What If the Toronto Maple Leafs Don’t Make a Trade?
What if I told you the Toronto Maple Leafs stayed put and didn’t make a trade at the deadline?
Would you throw your phone across the room or would you be happy with the results? Although the Toronto Maple Leafs are first in the North Division with a 23-10-3 record, the fanbase is hungry for a trade.
But, why?
With limited cap-space, does it really make sense to make a trade right now? The team is red-hot and seem to have found a nice balance in the lineup.
The first 36 games have been an experiment for Sheldon Keefe. He’s continued to try out different line combinations and it feels like the team has finally found something over the past few games. Although they were winning before, these current forward lines feel more appropriate than they were at the start of the year.
The nucleus has stayed at the top, but the lineup is very different from opening night.
Opening Night Lineup:
Joe Thornton-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner
Jimmy Vesey-John Tavares-William Nylander
Ilya Mikheyev-Alex Kerfoot-Zach Hyman
Alex Barabanov-Jason Spezza-Wayne Simmonds
March 31st Lineup:
Zach Hyman-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner
Alex Galchenyuk-John Tavares-William Nylander
Joe Thornton- Alex Kerfoot-Jason Spezza
Ilya Mikheyev-Pierre Engvall-Wayne Simmonds
Do The Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Make a Trade?
As you can see by the two lineups, there are clearly some similarities, but there are a lot of differences. The team has been able to make internal trades already, as the promotion for Spezza and swap of Thornton for Hyman is a huge difference.
Jumbo is an instrumental piece to the Leafs success this year, but it should be more in the room, than on the ice. In every interview about him, each player always says amazing things about Thornton and have continued to praise him as a leader and as someone who keeps it light in the room.
Even if Thornton’s game slows down, the things we don’t see off the ice, still make him incredibly valuable. His game hasn’t fallen off completely yet, but he’s much better suited on the third line, instead of the first line.
Not only has someone like Spezza made a bigger impact than expected, but the addition of Alex Galchenyuk could be the icing on the cake, as to why Kyle Dubas deserves to win the Executive of the Year Award this season.
The 27-year-old has yet to score in six games this season, but it hasn’t been because of the lack of effort. He’s been a quality piece alongside John Tavares and William Nylander and was a huge reason for the Leafs comeback win last Saturday night against Edmonton.
The pass that he made to set up John Tavares was unbelievable and he’s continued to pile up chances. The former 30-goal scorer knows he’s on his last legs as a professional hockey player, so his effort has been noticed by Leafs Nation, and he could end up being a huge addition that nobody expected.
In a perfect world, you’d love to see the Leafs add another depth forward, top-four defenseman and potentially another goalie. However, those trades only make sense if they’re adding without subtracting because this group of players deserve a long run together.
The only way a trade makes sense is if they are trading away prospects and draft picks and not someone off the current roster. If they have to push someone like Pierre Engvall or Travis Dermott out of the everyday lineup, so be it, but they shouldn’t trade them, as they still need depth, in case of injuries.
Next. 3 Veterans Leafs Should Trade For. dark
It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks, but after the way we’ve seen this team play recently, it may be better to keep them afloat than trade any pieces away.