4 Players the Toronto Maple Leafs Could Trade Mitch Marner For

Create the Most Devastating Centre Combo in the League

Jack Eichel’s trade value will never be lower. The No. 2 overall pick in 2016 has demonstrated he wants out of Buffalo plus his injury looks to be serious. Trading for the American is a risk which could be a massive miss or a league altering move.

Even with his injury Eichel would demand a king’s ransom from Buffalo with at least a quality current NHLer, a few top to elite prospects and a first. If Mitch Marner was included it wouldn’t necessarily play out that way because Marner is himself elite but this is still a multi-piece deal.

This is a different kind of player to Wilson and Tkachuk, Eichel is big but not as overtly physical as the other two. Eichel and Matthews could each play 20 minutes a night with  Tavares moving to the wing.

However Eichel’s $10 million cap hit means the Leafs are just unplugging one contract and imputing practically the same. The Leafs get a better player in exchange for taking on the injury risk.

Alongside the style of Eichel you also have players like Jonathan Huberdeau at a mere $5.9 million through to 2023 who brings a big body with less physicality but more scoring that other candidates.

Toronto Spends to Make Their D-core Elite

While Dubas invested in the defense last off season, the Toronto Maple Leafs are still not elite on the backend.

TJ Brodie was an excellent addition while Zach Bogosian played above what was expected of him but the Leafs are likely to lose Travis Dermott in the expansion draft. Using Mitch Marner to try and steal a player like Aaron Ekblad out of Florida could be a move to make.

In his post season press conference Kyle Dubas pointed to Pittsburgh having the same kind of money focused on just four players on their 2009 cup run, but with some of the cap devoted to defense. Subtracting a forward for a hard nosed but skilled d-man like Ekblad could change the Leafs come playoff time – and that is exactly what the fans want, post season improvement.

Auston Matthews is good enough to hold a line by himself, and the $3 million you save on Ekblad can go towards a serviceable winger to play with him or contribute to Zach Hyman.

Trust the Process

That is not what any Leafs fans want to hear, but Marner is one of the premier talents in the NHL, you don’t go trading those kinds of players if you can avoid it. Even if it didn’t click in the playoffs the regular season Toronto Maple Leafs were a force to be reckoned with.

Brendan Shanahan made the point while facing the media that if you look at history, a number of Hall of Fame players, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup, were presented with this early career failures.

Matthews and Marner play extremely well together and if a few shots were an inch different here and a few centimetres there, the Leafs would have won the series in 5 or 6. Overtime hockey is a game of the smallest of margins, and the bounces went the Habs way.

Don’t go blowing up one of the most talented cores in the league because they ran into a potential Hall of Fame goalie playing the best he has in years.