3 Trades the Toronto Maple Leafs Could Make Right Now
The Toronto Maple Leafs may make a trade soon.
As we sit right now, the Toronto Maple Leafs have seven NHL defenseman and could use some salary-cap flexibility.
This was a huge year for Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin’s development.
We all expected that Sandin would step in as a bottom-pair defenseman, but we weren’t sure about Liljegren. However, through the first month of the season, he looks like a legitimate NHL defenseman.
Liljegren, who’s a 22-year-old defenseman and former first-round pick seemed to be on his last straw with the organization and many fans were hesitant that he could ever crack the big-club. Despite the adversity, the team’s continued to believe in him and that belief has paid off, as he’s clearly an NHL defenseman.
Since Sandin and Liljegren are everyday defenseman now, it creates an issue on the back-end. Although it’s a good problem to have, the Leafs have too many NHL defenseman on the roster.
Personally, I’d love for them to keep everyone, in case of injuries, but this team is too tight to the salary cap and needs flexibility. Whether it’s Justin Holl, Travis Dermott, or a forward, someone needs to get traded before Ilya Mikheyev comes back from injury.
Not only that, but I’m sure Justin Holl doesn’t want to get healthy scratched again like he did over 70 times a few years ago, so if he’s not going to play, he may request a trade to get some playing time elsewhere.
Let’s take a look at a few potential trades as the Toronto Maple Leafs will more than likely be making a deal very soon.
No. 1: Pierre Engvall
Before we talk about potential trades for defenseman, let’s look at a forward that should be the odd-man out.
Despite being 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, Engvall doesn’t play with an edge or use his size to his advantage. In fact, in the 104 Leafs games that he’s played, I don’t remember him once hitting someone.
Engvall doesn’t provide much to this roster and is a replaceable player. Anyone on the Toronto Marlies could come up and do the exact same thing that he does and they’d be making a lot less money. It’s not like Engvall is making Auston Matthews money but his $1.25M contract could be spent on someone different and someone who provides more than him.
Hypothetical Trade:
- Toronto Maple Leafs acquire: 2022 6th Round Pick
- Ottawa Senators acquire: Pierre Engvall
The Senators are a young team with a lot of cap-space and Engvall could be an experiment on that roster for them, while the Leafs just need to clear cap-space. When Ilya Mikheyev returns, he’ll take Engvall’s spot so you may as well grab an asset while you can.
No. 2: Justin Holl
Justin Holl is such a great story for any minor hockey league player growing up right now. Not only is he a great human-being and someone you wish more hockey players would be like, but his perseverance is uncanny.
The former second-round draft pick was highly-touted out of junior hockey and was supposed to step into the NHL quickly. However, that never happened.
Holl played in the ECHL for one season and then the AHL for four seasons before finally getting called up the NHL. However, once he finally made the NHL full-time, he was a healthy scratch for over 70 games and had to watch his teammates from the press-box almost every night.
Most people would give up on their dreams at that point, but Holl didn’t. He continued to work hard and eventually became a top-four defenseman with the Toronto Maple Leafs and secured a nice three-year deal worth $2M AAV, as a result.
As much as I would love to see Holl stay with the organization, there are two young bucks fighting his job and it may make sense to trade Holl, because of his contract. If that’s the case, below is probably something you could get for him:
Hypothetical Trade:
- Toronto Maple Leafs receive: Louis Domingue, 2022 First-Round Pick
- Pittsburgh Penguins receive: Justin Holl
Since Petr Mrazek is injured, the Leafs may want some reinsurance in net, so Domingue can provide that. Also, the Penguins previously gave the Leafs a first-round pick for Kasperi Kapanen, so who knows? Maybe they’ll be dumb enough to give up a first-round pick for Holl too?
The Penguins need defensive-help and they’ve been a good trade partner with the Leafs before, so they could be a good team to do business with again.
No. 3: Travis Dermott
Dermott has been with the Leafs organization for six years and has been a steady player for both the Toronto Marlies and Leafs the entire time. However, he doesn’t really bring much that Sandin or Liljegren can’t.
For example, when Dermott was drafted, based on his great skating and offensive numbers in junior, I expected a second power-play type defenseman and someone who could get the puck up fast by passing or by skating.
We saw glimpses of that when he started but he’s slowed down. Maybe it’s because the Leafs style of play changed, but if Dermott can’t provide much offensively, why are they keeping him? He’s looked fine beside Morgan Rielly, but I’d rather see Sandin there and then a mixture of Jake Muzzin-Justin Holl and/or Timothy Liljegren-T.J. Brodie.
If we could see more offensive upside from Dermott, then it would make sense to keep him over Holl. But, in my opinion, I’d rather have the bigger defenseman with better defensive upside in Holl if either of them aren’t providing any offense. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Hypothetical Trade:
- Toronto Maple Leafs receive: 2022 fourth-round pick and 2023 third-round pick
- New Jersey Devils receive: Travis Dermott
As Leafs fans, we over-value our players too much and when it comes to Dermott, he’s just another defenseman. As a result, you’re probably not going to get a ton for him, unless he’s packaged with Engvall and someone like Alex Kerfoot.
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It’ll be interesting to see what the Toronto Maple Leafs do in the next few weeks, but expect a trade to happen sooner than later.