Toronto Maple Leafs: Any ‘Summer of Kahwi’ Talk Is Ridiculous

All of this talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs being in their ‘Summer of Kahwi’ is frankly ridiculous, simply because the NHL doesn’t compare to the NBA.

The whole notion behind this is that the Toronto Maple Leafs will make an absolute blockbuster trade this summer that changes the face of the entire franchise and in doing so elevates them far beyond the first round of the playoffs.

It of course worked brilliantly for the Toronto Raptors, when on July 18, 2018, they traded DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard; a blockbuster trade that ultimately ended with the team lifting Canada’s first and to date only NBA Championship, with Leonard starring as the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.

To imagine such a trade for the Maple Leafs; you’re literally talking Mitch Marner or to a lesser degree, William Nylander or Morgan Rielly; assuming of course that Auston Matthews is marked down as untouchable.

It Simply Wouldn’t Work for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Such a trade scenario simply wouldn’t work for the Toronto Maple Leafs, namely because these sort of one-for-one trades seldom happen with two franchise cornerstones.

Indeed, they don’t happen very often and realistically speaking, you’re unlikely to see results that match the outcome of the Kahwi Leonard trade because simply put, NHL teams rely less on individuals than NBA teams.

When you look at the amount of time Kahwi Leonard was on court that season for the Toronto Raptors, you’re talking an average of 34 minutes per game in the regular season and 39.1 minutes per game in the playoffs.

Those numbers equate to 70.83% of a standard 48-minute NBA game in the regular season and 81.46% of a playoff game, albeit these numbers don’t factor in overtime. However, it’s a significantly high number.

To compare that to an NHL game, it’d mean the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing their star player, let’s say Auston Matthews, for nearly 43 minutes per a regular season game or nearly 49 minutes per a playoff game.

Such numbers are utterly ridiculous, hence why any suggestion of making a bold one-for-one move between two highly-rated players is a bit ridiculous. NHL teams don’t make these sorts of moves because they seldom change the game like one singular trade can for an NBA team.

The only real comparable idea would be icing a super line akin to some of the NBA’s roster building. Even that approach doesn’t come near the game-changing times on the ice that a basketball player spends on court.

Calling this the ‘Summer of Kahwi’ is really just a marketing slant at best. The Toronto Maple Leafs, in making this sort of trade aren’t likely to have the same sort of impact to their roster as the Toronto Raptors did in the 2018-19 season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs would be far wiser to remain on their current course, perhaps changing out a few pieces around the edges of the roster and maybe making a single bigger trade to shake out a pricier contract.

Whatever way you look at it though, they shouldn’t go trading franchise pieces. The core group of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly should be left out of any trade discussions unless the return is an improvement upon them; frankly any trade for an equal is unlikely to happen.