3 Pending UFA Defenseman Toronto Maple Leafs Could Trade For
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the hottest team in hockey right now, but they could still be open to making a trade soon.
A few weeks ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs fanbase was in shambles. Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews weren’t producing and the team was losing more often than winning.
However, as of today, the Leafs have won 10 of it’s last 11 games and they look like a top-five team in the NHL. Jack Campbell is playing like a Vezina Trophy candidate, the third line is scoring goals and the team’s top players are contributing every night.
Despite recent success, the team could always improve. They could use another top-six left winger to replace Nick Ritchie and could also use another depth defenseman.
Timothy Liljegren has stepped in nicely this year, but he still hasn’t won a spot in the line-up every night, meanwhile Travis Dermott and Justin Holl are still with the team, despite many trade rumors.
Having seven NHL defenseman is important during a long playoff run, but are those seven defenseman good enough to take you on that run? That’s the million-dollar question, as I’m not quite sold on it yet.
During the regular season last year, we saw the same six defenseman (Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, Justin Holl, Jake Muzzin, Zach Bogosian and Travis Dermott) for essentially every game and they looked great. However, when the playoffs started, that collection of defenseman still didn’t get the job done.
The defensive-core played pretty well throughout that seven game series against Montreal, but the Dermott giveaway in Game 6 is still one of the worst plays in recent history and cost Toronto the game and potentially the series. As a result, the Leafs need to upgrade or find another defenseman with more experience to help them get past their first round struggles.
Here are three pending UFA defenseman the Leafs could trade for.
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.
No. 2: Collin Miller
You might be thinking to yourself right now; why Collin Miller?
Well it’s a pretty simple answer. He used to play for Sheldon Keefe and Kyle Dubas during their Soo Greyhounds days and those two love bringing in former Greyhounds to the line-up.
Miller is another pending UFA, who’s playing on a terrible team that’s not looking to improve anytime soon. As a result, trading any asset they have would be the right option and Miller is arguably their best true trade asset they have.
The 29-year-old showed some offensive upside during the first few years of his career but he’s regressed ever since he joined the Buffalo Sabres. You can’t put all of the blame on the player because every player who plays for the Sabres seems to have the worst year of their career.
Miller was a valuable piece for the Vegas Golden Knights when they reached the Stanley Cup Finals and could be someone who could provide solid power-play minutes if he played in Toronto.
The Leafs could use some offense on their back-end and at $3.875M, Miller could be that piece and an affordable price-tag.
No. 3: Marc Giordano
The 38-year-old has a no-move-clause, makes $6.75M and is the captain of the Seattle Kraken. All three of those things would point to him staying on the west-coast, but if Seattle want to better their franchise, they may be inclined to move him.
That contract is big, but the closer you get to the NHL Trade Deadline, the cheaper it becomes, so there is a way in which the Leafs can afford him. Instead of going through the hypothetical trades that could get Giordano to Toronto, let’s just talk about the player himself.
“Gio” will reach the 1,000 game mark this year (if healthy), but only has 23 games of playoff experience. Despite being an leader for Calgary for more than a decade, the team rarely made the playoffs during his tenure.
Despite the lack of playoff experience, Giordano is a leader and one thing that may help get to Toronto, is the fact that he’s from here. With one or two seasons left in the tank for his career, Giordano could put Toronto on his trade-list as a destination where he’d like to try to win a Stanley Cup.
Even though he’s almost 40-years-old, his offensive production hasn’t faltered in Seattle and that could be very valuable on the Leafs second power-play. Not only that, but he’s a player you could rely on during crucial moments of a playoff game, instead of looking at Rasmus Sandin, Timothy Liljegren or Travis Dermot to be that player.
Nick Ritchie is Entering David Clarkson Territory. dark. Next
If the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Giordano, it could be the missing piece that helps them find playoff success later this Spring.