What Do the Toronto Maple Leafs Have to Offer in a Trade?

With the March 21st NHL trade deadline approaching, trade rumours surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs are starting to heat up.

There are lots of rumours about who the Toronto Maple Leafs may acquire, but there’s not much talk about what the Leafs might give up in return.

Perhaps that’s rightfully so.  Around last year’s trade deadline the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to acquire six players (Nick Foligno, David Rittich, Ben Hutton, Riley Nash, Antti Suomela and Stefan Noesen) and gave up the often scratched Alexander Barabanov and six faceless draft picks.  There’s obvious value in draft picks, but the actual roster was left relatively unscathed.

However, this season may be different.  The Toronto Maple Leafs no longer have so many picks to pay for players.  At the same time, the Leafs may not need as many “insurance players” with a healthy amount of depth players now on the Marlies and taxi squad.

What do the Toronto Maple Leafs have to offer?  Who do they want to trade, who would they trade if the price was right and what would other teams value?

Toronto Maple Leafs Roster Players

Untouchables: Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Jason Spezza, Wayne Simmonds, Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, T.J. Brodie, Rasmus Sandin, Jack Campbell

Not Likely to Trade: Alex Kerfoot, Michael Bunting, Ondrej Kase, Ilya Mikheyev, Pierre Engvall, David Kampf, Timothy Liljegren, Petr Mrazek

Might Trade: Justin Holl, Travis Dermott

Willing to Trade: Nick Ritchie

Despite what the haters may say, there is no way the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to trade any of their “core four” forwards by the trade deadline.  They’re not going to trade their starting goalie either.

Their top three defensemen all have no trade clauses, and they wouldn’t trade them anyway.  Wayne Simmonds also has a no-trade clause, and Jason Spezza has stated publicly that he’d retire if he wasn’t with the Leafs.  Rasmus Sandin is in the untouchable group, because the Leafs have a lot of faith in him becoming a huge part of their blueline in the future.

Alex Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev and Pierre Engavall are all on pace for their best seasons in a Toronto Maple Leafs uniform, so they won’t likely be traded.  Michael Bunting and Ondrej Kase are looking like the greatest steals of free agency this season.  Kampf is playing solid defense as expected.  I wouldn’t say any of these players are “untouchable,” but the Leafs are happy with them all.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are also happy with Timothy Liljegren’s development, but he’s more likely to be traded than Sandin if an extremely good trade came along.   Justin Holl or Travis Dermott could very well be traded, but it will only happen if the Leafs can upgrade their defense.

Petr Mrazek hasn’t had a great season, but I doubt the Leafs would trade him unless they got another very good goaltender in return.  They can’t rely on Hutchinson or Woll to take over the net if Campbell goes down in the playoffs.

At this point, the Toronto Maple Leafs will want to move Nick Ritchie.  It doesn’t make sense to be paying a player $2.5 million to sit in the press box.  The question is if there will be any takers.  Perhaps Ritchie could move in a deal instead of requesting a team to take on salary from a player coming to Toronto.

Now let’s look at some of the Toronto Maple Leafs Depth Players, Picks and Top Prospects that could be on the move: