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The Toronto Maple Leafs Shouldn’t Trade for Big Names This Summer

By Jeff Borsuk

TORONTO, ON - DECEMBER 17: Jack Eichel #9 of the Buffalo Sabres skates against John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on December 17, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3.(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - DECEMBER 17: Jack Eichel #9 of the Buffalo Sabres skates against John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on December 17, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3.(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
Seth Jones #3 of the Columbus Blue Jackets defends against William Nylander #88 and Andreas Johnsson #18 of the Toronto Maple Leafs (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /

Seth Jones

For those who don’t watch Columbus Blue Jackets games, you can be forgiven for not knowing that Seth Jones isn’t as good as many believe. He was the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and at the time, was thought to be an up and coming dominant defender. Unfortunately for he and his teams, that never came to fruition.

That’s not to say that Jones wasn’t a serviceable NHL defenseman. He has been a top pairing player his entire career and logged big minutes. He was even an All-Star as recently as last season. However, significant minutes doesn’t necessarily mean they were well-played. The perfect example is the 25 minutes and 14 seconds Jones averaged this season. Those were played poorly.

The Leafs shouldn’t trade for Jones because he was bad this season. As can be seen in the charts above, his standing points above replacement (SPAR) and goals above replacement (GAR) both fell deep into the negatives. Simply saying that Jones wasn’t an All-Star caliber player this season understates the reality of how awful he really was.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs to make a move to acquire Jones, they would be expected to give up useful players, prospects and/or draft picks. Even if the Leafs were to buy low, they would almost certainly give up more to get Jones than they’d receive in value from his play.

At this point, trading for Jones is just trying to bring his marquee name into the organization. That’s not a good reason to bring a bad player to town.

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