe. Keefe coached Engvall on the Toronto Marlies and knows him and his style of play very well. That is why Engvall was called up to the NHL roster shortly after the team was given to Keefe to coach.
Like the players mentioned before, Engvall has been made available for trade but the Leafs are better off keeping him. His connection with Keefe is more important than people think and the Leafs won’t get much for him back in a trade.
Also, why trade Engvall after giving him a fair contract for a player of his type and value? If he plays well, it will look like a bargain but if he performs poorly, it wouldn’t affect the team that much on the ice or financially, even with the team tight against the cap.
He’d probably also play his best hockey with the Toronto Maple Leafs as well. As mentioned above, his connection with Keefe and the fact that both of them understand each other is what will bring out the best in Engvall.
The most he’ll be able to net in return is a late-round pick as teams can easily pluck a player off free agents to put on their fourth line for the league minimum, $550,000 less than what Engvall is making while possibly getting someone better than him for that cost.
Frederik Andersen
There’s no doubt that Andersen is an extremely valuable asset to this Maple Leafs team. It can be said with certainty that if the Lefas didn’t have Andersen in net, they would be nowhere near as good as they currently are and wouldn’t have won as many games as they did.
If he’s that good and valuable, why move him then? Simply because he’s on the last year of his contract making $5 million and it’s unlikely they would be able to re-sign him past this year due to the limited amount of money they have to spend.
Andersen had the worst statistical year of his career but he still played fairly well, especially considering how weak defensively the Leafs are. He went 29-13-7 with a 2.85 goals against average and a save percentage of .909, both career-low numbers.
Andersen would benefit any team in the league that’s in need of a goaltender but he only makes sense for contenders with cap space to go after since he’d be a rental acquisition. I recently wrote a piece on potential trade packages for Andersen and where he could land.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs do end up trading Andersen, they would suffer in net as they’d have to hand over the reins to Jack Campbell or one of their goalies waiting in their system in Joseph Woll or Kasimir Kaskisuo who struggled in his NHL debut.
There’s also the possibility they trade or sign a goalie although it would be for less than $5 million most likely as the whole point of trading Andersen in the first place was to free up cap space.
Frederik Gauthier
Gauthier is a restricted free agent who made $675,000 last season and will surely be looking for a pay raise. He’s appeared in at least 60 games over the past two seasons where he recorded 14 points in 2018-19 with a career-high 11 assists and 12 points with a career-high seven goals this season.
Is he really worth a pay raise though? Gauthier has strictly played on the fourth line and hasn’t done much on the ice to warrant a significant pay raise. Ahead of him on the depth chart are centers Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Alexander Kerfoot and Denis Malgin who they acquired during the season.
They also have 19-year-old Semyon Der-Arguchintsev in the minors as well as prospect Filip Hallander who they acquired as part of the Kapanen trade and is viewed as a potential future quality NHL player. Both are centerman and could factor onto the Toronto Maple Leafs roster at some point down the road.
There simply isn’t any room for him on the Leafs which makes him expendable. A pay raise for Gauthier would also give less cap space for the Leafs to get other players.
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Perhaps Gauthier could net the Leafs a late draft pick or cash considerations with the latter being the preference in order to have more spending money. Gauthier won’t garner much interest, if any at all, but teams may be interested in him as he can log fourth-line center minutes for a reasonably cheap price and his young age of 25.