Toronto Maple Leafs Are Rumoured to be Looking to Add a Winger
By Joseph Zita
2. Jared McCann – PIT – 24 years old – C/LW
2020-21 stats – 11 GP – 2 G – 3 A – 5 PTS – 51.56 CF%
Career stats – 321 GP – 54 G – 74 A – 128 PTS – 50.80 CF%
Jared McCann, who in my opinion would be a great addition to the Toronto Maple Leafs, especially if they want to add both scoring and defense in one player because you get two in one with a guy like McCann. He’s a great depth option for a team’s third line and if anything could potentially move up in the lineup when needed. He won’t score at a ridiculous rate but he’ll still contribute around 30 points a season while playing responsibly defensively.
McCann who is on the Pittsburgh Penguins, of course, could be a fit because it was reported by Elliotte Friedman on his 31 Thoughts podcast a couple of weeks back that the Penguins were calling several teams for their defensemen, and one defenseman in particular that they poked around at was none other than the Toronto Maple Leafs Travis Dermott. Now of course a trade never went down, however, who is not to say it can’t get done in the near future?
As I was saying earlier about McCann’s ability to chip in some offense while playing great defense, the return for a guy like him is unknown to me right now, however, if the Maple Leafs do go the route of moving on from Dermott, which I highly doubt they will, he might be included in a trade to get a guy like McCann.
McCann is off to a pretty decent start to his 2021 season as he currently has five points in 11 games while playing bottom-six minutes for the Penguins. His stats are also really good and prove that he plays a pretty good offensive game while still playing good defense, he currently has a 51.83 xGF% which ranks him 8th on the team, a 2.23 xGF/60 which ranks him 10th on the team, and lastly, he has a 2.07 xGA/60 which ranks him 6th among Penguins.
He signed a two-year contract extension with Pittsburgh in the off-season which is carrying an AAV of $2.94M, so getting a guy that can give you offense with some defense for under $3M is pretty good in my opinion. . (Stats from Evolving-Hockey.com)