3 Toronto Maple Leafs Who Could Be Drafted By Seattle Kraken

No. 1: Jared McCann

The Toronto Maple Leafs made a surprising move on the weekend when they acquired McCann from the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the timing makes a ton of sense.

Heading into the Expansion Draft, the Leafs had a decision to make. Should they do 4-4-1, or a 7-3-1, which would expose Justin Holl. The team decided that they value Holl more than a few forwards, so they acquired McCann to either get picked up by Seattle, or to be a replacement for a certain someone we’ll talk about later.

McCann can play wing or centre, but would more than likely fits best as the third-line centre. He’s been very efficient over the past few seasons and was on-pace for back-to-back 20-goal campaigns, if he’d been able to play a full 82-game schedule.

Based on his salary ($2.94M AAV), McCann would be a great candidate for Seattle, who more than likely wouldn’t want to spend to the salary-cap in year one.

The Leafs gave up Filip Hallander and a seventh-round pick to acquire McCann, so although it would be difficult to see him leave immediately after trading an asset for him, that’s less than what the team would have had to pay to keep the next player we’re going to speak about.

In my opinion, it was a great decision to acquire McCann, even if he does leave, but it gives the team great flexibility after the draft.