Stars and Superstars Are Who the Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade For
By James Tanner
Toronto Maple Leafs and the Trade Deadline
The Leafs have several reasons to go for it completely:
Their GM likely fired if they don’t win at least one round. This might not be fair, and it almost certainly would be the wrong move, but if the team flounders again in the spring, it’s almost guaranteed to happen. We are lucky he ever got another chance, to be honest.
They have cap flexibility. Yes, it’s true that they are currently all but maxed out, and are estimated to have about a two and a half million dollars by the trade deadline to make a move. However, the team has a lot of flexibility because some combination of Justin Holl, Nick Ritchie, Alex Kerfoot, Petr Mrazek, Pierre Engval or Wayne Simmonds could free up as much space as they could possibly need.
They have lots of assets. The above mentioned players could me moved, and it likely wouldn’t hurt the team much (Mrazek aside). Additionally, they have their first and second round picks this years still, as well as all of their picks next year. They also have a solid group of valuable prospects, many of whom will never find room for themselves on the Toronto Maple Leafs roster.
The age of their star players (Tavares, Muzzin aren’t getting any better, while Matthews and Marner are probably the best they’ll ever be).
The Toronto Maple Leafs will unlikely to ever hit on so many cheap gambles ever again Kase, Kampf, Bunting, Mikheyev, Engvall, Sandin, Liljegren, and Campbell are all bring major value for pennies on the dollar. This is the kind of dream scenario you envision when you sink so much of your cap money into so few players.
Finally, there’s the division they play in. In order to get out of the first round, they will almost certainly have to engage in a Stanley Cup Final-Esque Series against one of the best teams in hockey. That means one thing: Arms Race.
That is six reasons why the Leafs are definitely not going to be content to trade for a couple of depth players, preserve their assets and call it a day.