Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade Any Prospect or Draft Picks

Toronto Maple Leafs fans are a little jaded when it comes to trading away prospects and draft picks.

Instead of trading away future assets, many Toronto Maple Leafs fans would prefer to keep them, based on an optimistic future and excitement of what they may turn into. It’s the reason why Let’s Make a Deal was such an exciting gameshow.

In the show, Let’s Make a Deal, the contestant could have $2,000 in cash or they could trade it in for what’s behind Door No. 2. Sometimes it’s a brand new car and sometimes it’s a few cans of soup. You never know what you’re going to get, but that uncertainty and excitement of what’s behind the curtain makes it such a thrilling gameshow.

In this circumstance, a top prospect, such as Timothy Liljegren, could turn into a brand new car, or he could turn into a cheap can of soup.

However, the only way trading someone like Liljegren backfires is if the player you get in return is a bust. And, if you’re receiving a player like David Savard or Mattias Ekholm, the chances that they’re going to be terrible are slim to none, because they’re already established.

9 out of 10 times, that prospect you’re trading for is not going to turn into as good of a player as that established professional hockey player is. And even if they do, it’s not happening tomorrow, but instead in five years, which is way too long to wait around if you want to win.

Stop Being So Scared to Trade Prospects

The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t going to make the same mistakes they did decades ago. The draft pick they trade isn’t likely to turn into Scott Niedermayer (sorry, Leafs fans), and if it does, who cares? The team has a three-year window to win a Stanley Cup and that draft pick they trade won’t be the difference-maker in that timeframe anyways.

The same thing applies with a trade that still haunts Leafs fans. When Toronto traded away draft-picks for Phil Kessel, it set the franchise back years. Instead of having a sniper, the team could have had a young centre and top-two defenseman.

However, 2009 was a way different time than it is today.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs roster in 2009 was the same as it is today, and they added a Phil Kessel-like player to their roster, it would put them over the edge as Stanley Cup favorites. Toronto would have been competing for cup’s and they never would have given Boston a No. 2 and No. 9 overall draft pick in the first place.

Just look at the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ask every fan how they thought their version of a Phil Kessel trade went and they’d be pretty happy with the result.

Pittsburgh traded their top prospect (Kasperi Kapanen), some other prospects and picks to Toronto, for Kessel, and they won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.

Besides Kapanen, who was a third-line player, the two other prospects and two draft picks never amounted to anything with the Leafs.

All I’m trying to say is that there’s a time to give up your top prospects and draft picks and there’s a time to keep them. As the great Kenny Rogers sang, “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em. Know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away. And know when to run.”

This current Leafs team isn’t going to fall back into the NHL Draft Lottery anytime soon, and by all accounts, they don’t have the next Sidney Crosby in their system.

As a result, Toronto needs to pull off their own version of the Phil Kessel to Pittsburgh trade and make a splash. With a limited window to win a Stanley Cup, no prospect or draft pick should be off the table.