4 Pending UFA’s That the Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade For

Instead of focusing on current UFA’s, the Toronto Maple Leafs should shift thier attention to trading for a 2023 UFA.

If you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you may feel dissapointed right now. The team hasn’t acquired a big-name free agent or made a huge splash via trade, but instead, the team has focused on value contracts, with potential upside.

Ilya Samsonov is a former first-round pick, who has struggled to become a starting goaltender in the NHL, but at $1.8M for one-year, he could be a diamond in the rough. Their other goaltender, Matt Murray, who they traded for in the offseason is another experiment.

Although Murray has two Stanley Cup rings, he hasn’t shown that type of winning pedigree in a few seasons, so many critics think he’s just a flash-in-the-pan. That may be true, but the Leafs are obviously banking on the fact that one of either Samsonov or Murray will be good enough to lead a championship team.

Calle Jarnkrok, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Adam Gaudette, Victor Mete and Jordie Benn are a few other offseason additions, but none of them jump off the page.

Jarnkrok will surprise many and probably score 20 goals on this club, but the other four are going to be fringe NHLers that provide depth and that doesn’t get people excited.

With the majority of the big-name 2022 UFA’s signed or unaffordable, Toronto should shift their focus to 2023. There are a number of players who have one-year left on their deals and are available.

As shown recently by the Matthew Tkachuk trade and even Johnny Gaudreau signing, anything is possible in this league and even the team least expected can acquire a big-name player.

Here are four players who the Toronto Maple Leafs should target in the trade-market who are pending UFA’s.

No. 1: Patrick Kane ($10.5M)

The most obvious and biggest trade the Toronto Maple Leafs could make right now, would be to acquire Patrick Kane.

The three-time Stanley Cup winner is 33-years-old, but has so much left to give. After missing the playoffs in four of the past five seasons, you’d have to think that his juices are flowing to get back on a winning squad and try to win his fourth Stanley Cup.

In 2010, Kane scored a Stanley Cup overtime winning goal to break the Blackhawks 49-year championship drought, so maybe Kane could the secret-weapon to break the Leafs current drought?

The former first-overall pick would be brilliant riding shotgun to Auston Matthews or John Tavares and it would make the Leafs offense virtually unstoppable.

Kane’s contract is clearly a huge obstacle, but with only one-year left, it’s possible that the Blackhawks would retain 50% of his deal, if the Leafs gave them a sweetener. Whatever that sweetener is, it’s worth it, because these types of players don’t become available every day.

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.

No. 3: Pierre-Luc Dubois ($6M)

Dubois would fit perfectly in the Toronto Maple Leafs top-six and at $6M AAV, they need to trade for him.

Although he re-signed in Winnipeg, there’s a 0 percent chance he’s still with the team in two years, so they may as well trade him and get as much value out of him as they can.

The Jets were previously looked at as a team that was a Stanley Cup contender and Canada’s best chance at winning a championship, but that narrative changed quickly. Although they have Connor Hellebuyck in-net, who gives them a real chance to win every night, it doesn’t feel like the rest of the roster is good enough to compete.

As such, they may as well give Dubois his wish and ship out of town and send him to a place that has a real shot at winning; Toronto.

We all saw what Dubois is capable of in the playoffs, when he torched the Leafs in the “play-in” series, so it would be nice to see him doing that with Toronto, instead of against them.

The Leafs are lacking at the left-wing position right now, and a power-forward such as Dubois at a decent price-tag could be a piece that the Leafs are desperately missing.