Where Are They Now: A look at the Traded Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs loaded up at the April 12 trade deadline, filling multiple holes at the LW, centre, goalie and LD positions.

The Toronto Maple Leafs filled these spots (filled by Nick Foligno, Riley Nash, David Rittich and Ben Hutton, respectively) were not always vacant, as the Leafs have seen more than a few players come and go this season with nary the blink of a disappointed eye.

The Leafs have clearly improved as the season has gone on, and are a better team today with Foligno et. al. in the fold.

What is interesting, however, is how little impact the players they’ve traded have had.

Ex Toronto Maple Leafs Around the League

JIMMY VESEY

Claimed off of waivers by the Vancouver Canucks in March, Vesey started the season on the still-up-for-grabs spot on the left side of John Tavares and William Nylander.

He was eventually demoted to the 4th line and could only muster five goals and seven points in 30 games with Toronto (all stats from hockey-reference). Things haven’t improved much in Vancouver; however, as Vesey, in seven games played, has yet to manage a single point and is a minus-three.

It’s not for a lack of trying on the part of the Canucks either: Vesey’s ice time is a whopping 17:59 (after averaging only 11:07 in Toronto).

TRAVIS BOYD

Not content with just one Toronto Maple Leafs 4th line castoff, the Canucks returned to the waivers bargain bin shortly thereafter to claim a second castoff in Travis Boyd. Boyd actually performed somewhat admirably in Toronto, amassing three goals and eight points in 20 games despite seeing less than ten minutes of ice time in strictly 4th line duty.

He has only suited up in three games for the Canucks and has zero points. He has one block, one hit and zero shots on net (Okay, these updates can’t ALL be winners).

MIKO LEHTONEN

There was a fair amount of hype surrounding the Leaf’s signing of Lehtonen and subsequent domination of the KHL leading up to the start of the NHL season.

That hype was slowly defused as Lehtonen struggled to adapt to North American hockey and lost regular playing time to Travis Dermott. Traded to Columbus for goaltender Veini Vehvilainen, Lehtonen has played in twelve games for the Blue Jackets, averaging 16:46 in ice time. He has no points, is a minus-four and sports a pretty dismal 41.3 CF% despite receiving significant starts in the offensive zone (53.2%). (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

ALEXANDER BARABONOV

Another KHL export, Barabonov never really gelled anywhere in the Leafs lineup and played in only 13 games, tallying a lone assist. He was traded at the deadline to the San Jose Sharks for Antti Suomela, who also won’t be a productive forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Barabonov hasn’t seen any NHL action with the Sharks and has only played in two games for their AHL team, the Barracuda’s. He has zero points and is a minus-two (Like I said, can’t all be winners).

AARON DELL

Signed to be the team’s 3rd-string goaltender this year, the Leafs ended up losing Dell to New Jersey on waivers in January before he saw a minute of playing time in the blue and white. He has seen action in 7 games (5 starts) for the Devils earning only one win with a 4.14 GAA and .857 SV%. Hutchinson isn’t starting to look so bad anymore.

CONCLUSION

While none of these signings ended up panning out in Toronto, they were all cheap, low-risk moves that were ultimately replaced by significantly more useful pieces.

Foligno should plug a huge hole in the top-six; Hutton can handle 3rd pairing minutes better than Lehtonen (And, perhaps, Dermott); Rittich is a decent insurance policy and Nash might be a perfect shutdown 4th centre come playoff time. Hopefully these soon to be ex-Leafs are more up to the task.