Toronto Maple Leafs : Why Protecting Justin Holl Might Make Sense

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Jaren McCann last weekend in a deal that was seen as an absolute steal.

Then, the Toronto Maple Leafs turned around and protected Justin Holl, a move that many of Kyle Dubas’ biggest fans have called into question.

Was this a mistake by the Leafs GM?  Do the Leafs have a deal in place with Seattle? What were they thinking?

The thing is, we can’t really know until after the Seattle Kraken make their picks.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Protecting Justin Holl

In my opinion, this is one of the more interesting problems the NHL has given us to work out in recent memory.

The Leafs could have protected seven forwards and exposed Travis Dermott and Justin Holl, two players that are arguably less valuable than both Kerfoot or McCann from an individual standpoint.

If you consider the Leafs roster makeup, this is even more true than just looking at which players are better: The Leafs have Rasmus Sandin and he is already likely better than either Dermott or Holl. Outside of Kerfoot and McCann, they don’t have much in the way of versatile, defensively strong forwards who can also score in the bottom two-thirds of their forward group.

Now, Sandin is a lefty, which would give the Leafs four lefties in their top-four, so that may play a factor, but it’s not known how much of one, if at all.

That said, all of these players are on reasonable contracts and all four of them could help the Leafs next season.  Which one you personally like comes down to several factors that go beyond just who is the better player.