Toronto Maple Leafs: Top 5 Trade Assets for the 2022 Trade Deadline
The Toronto Maple Leafs are bound to upgrade their roster, but what trade assets do they have to move?
If you look at the NHL standings right now, the Toronto Maple Leafs are leading the Atlantic Division and are one of the best teams in the entire league. Although we all dreamed this would happen, after their slow start, who would have thought it would have happened so quick?
Even though this team is seemingly winning every night, they don’t have the perfect roster. They have a very good roster, but they’ll more than likely want to add to it.
Every year, even the best teams in the league add to their depth and try to find that perfect roster that will get them deep in the playoffs. You can’t strictly win with speed and skill in the post-season, but instead need more grit, toughness and competitors that will do everything it takes to win.
Over the past few years, the Leafs have tried to add players like this, but it hasn’t helped them get past the first round. Whether it was Brian Boyle or Nick Foligno, these players helped but it was never enough to advance.
Although the team is rolling, they shouldn’t be satisfied at the moment. The playoffs look like a lock, but the team has way too many games left to get complacent. They should continue to get players into the line-up from the Toronto Marlies like Joey Anderson and Kirill Semyonov and see if they can add in-house, instead of elsewhere.
However, if they do think they need to trade for that top-four defenseman or top-six left-winger, it’ll cost them a few internal pieces. As such, here are the top five trade chips that the Toronto Maple Leafs currently have.
No. 5: Josh Ho-Sang
The former first-round draft pick seems to be a changed man now that he’s accepted his role with the Toronto Marlies.
After getting a PTO with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ho-Sang said that he’d be happy playing in any professional hockey league at the moment, as long as it gave him the best chance at playing in the NHL again. He’s taking those words to heart and has been the best player for the Marlies this season.
With nine goals in 14 games, including an unbelievable OT winner a few weeks ago, Ho-Sang leads the Marlies in goals and has been a driving force on offense. If you’ve seen him play in person, he clearly sticks out as one of the best players on the ice and you can understand why he was so highly-touted as a prospect.
If Ho-Sang was 20-years-old again and didn’t have the baggage that we all know about, you could argue that he’d be the number-one trade asset for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he’s 25-years-old and most NHL teams are probably still hesitant to trade for him.
If Ho-Sang can keep this play up until the NHL Trade Deadline, he could be a solid trade chip for the Leafs, or at the very least, could be an internal call-up that helps this squad for the stretch run.
No. 4: Ilya Mikheyev
Ilya Mikheyev was supposed to be a top-six option for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season, but an injury in the preseason stopped that from happening and we’ve yet to see him play a game for the blue-and-white.
However, based on his recovery timeline, Mikheyev should be slotted back into the line-up soon and could turn into a trade asset. With Mikheyev out of the line-up, Michael Bunting and Alex Kerfoot have stepped in nicely within that top-six, so there may not be any room for him anymore.
Although Bunting and Kerfoot have been great, I think the Leafs would prefer to slide Kerfoot or Bunting into a third-line role, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Mikheyev should slide back into the top-six.
Instead, the team may be inclined to trade Mikheyev and some other assets for an established left-winger who can fit into the top-six beside the top-four forwards. Think a Nick Foligno type of player again, or someone of that quality, so with that being said, Mikheyev would be a good person to trade out, if you’re getting someone like that to come back in.
If it wasn’t for that injury at the beginning of the year, we could be looking at Mikheyev as an untradeable player base don that low cap-hit in the Leafs top-six, but unfortunately he’s been replaced and the team has looked awesome without him.
No. 3: Nick Robertson
There’s no player within the Toronto Maple Leafs organization that I feel worse for than Nick Robertson.
After scoring 16 points in 21 games in the AHL last year, this was supposed to be another big development year for him. We weren’t all convinced that he’d make the NHL roster right away, but after another strong start on the farm, he’d definitely be considered for a call-up.
Then he got injured
Again.
For the past few seasons, Robertson has unfortunately been injury-prone. Is it just bad-luck or is it because he’s 5-foot-9, 165 pounds? His size doesn’t exactly help the reasons why he’s been getting hurt so much, so that could have a lot to do with it.
You don’t ever want to cut ties with a highly-respected prospect when he’s hurt, but he still has a ton of value right now. If he gets another serious injury, we could be talking about him being a “bust” so the team may want to include him a trade package, if they’re able to get an established top-six forward in return.
I doubt the team moves on from him yet, as they’ve been patient with other players like Timothy Liljegren, who’ve they’ve been high on forever, but if a team comes calling and he’s the piece that seals the deal, they may make it happen.
No. 2: Justin Holl
Whether or not you speak highly of Justin Holl right now shouldn’t really matter because you’re not going to find a top-four defenseman who’s making less than $2M.
Holl’s $2M deal for one more year is such a bargain compared to what you have to pay a free agent defenseman, so team’s should be lining up for his services.
Personally, I don’t think the Leafs should trade Holl and should continue with the seven-man unit they have, but if they’re able to grab a better player than him, they should trade him. Holl is a good player, but he’s not great and if the team has an option to upgrade him, then do it.
You’d probably think that Alex Kerfoot should be on this list ahead of Kerfoot, but at this point, I can’t see any reason why the Leafs would trade Kerfoot. He’s a valuable piece at a decent price tag who can play third line centre and top-six wing.
Holl, on the other hand, is a tradeable asset who the team will realistically shop in trade talks.
No. 1: First-Round Draft Picks (2022, 2023 and 2024)
Draft picks are great to have, if you’re a rebuilding team. The Toronto Maple Leafs are not in that phase and they should trade every single draft pick, if it means giving themselves a better chance at winning a Stanley Cup.
Unless you have a top-five pick, you’re not guaranteed anything, and since the Leafs have their 2022, 2023 and 2024 first-round draft picks available, they should trade them to improve this roster.
Everybody says that the Leafs have put themselves in a terrible position draft-wise because they sold all their picks last year and they didn’t advance past the first round. In reality, they’re only missing their third, fourth, fifth and sixth round picks in 2022 and then they have all the rest until 2024.
Sure, only having three picks in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft is tough but the Leafs can fill their prospect pool in other ways. They can sign college players, sign undrafted players and trade for them. It’s not like their cupboard is bare right now with prospects. They have a very strong system with plenty of young players coming up.
When you have Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly as your core for the foreseeable future, you can sacrifice trading your first round picks to get better.
The Pittsburgh Penguins did this for a decade and they won back-to-back Stanley Cups. The Tampa Bay Lightning followed suit and won back-to-back championship’s of their own. Draft picks don’t matter. Winning the Stanley Cup does.
Next. 3 Trades Leafs Could Make Right Now. dark
Bottom-feeder teams will always accept first-round picks for their best players, so Toronto’s draft capital is their biggest asset right now.