No. 1: Anton Stralman
If the Leafs want a grizzled defenseman with a ton of playoff experience, who better to look to than Anton Stralman?
Stralman has over 100 playoff games of experience, has played in multiple Stanley Cup Finals, and most importantly, is a pending UFA playing for the Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes are an abysmal team this year doing everything they can to tank and should trade every potential asset they have before the NHL Trade Deadline.
Stralman, who was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs back in 2005, played 88 games with the franchise before mistakenly getting traded in his second season with the club. That trade wouldn’t have been so bad if they kept the draft pick that turned into Brandon Sadd, but the Leafs unfortunately traded that pick away for Jared Knight, who never played a game in the NHL.
Although Stralman is 35-years-old, he can still provide a little bit of offense, but most importantly is stable on defense. Stralman would complement Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin and/or be a nice older veteran beside Rasmus Sandin and someone you could count on in crunch-time.
He’s currently making $5.5M, which is an issue, but if Arizona retained half of that contract and the Leafs shipped out Justin Holl for him, the money could work, as Stralman would be a better option than Holl in my opinion.