No. 2: Matt Dumba ($7M)
T.J Brodie, Timothy Liljegren and Justin Holl on the right-side doesn’t sound like a Stanley Cup winning defense-core, so the Leafs should look to the Minnesota Wild to make a trade.
Dumba is on the last year of his $6M AAV deal and is bound for a pay-raise. Unfortunately for him, if he wants to stay in Minnesota, he probably won’t be able to secure that money because there’s no team in the league in worse salary-cap hell than Minnesota.
From 2022 to 2025, Minnesota will have between $12-14M in dead-cap money, which will make contract extensions very hard.
As a result, Dumba could become a valuable trade asset and the Leafs could be a trade partner for them.
Dumba’s been linked to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a long time and his physicality and offensive upside would be a welcomed sight on the team’s blue-line. Dumba’s health has been questioned over the past few years, but when healthy, he can be a reliable top-four defenseman and someone who can help run a power-play.