32 Potential Trade Options for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL Trade Deadline

The Toronto Maple Leafs got a had start on the trade deadline by moving Mikko Lehtonen to the Blue Jackets last Friday.  The reigning KHL defenseman of the year is a potential NHL superstar, but given the lack of training camp and the shortened season, (plus their defensive depth and contender status) the Leafs just couldn’t break him into the lineup.

They did, however, solve a need by finally replacing Aaron Dell who they lost on waivers earlier in the year.  Veini Vehvilainen is now the Leafs fourth string goalie, and he’s waiver proof.  Meanwhile, if they want to, they can try to sign Lehtonen again in the offseason.

The Leafs – like all contenders before them – will be making moves leading up to the NHL Playoffs.  They have a ton of assets (all their high draft picks, several top prospects) but what they don’t have is a lot of cap space.

That can be solved by paying a third team to retain salary, or by moving some salary out.  Other than Freddie Andersen, however, there is no real obvious place to cut salary from.  Still, you can accumulate cap space during the season, and you can get creative with regards to retention – say what you want about the Leafs, no one can argue that they are not masters of salary cap manipulation and management.

According to Elliotte Friedman, and common sense, the Leafs are looking for a defensively sound, hard to play against, puck possessing, top six forward.  In this situation they likely push Kerfoot down to 3C and move Engvall, but trading Kerfoot is, I guess, an option (though I don’t see it happening).

The Leafs are said to have interest in Mattias Ekholm, so we know that they are interested in upgrading their blueline, and everyone who cares about this team knows an upgrade in net is at least plausible, and possibly their biggest concern.

The Toronto Maple Leafs could use an upgrade in the top six to replace Joe Thornton (he has good stats but is better utilized lower in the lineup at his age)  or Kerfoot,(see above).  They could use a new goalie, and on defense they could upgrade over Zach Bogosian, who brings a different look to the team but is actually pretty bad statistically.

Finally, Justin Holl is a great story, but there is probably an upgrade to be had there.  The team wants to be great, not just very good and Holl may be better on the third pairing.

Robin Lehner

Pros: One of the NHL’s best goalies over the last several years.  Is an expensive backup to current Vezina front runner Marc Andre Fleury.

Cons: Once wore a Donald Trump sticker on his helmet.

Lehner is someone who has obviously learned from his mistakes (which shows great character) and I would welcome him to the team.

Lehner is signed for the next five years, and the Knights may not want to move him, but stranger things have happened. He’s two years younger than Andersen who’s contract is expiring. If Vegas took Andersen back, the salaries would be a wash. (All salary info for this post comes from capfriendly.com). 

This should be the Leafs main target, although who knows if he’d be available. To my way of thinking, a team up against the cap hoping to win the Stanley Cup who has  a five million dollar backup goalie should be willing to at least think about it.

In my opinion, finding out if Robin Lehner is available should be the Leafs first priority, and trying to trade for him would be my 2 through 19 biggest priorities.  Lehner is a massive upgrade on Andersen who’s cap hit is the same, while solving the problem of who is the their goalie for the next four years.

Lehner is fifth in save percentage over the last three seasons among goalies who have played a minimum of 4000 minutes. (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

Darcey Kuemper

Kuemper plays for a team that isn’t contending and which is (or should be) desperate to add young assets and draft picks.

Kuemper also happens to be one of – if not the absolute best – goalies in the NHL over the last couple of seasons.  He has another year on his contract and is much cheaper than Andersen.  He would probably be available because he plays for the NHL’s most financially unstable team and you have to think they’d jump at the chance to get  a first rounder and save some money at the same time.

The only problem with Kuemper, and the probable reason as to why he isn’t the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie right now is that he is incredibly injury prone.

Kuemper was such a sensible option for the Leafs this summer that almost everyone I talked to about the Leafs brought him up at some point.

He’s available and he’s better than what the Leafs currently have, but I wouldn’t want them to bet the season on a guy who can potentially require an MRI and an operation after an encounter with a butterfly in a lush meadow on an offday.

He is currently “week to week,” with a “lower body injury,” which only serves to remind us how pathetic it is that the NHL doesn’t release injury information.

John Gibson

John Gibson is 27 years old and has long been considered one of the NHL’s best goalies who just happens to be stuck on a bad team.  This year his numbers are not good, and so I have no idea if the Leafs would actually consider him any kind of upgrade over Andersen or not.

While Gibson would be a nice acquisition, his contract is for almost seven million and runs forever.

David Rittich

Rittich is seventh in the NHL over the last three years in high-danger save percentage (min. 4000 minutes) while Andersen is 20th.  The Flames may be heading for a rebuild and the 28 year old goalie could be available.

He lacks the sexy name recognition, but he makes half of Andersen’s salary, wouldn’t cost a lot to acquire and has excellent stats.

Joonas Korpisalo / Elvis Merzlikens

The 26  year old destroyed the Leafs, along with Elvis Merzlikens, last summer in the playoffs, despite their team getting completely dummied by the superior opposition.

Columbus has two goalies and they aren’t competing this year.  The Leafs, having been humbled by the pair of them, may consider one or the other if they are serious about upgrading on Old Freddie.

Thatcher Demo

Having inexplicably given money and term to Brayden Holtby, the horribly managed Canucks do seem like they could be tricked into a move like this.  If available, it’d be a slam dunk to go for Demko.

Igor Shestyorkin / Alexander Georgiev

The Rangers have two goalies, one 25 one 24, who are young and talented.  One of them is their goalie of the future, the other may be the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie of the future.  If available, I like this option a lot.

Mattias Ekholm

He doesn’t cost much, he’s an elite player, and he is available for the low low price of one first rounder and two prospects.

This is the dream addition…….if he was right handed.  Ekholm isn’t going to usurp Rielly or Muzzin, so the question is “Do the Leafs want to spend that much capital to upgrade their third defensive pairing?”

The answer is a resounding no.

If he can play the right side, moving Holl down and Bogosian out of the lineup, I suppose it’s an option, but Justin Holl doesn’t deserve that, and frankly, neither does Bogosian.

The Leafs have a very nice top four, and unless they are getting Roman Josi or someone on that level, it’s hard to imagine they want to spend what it would cost to make a slight improvement in their top four.

Ekholm is obviously better than Dermott, but Dermott has been crushing third pairing minutes forever, and the Leafs third pairing is not a problem in any way shape or form.  You have Sandin if you need him, and barring injury I just can’t see the point in spending what it would cost to get Ekholm and then only being able to use him in a third pairing role.

There just aren’t that many minutes to go around, and so I think the assets are better spend on a goalie or forward.  They should still upgrade the blueline if they can, they just don’t need to go overboard trading for a top line guy to play on the third pairing.

David Savard

In a different world, David Savard has spent the time since he was drafted in 2009 playing for a team who’s players get noticed, and is widely considered one of the NHL’s best defensive defenseman, which he definitely is.

A right handed 30 year old who once had a 36 point season, but now is almost entirely defensive, David Savard would be an excellent addition to any team seeking to get better defensively.

You know which team is not very good defensively? The Toronto Maple Leafs.  They have a slight improvement in defense since Sheldon Keefe took over for Mike Babcock, but the fact is that they are a team whose success so far this season is largely built upon having the 5th highest 5v5 save percentage and not solid team defense.

That isn’t to say that the Leafs haven’t tightened up a little, but they didn’t suddenly become the New York Islanders either.  Their PK is brutal and their starter is unreliable, so acquiring one of the NHL’s premier defensive players wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.

For the last three seasons, according to the Jfresh player card data, Savard is better than 91% of NHL defenders at the defensive side of the game, 5v5.  That is for the last three seasons combined, while he’s “just” better than 88% this year.

If I’m running the Toronto Maple Leafs, Savard is a top target.  Even moreso because he’s a pending UFA who can probably be squeezed into the Leafs cap situation without much trouble.

Zach Bogosian is better than only 32% of NHL blueliners when it comes to just defense.  Savard would be a massive upgrade on him.  He should be the Leafs main target.  A Savard/Muzzin shut-down pairing would be unbelievable.

Niklas Hjalmarsson

You can take everything we just said about David Savard and apply it to Hjalmarsson, except that he’s a left hander.

He is an elite defender with very little offense.  He is a pending UFA on a non-competitive team and would likely be available.  The only problem here is that he’s a left hander, and I don’t know where the Leafs would play him.

Morgan Rielly may be terrible defensively, but his offense more than makes up for it. His expected goals +/- (from Jfresh) is 90%.  This is important to note because hockey is a game that should be viewed holistically, instead of dividing up offense and defense.

Hjalmarsson is an elite defender (better than 80%) but his overall effect on games is much, much less than Rielly’s.  He is also not going to replace Jake Muzzin, leaving us only to wonder about Travis Dermott.

Playing 3rd pairing minutes for the last three years, Dermott is actually better than 90% of NHL defenseman at actual defense.  Now, Hjalmarsson has been doing it against tougher competition, but probably also with better players.

Dermott is 23 and he isn’t hurting the team. Bogosian is probably better utilized as a #7 but Dermott’s position should be rock solid.

Jonas Brodin

Brodin is 27 years old and has never played for anyone but the Minnesota Wild.  He is quite possibly the best defensive player in the entire NHL.

For the past three seasons he is better than 83% of NHL players overall even though he has virtually no offense in his game.  He is ranked at 100% on the even-strength portion of the Jfresh players cards over the last three years.

The only problem? Well there are two.

He’s a lefty, so who knows if he would be as effective on the right-side where the Leafs need to upgrade the most (Bogosian).

Secondly, he plays on a team almost certain to make the playoffs.  I doubt he’d be available, but he is a pending UFA so maybe the Wild (who play in a division with the Blues, Avs and Knights) figure the assets for the future are more important than this season.

If so, the Leafs should pounce because adding the NHL’s best defensive defenseman is always a smart play.

Marc Staal

Unless the Hurricanes suddenly decide to tank the season and trade Jordan, the Toronto Maple Leafs should want nothing to do with anyone name Staal.

Jordan Staal is an elite defender, and his brothers seem to have reputations as being good at defense, but no one knows why.

Marc Staal might be one of the worst players in the NHL. The Leafs should have zero interest in this player.  His game has no offense to speak of, and his defense is average at best, but that’s only if you look at this year’s stats which are extremely complimentary to him, most likely due to a small sample size.

Looking at three year’s worth of data on the good old JFresh cards, Staal is a negative impact player who may in fact be the least offensively inclined player in the NHL , while providing absolutely putrid defense.

He is terrible and I would rather the Leafs bring back Ron Hainsey, Roman Polak AND Nikita Zaitsev than give one minute of ice time to Marc Staal.

He is the kind of player that Mike Babcock would use on a first pairing, but shouldn’t’ even be in the NHL at this point. Thanks, but no.

Jamie Oleksiak

Jamie Oleksiak is 28 years old and is in the last year of a contract that pays him just over $2 million dollars per year.  The Stars, after making a surprise appearance in last year’s Stanley Cup Final, are having a terrible season.

There are two main things to recommend about Oleksiak: The first is that he is an absolute monster, clocking in at 6’7 255.

The second thing to recommend about Oleksiak is that, unlike many similarly large players, he actually does play excellent defense.

Oleksiak has better defense than over 90% of NHL defenseman for the last three years, according to the Jfresh player cards.  He also isn’t a total zero when it comes to offense.  Oleksiak is a very good all-round package who is both cheap and (one assumes) available.

The only drawback? He’s a lefty.  Still, he’d help the Leafs on defense and on the PK. I don’t really know if he’s capable of playing the right side, but even if not, I think he’d be a good option for the Leafs, especially if they fail to bring in David Savard.

Calvin de Haan / Connor Murphy

The former first round pick of the New York Islanders, Calvin de Haan now plays on a surprisingly successful Chicago Blackhawks team.   Still, despite their success so far this year, you’d have to think they  would be interested in getting some assets for the future.

With one year left on a $4.5 deal, de Haan might be an attractive player to some team, but that team shouldn’t be the Toronto Maple Leafs.

de Haan is decent – a very average second pairing player.  But he’s no improvement on anyone the Leafs have on their left side, so he’s pretty much a nonstarter who I only included because I’ve heard his name mentioned a few times as an option.

Frankly, if I was going to do a deal with the Blackhawks, I’d be way more interested in Connor Murphy.  Murphy is younger by two years, he’s cheaper and still signed through next year.  He’s always way bigger, shoots right, and is a massive, massive human.

Murphy would be a great replacement for Bogosian – bringing almost everything you like about him, only Murphy is actually good.

I would rank Connor Murphy as the second best option after Savard, slightly ahead of Oleskiak.

Josh Manson

What would a trade deadline be without talking about Josh Manson and the Toronto Maple Leafs?  It seems that Leafs fans have lusted after the hard hitting Manson forever.

But is he a good fit?

He costs $4 million and has another year, making him an attractive , but potentially expensive to acquire, option.  If the Ducks took back some salary it might be doable? He’s right handed and would relegate Bogosian to a more suitable role on the team.

So he is a good fit, for sure.  But is he any good?

Yes, actually.  Manson has only played six games this season, so I don’t know if the Leafs would want to gamble on him, as he hurt his oblique and missed about six weeks, then he came back and played three games and hasn’t played in his team’s last three games.

If he is healthy he is one of, if not the best, penalty killers in the NHL so that would help the Leafs a ton as their PK is about as lame as having Justin Bieber as your official team celebrity.  (Was Corey Hart unavailable?).

Manson is another all defense no offense player and he could provide everything that Bogosian provides, only better.  He’s huge, mean and great defensively.  If available, a great addition to the Toronto Maple Leafs would Josh Manson be.

Nick Foligno

Nick Foligno would be a great addition to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and in my opinion trading for a package of him and David Savard would be the best thing they could do right now.

Foligno is a tough guy and he’s great defensively. Although the numbers this year are bad, for the previous three seasons he has been better than 91% of players in the league when it comes to defense.

Has he taken a jump off a cliff this year or are there explanations for the sudden decline? That’s what the Leafs pay their scouting and analytics departments for.   I think it’s reasonable to assume that a 33 year old is in decline, but the question is how much ?

If he’s still the player he was for the last three seasons, he’d be an amazing addition to the Leafs third line and add a ton of checking and defensive ability to a squad that lacks such things.  Foligno is a pending UFA so if Columbus retained some of his $5 million dollar salary it might be plausible.

A line of Foligno- Kerfoot – Mikheyev would give the Leafs an excellent shut-down line without having to sacrifice using Hyman in the top six.

Mikael Granlund

For the last three seasons before a precipitous decline in this one, Grandlund has been better than 71% of NHL forwards at offense, and 67% of them at defense.

What he is, is a perfectly good, above average addition to any team’s top six.  The question I have about him on Toronto is how much of an improvement would he be over what the team is currently putting out there?

Joe Thornton is posting solid numbers. Nick Robertson is a weapon waiting to be unleashed. Zach Hyman and Alex Kerfoot are both, or have recently been, solid top-six contributors  as well.

If you get Granlund, you move Kerfoot down, Engvall goes to the fourth line and Travis Boyd comes out.  How much of an improvement is that really? Slight?

I personally think adding Foligno helps more, and I think that if you’re going to add to the top six, you’ve got to aim higher than Granlund.

This is a pass for me.

Anthony Mantha

Mantha has had a bad season, but he is still a potentially elite player.  If the Toronto Maple Leafs were interested in hitting a grandslam at the trade deadline, this is where they would set their sites.

The Red Wings are not going to be competitive during the remainder of Mantha’s contract. He makes almost six million for the next three years, but if the cost was Nick Robertson and a first or maybe even two firsts, could they retain half of that?

It’s a question worth asking because Mantha is a monster and he would truly be an upgrade in the way that no one else on this list is.  Even though his defensive stats are in the toilet this year, he is still better than 87% of forwards offensively.

For the preceding three seasons, a much, much larger sample size, he is better than 94% of NHL forwards on the defensive side of the puck.  Even though he’s always played on a brutal team, his team wins when he’s on the ice.

A top line of Manta- Matthews- Marner would be unstoppable.  The Leafs would have to pay an absolute ton to make it work, but I think it would just the kind of move that could win them the cup – if they can, their priority should be to add another elite player.

Filip Forsberg

Filip Forsberg is a player the Toronto Maple Leafs are unlikely to acquire, but I suppose stranger things have happened.

A bargain at $6 million, Forsberg has one year remaining on his contract and the addition of him to the already offensively elite Leafs would be wild.  It would also be expensive, and it’s worth wondering if adding to the team’s strength – as opposed to addressing their main weakness (it’s still team defense) – is the way to go.

Perhaps its a stretch to call Forsberg one-dimensional, but his JFresh player card shows that his value is almost entirely offensive.  In the last three seasons, Forsberg is better than 86% of forwards offensively, but only better than 44% defensively.  The low ranking could just be from one really bad year, it’s hard to say.

Doesn’t really matter though – however you do it (mostly offense, a combo, or mostly defense) it really only matters if your team wins when you are on the ice, and Forsberg’s team tends to. He is a fully elite player and it would be completely awesome to acquire him.

It’s been four years since Forsberg scored 30 goals, but he’s still only 26 and his inability to match his early career numbers has been because of injuries that prevented him from playing 67 games or less in each of the last three seasons (obviously for different reasons this year will make a fourth).

You have to figure that the Leafs are set on offense and that their limited dollars and assets would go alot farther if they tried to shore their team up with defensive players, but you can’t really exaggerate how cool it would be to get someone like Forsberg.  This is the kind of acquisition – depending on the cost, that could put the Leafs over the top.

Taylor Hall

Hall is a superstar, former Hart Trophy winner who just keeps landing on teams even worse than the last.  A left winger who would (like Mantha or Forsberg) make the Leafs into (essentially) an all-star team, Hall is a pending UFA who may actually be available.,

The Red Wings probably aren’t going to trade Mantha, and the Predators probably aren’t going to trade Forsberg, but the Sabres will 100% be willing to trade Hall.

Even though he’s an even more one-dimensional than Forsberg (Hall is better than only 15% of forwards defensively) he’s still going to make the team better.  It’s questionable how much balance is necessary in the NHL, despite that seeming counter-intuitive.

The facts are that if you have the puck in the other team’s end, you’re playing the best kind of defense possible, since you cannot allow a goal in such a situation.  You’d have to have literally no interest in hockey to not be curious about seeing what a player like Hall or Forsberg could do with the room playing on a line with Matthews or Marner would give them.

Again, I keep coming back to two facts when I think about adding players like this. 1: The Leafs already score more than most, if not all, other teams. 2) Adding defensively strong players is cheaper.

Johnny Gaudreau

He’s 27, and has a similar cap hit to Forsberg and is also signed for another year. Like Hall and Forberg, he’s an offense-only left-winger (more defense than Hall, less than Forsberg) who plays on a bad team and who may be available.

The same questions arise here as they did for the other guys, only this one has an actual rumour going for it. 

As the rumours author, Scott Burnside, so asutely points out, Gaudreau wouldn’t have to wait two weeks before joining the Toronto Maple Leafs, potentially making him the most attractive option. I obviously don’t want to get my hopes up here, but after Kyle Dubas press conference yesterday, I am pretty psyched at the possibilities.

I started this article pretty sure the Leafs should concentrate on defensive players, but after writing in succession about Forsberg, Mantha, Hall, and now Gaudreau, I think I’ll be disapointed if they can’t turn the Big Four into the Big Five.

How could they afford such a thing? I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.

Evander Kane

This would be up there with it’s own full write up if I thought there was any chance at all of it happening. I’m not sure what is going on with his bankruptcy and just the other day I saw another article about how his contract may get terminated.

Seems like a lot of baggage, but who cares? If you can get Kane, get Kane. He is awesome.

Connor Garland

Much like Kane, I would have put in a lot more effort in to a Garland write-up if I thought the Leafs had any chance of getting him. I did fantasize about it here though if you are interested. 

Bobby Ryan

As sincerely dumb as the Marc Staal ideas.  This is a hard pass from me.

Boone Jenner

I am not even sure he could make the current Leafs, maybe if there weren’t already ten options to replace Jimmy Vesey I’d say sure, but there are so I won’t.

Tyler Bertuzzi

No.

Kyle Palmieri

This one actually deserves it’s own write up. He’s a great player who can score and is elite defensively. I’d be shocked if this wasn’t one of the Toronto Maple Leafs top targets.

Erik Haula

While I don’t really agree with spelling Eric with a K, it’s not a deal breaker for me.  You know what is? Not being good at hockey (comparatively speaking, it should go without saying). Pass.

Rickard Rackell

He’s OK, but he’s a poor-man’s version of the Gaudreau, Forsberg, Hall, Mantha option. Like asking Santa to bring you a Prince record and waking up to Maxi Priest – it’s not the worst album, but….you know…just OK.

And that brings us to the end of the article.  We have covered 32 options, and hopefully the Toronto Maple Leafs get somebody good, even if it’s someone I left out.  Pretty much every hockey player you can think of is in some kind of trade rumour right now, so odds are I forgot somebody, but at the very least I have convinced myself that the Leafs should just go for it and get another elite offensive winger.

I started this piece hoping for David Savard and now I’m going to be angry if they don’t get Johnny Gaudreau!