The Toronto Maple Leafs are clearly one of the NHL’s best teams.
Blessed with a great record to start the season, the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t even scratched the surface of just how great they can be. To wit: the combined even-strength play of Matthews, Tavares and Marner has (before last night’s game) worked out to a losing expected-goals percentage.
Over time, these guys will find their games and won’t have to rely on somewhat lucky results. Therefore, given their current record, I think the Leafs should terrify the rest of the league because they are almost certain to eventually play better.
And if you have one of the best teams in the league, one thing you want to do is load up before the playoffs in order to give yourself the best chance to win.
Toronto Maple Leafs and the Trade Deadline
The Leafs are right up against the salary cap and do not have any obviously movable players if they want to improve their team. Therefore they will have to get creative.
The most obvious trade chip would be Jake Muzzin because the Leafs have Travis Dermott, Mikko Lehtonen and Rasmus Sandin who all play the left-side defense position. I’m not saying Muzzin should be traded, just that he a) makes a lot of money and b) plays at the team’s deepest position.
Muzzin, however, has a full no-movement clause and also he’s pretty damned good. But given the team’s depth at his position, his age, the rise of Holl, and the cost of his contract, NMC aside, he’d be the obvious choice.
Since he’s going nowhere, if the Leafs want to stack up their team for a playoff run, they’ve got to look at unorthodox moves.
One thing they could do is trade two players that are both really good, but who are making money that may be better utilized on a single, better, player. Alex Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev combine to make five million dollars. I think Kerfoot is a great 3C and I like his elite defense and his ability to move up the lineup. Mikheyev is also a very effective player.
BUT
for their combined salary and the addition of some prospects or picks, you could perhaps get a truly elite addition to the team. They make about five milliion, and assuming the Leafs can accumulate some cap space between now and the trade deadline, they could target someone making about $6 million, theoretically.
Timo Meire and Dylan Larkin are two elite players who make $6 million dollars. They each have two years after this on their contracts and neither the Sharks or the Wings figure to have any chance to compete during this window. After that, do their respective teams want to commit to seven year deals to non-franchise players right when they’ve got a great young roster and a ton of cap space?
Maybe, but maybe not. And if that is the case, then they those players, or players in a similar situation could potentially be available. If the Leafs were creative, and were willing to pay a high price, perhaps this is something they could figure out.
The Leafs are a really good team that is really deep, so the only real upgrades available to them are in getting another truly elite player. I don’t think this is a highly realistic suggestion, but only an example of how they will need to be really creative if they want to improve their already great team.