No. 3: Travis Dermott
Justin Holl played great with Jake Muzzin on the second-unit this year, but if you dig deeper into his advanced stats, Dermott played much better, which is somewhat surprising.
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) July 7, 2021
As a result, I found it a little shocking that Holl was protected over Dermott. Based on his age and potential, I thought that the team would keep Dermott, expose the older Holl, with hopes Seattle wouldn’t want him, and let the Kraken take a Leafs forward.
Now that Dermott is available, it wouldn’t surprise me if Seattle picks him.
Sure, there are some deficiencies in his game, but Dermott’s still 24-years-old and has only played 208 games. I know that sounds like more than enough games to find his footing, but the old hockey homage is that it takes 300 NHL games to figure out what a defenseman really is. Therefore Dermott still has another season to finds his groove and find out exactly who he is.
Losing Dermott would be disappointing, but it would make the Leafs forward depth even deeper than it was a week ago, which is a positive. Toronto could flip Kerfoot for an asset if they wanted to open up salary-cap space for a UFA or they could push McCann into the top-six and hope that he clicks with the core-four.
Either way, it’ll be tough to see a quality player leave the organization this week, but fortunately for the fanbase, any player they take won’t be a difference-maker in the Toronto Maple Leafs winning or losing a Stanley Cup as the core is still in-tact for the foreseeable future.