Toronto Maple Leafs Have a Likely Trade Partner In Seattle
The Seattle Kraken are struggling during their first year of expansion which makes them an intriguing trade partner for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs almost lost to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night, but a heroic performance by Auston Matthews led them to a 6-4 victory. Despite struggling this season, there are a number of players on the Seattle Kraken that would look good in a Leafs uniform this year.
Seattle’s first season is definitely going a little different than the last expansion teams (Vegas Golden Knights) inaugural campaign went.
Vegas made it to the Stanley Cup Finals and have been a legitimate contender ever since entering the league, while Seattle is bound for the NHL Draft Lottery.
Most expansion teams start the way Seattle has, but the Kraken currently have plenty of trade assets to speed up the rebuild. 10 players on their current roster are pending RFA’s or UFA’s so they have a lot of flexibility with their squad next year, which is important when building a new franchise.
Seattle will need to draft and develop quickly and efficient if they want to be a future playoff team, so they’ll more than likely ship away any trade assets they have at the Deadline to capitalize on the UFA’s/RFA’s that they don’t want to sign.
As such, the Leafs should use this to their advantage because they should have no issues with shipping away prospects and draft picks at this point, if it means helping them win a Stanley Cup.
Here are three players that the Toronto Maple Leafs should target on the Seattle Kraken.
No. 1: Marcus Johansson
If the Leafs want to add depth to their forward group and don’t want to spend much money to do so, they should 100 percent look to Marcus Johansson.
I’ve been beating the drum on Johansson for years. The former first-round pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft isn’t the most well-known player around the league, but he’s been a constant professional for the past 13 years.
The two-time 20-goal scorer isn’t going to break any points records, but he’s going to play the game hard and is going to add depth scoring, most importantly when the playoffs start.
With 97 games of playoff experience, Johansson has 41 points, including 13 goals and would fit perfectly in Toronto’s line-up (stats: hockeydb.com). He’s 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, can score, but can also play with an edge, being a disturber, similar to Michael Bunting.
Although Johansson typically plays left-wing, he’s agile and can play multiple positions if needed. Those are the type of players you want on your roster in the playoffs and for half the price of Alex Kerfoot, he could be just as efficient.
Speaking of Kerfoot, for the same price as him, they could acquire Johansson and the next player we’re going to talk about.
No. 2: Calle Jarnkrok
Jarnkrok is probably the most intriguing forward on the Seattle Kraken that Toronto could realistically trade for.
As a pending UFA, who only makes $2M, Jarnkrok spent eight seasons with the Nashville Predators before joining the Seattle Kraken this year.
You may be unfamiliar with him, but the right-shooting forward can play either centre or wing and is also a great checking-forward. He also seems to score between 10-16 goals every single season, so he has a solid offensive side to him that helps depth scoring.
Although Toronto has a few players similar to Jarnkrok like Odrej Kase, Alex Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev and David Kampf, you can never have too many and for the price of Kerfoot, as previously mentioned you could added Jarnkrok and Johansson to the equation.
Jarnkrok is also a former client of Kyle Dubas during his agent days, so it wouldn’t be shocking if he took a swing at a player he’s very familiar with, similar to how he’s acquired Kyle Clifford twice and is always looking at former Soo Greyhounds players.
No. 3: Carson Soucy
If the Leafs are looking to add a player with size and someone with term, there’s nobody in the marketplace that fits that mold better than Carson Soucy.
Soucy is a giant.
He’s 6-foot-5, 211 pounds and is an intimidating force on the blue-line. Currently making $2.75M through the 2022-23 season, Soucy would be a nice addition to Toronto’s defensive group for this season and next.
The left-shot defenseman can play both sides, which is a huge plus on Toronto’s blue-line, especially with Jake Muzzin currently out of the line-up. Muzzin’s injury gives Toronto a lot of cap-space flexibility, but even if Muzzin returns before the season ends, the Leafs could still add Soucy easily.
One of Toronto’s biggest issues right now is goaltending, but more shutdown defenders can help regain the confidence of the goaltenders and make their job easier.
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Soucy has a career-high seven goals this season, but he’s more known for his shutdown play and for being a defensive-defenseman, so he’s exactly what Toronto is missing out on and would be a big addition over Travis Dermott and Justin Holl.