Petr Mrázek Trade Is a Big Win for the Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs had two clear needs heading into this off-season: 1) Clear cap space in order to improve the team 2) Fix their goaltending situation.

With their trade on day one of the draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs got much closer to reaching both of these goals.

Before making their selection at 25, Gary Bettman announced that the Leafs had sent Petr Mrázek and the 25th overall pick to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the 38th overall pick. Here, they ended up selecting Kamloops Blazers player, Fraser Minten.

Before we really dissect this move, it’s clear that it’s a major win for the Leafs front office. They only moved down 13 spots in the draft and were able to clear up $3.8 million x 2, something many people speculated would cost substantially more.

Mrázek Move Is a Big Win for the Toronto Maple Leafs

As I said before, being able to shed $3.8 million in cap space for the next two seasons and only moving down 13 spots, is huge.

The fact the Leafs were able to get an asset back in this deal and one that by all accounts, isn’t actually worth much less, is tidy work. By most draft pick value models, the difference between a late first and early second is almost inconsequential.

According to Dom Luszczyszyn of the Athletic’s draft pick value chart, the value lost by trading down from 25th to 38th is 1.2 GSVA (Game Score Value Added).

In comparison, the Oilers traded Zach Kassian and his $3.2 million cap hit, which is $600K less and for the same length, a second rounder in 2025 and a 3rd in 2024, as well as moving back from 29 to 32, in exchange for a first this year (32nd overall).

Obviously the Oilers paid more here for less.  

Dubas also indicated  that the player they wanted wasn’t available at 25, so he chose to move down because their next choice of player would likely be available to them if they did so.

So, the Leafs were able to get rid of the Mrázek deal and get a player they rate quite highly, in Minten. Looking at Dubas’ track record, it seems wise to trust his judgement on this player.

Besides being able to maintain good value at the draft board, the fact the Leafs were able to shed Mrázek’s $3.8 million deal with two years left, is great in it’s own right.

What the Leafs end up doing in net is, at this point, anyone’s guess.

The main point is, the Mrázek trade was a relatively low cost move that gives them much more flexibility than they had leading into the draft Thursday night. It should be an interesting day two of the 2022 draft and should be an interesting off-season as a whole.