Grading the Toronto Maple Leafs Moves at the Trade Deadline
The NHL trade deadline has finally come and gone for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the other 30 teams in the NHL.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were rumoured for what seemed like months to be very active come trade deadline day on April 12th. Safe to say, the rumours were right and they made a handful of moves in a four-day window.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were very busy starting on April 9th when they made their first move ahead of the trade deadline and they didn’t stop there as they ended up making four more trades after that.
The Leafs ended up making a total of five trades between April 9th and April 12th, hoping that they make a deep playoff run that fans and themselves have been waiting for.
TRADE 1: TOR acquires F Riley Nash from CBJ, in exchange for a conditional 2022 7th-round pick
(Condition: Pick becomes a 2022 6th-round pick if Riley Nash plays in 25% of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ playoff games this year.)
On April 9th, around dinnertime, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets made their second trade of the season with each other which sent Riley Nash from Columbus to Toronto in exchange for a conditional 2022 7th-round pick.
The initial thought I had when this trade happened was confusion for a split second, and then I realized what Kyle Dubas had just done in this trade. Dubas essentially acquires a bottom-six forward in Riley Nash, who is also currently injured, for a very cheap draft pick.
Nash, has a cap hit of $2.75M and was eventually placed on LTIR by the Maple Leafs to help them cap-wise which is a very sneaky and good job by Dubas and Pridham.
Nash will be available for the playoffs for Toronto so they traded for an injured fourth-line center who is very, very responsible defensively to give them cap space for more trades and have a chance to use him come playoff time as well. (Stats from CapFriendly.com)
Overall grade: A
TRADE 2: TOR acquires F Nick Foligno (50% retained) from CBJ, in exchange for a 2021 1st-round pick and a 2022 4th-round pick
TOR acquires F Stefan Noesen from SJ, in exchange for 50% retained (25%) of Nick Foligno’s contract and a 2021 4th-round pick
Now, this was the biggest trade for the Toronto Maple Leafs during this four-day window of them making trades, essentially because it was a three-team trade and it involved a decent amount of moving parts and some salary retention from both teams too.
As seen above, the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Nick Foligno (50% retained) from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for a 2021 1st-round pick and a 2022 4th-round pick. The San Jose Sharks were also involved in this trade retaining half of Foligno’s contract before he was sent to Toronto as well as Stefan Noesen for a 2021 4th-round pick.
All in all, if you’re confused with the whole salary retention, Nick Foligno’s current cap hit is $5.5M but Columbus retained 50% of it when he was sent to San Jose, and then San Jose retained another 50% of it before sending him to Toronto with Noesen for that 2021 4th-round pick. So the Maple Leafs essentially have Foligno at a cap hit of $1.375M instead of $5.5M.
Initial thoughts of this trade were a slight overpayment for a 33-year-old regressing Nick Foligno on the offensive side, but he brings way more than just offence to a hockey team, plus the double salary retention too so I understand why Toronto’s 1st-round pick was in play here.
He brings leadership, experience, physicality, great defensive awareness while playing the wing or centre, and can still chip in some offence, but obviously not like years past. (Stats from CapFriendly.com)
Overall grade: B +
TRADE 3: TOR acquires G David Rittich from CGY, in exchange for a 2022 3rd-round pick.
If there was a specific player involved in a trade that I was honestly shocked at to get traded to Toronto, it was David Rittich in this deal with the Flames. Late Sunday night, on the eve of the trade deadline, the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired goalie, David Rittich from the Calgary Flames, in exchange for a 2022 3rd-round pick.
Now there were rumours that Kyle Dubas was in the market for goalies or at least taking calls just in case they went down that road, but I honestly didn’t expect the goalie to be David Rittich in the end.
Rittich isn’t having the best season this year, as he has a 4-7-1 record which isn’t good but he was on the Flames, and he also posted a 2.90 GAA and a .904 SV% which is also not the greatest but the Flames team was struggling heavily defensively at points.
This trade just gives the Toronto Maple Leafs more goalie insurance and it gives them four capable NHL goalies in Frederik Andersen (LTIR), Jack Campbell, David Rittich, and Michael Hutchinson. (Stats from Hockey-Reference.com)
Overall grade: B –
TRADE 4: TOR acquires D Ben Hutton from ANA, in exchange for a 2022 5th-round pick
Now we arrive at the actual day of the trade deadline and it was quite quiet in terms of any rumours and trades until around noon time. For the Toronto Maple Leafs, their first trade of the day came around the 3 pm ET deadline where the acquired depth defensemen, Ben Hutton from the Anaheim Ducks, in exchange for a 2022 5th-round pick.
The Leafs were always in the market for a depth defenseman that would help them out in the long run and they ultimately chose Ben Hutton from the Ducks. I really didn’t expect Hutton to be their choice, but after guys like Mike Reilly and Jon Merrill were picked up they were running out of options.
I also would’ve liked them to acquire Jamie Oleksiak but clearly, Dallas wanted to keep him and try to re-sign him in the off-season. Hutton is a 6’2 206 lbs left-shot defenseman that is great on the penalty kill and decent in his own zone 5v5. He also can play with a little bit of snarl at times if needed.
Overall grade: B –
TRADE 5: TOR acquires F Antti Suomela from SJ, in exchange for F Alexander Barabanov
And now the last trade of the day that kind of caught me off guard a bit but I totally understood why Kyle Dubas did it. The Toronto Maple Leafs acquire Antti Suomela from the San Jose Sharks, in exchange for Alexander Barabanov.
This really wasn’t a move that should “wow” anybody but there is still some significance to this trade if you think about it. The Leafs signed Barabanov a while ago for this season, and clearly, he could barely crack the lineup and he was only in it because William Nylander is currently on the COVID protocol list.
Dubas is just keeping his word that he will let Barabanov play some minutes in the NHL and a trade out of Toronto will hopefully fulfill that for him, kind of like how he did with the Mikko Lehtonen trade to Columbus as Lehtonen has gotten a handful of games in already.
Also, with the addition of Suomela from the Sharks, it gives the Maple Leafs yet another bottom-six option to use or stash and keep in case of injuries, and with Suomela, he plays centre so it just adds to the Leafs’ centre depth that was already small, to begin with.
Overall grade: B
Next. Leafs Now Have So Many Lineup Options. dark
Overall, a very successful trade deadline for the Leafs on paper, but we’ll have to wait a couple months to see how it plays out in real life.