Toronto Maple Leafs May Have Very Little Trade Leverage

The Toronto Maple Leafs may have very limited trade leverage this summer given the way the market has played out.

Right now the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves over the salary cap with Rasmus Sandin still needing a potentially costly new deal.

Given the way that the roster is built, there are very limited options to be dealt and even those that could be shifted will likely not earn decent returns.

It seems, if I am  reading the current market correctly, that the Leafs now lack any real buying power.

Toronto Maple Leafs Will Get Small Returns in Trades

While the big ticket deal that saw Matthew Tkachuk heading to Florida in return for Mackenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau certainly limits options; this deal isn’t the one that damages the Toronto Maple Leafs leverage the most.

The damage was done by the Columbus Blue Jackets, who facing a similar scenario after the signings of Patrik Laine and Johnny Gaudreau to new contracts had to deal a contract at cut-price value.

The Seattle Kraken only needed to pay a 2023 third and fourth round pick for Oliver Bjorkstrand, a 57-point man last season, and an excellent first-line worthy player.

Then again, this move was widely seen as such a blunder by the Blue Jackets, and is considered such a horrible trade, it might not actually affect the market.

Likewise, the Vegas Golden Knights essentially paid a prospect to ditch Max Pacioretty’s contract on the Carolina Hurricanes. Again, this is a first liner getting given away.   His contract is bad, he is old, and he is injury prone, but it’s still shocking to see such a player given away.

Why is this relevant to the Toronto Maple Leafs, you might ask?

Well, they need to leverage a deal to shift money out. The obvious candidate is Alex Kerfoot, who is comparable, at least with respect to his 51 points last season to Oliver Bjorkstrand, though he’s not nearly as good overall.

Based on the Columbus and Vegas deals, one could make the argument that they should have to pay to get rid of Kerfoot’s contract, since he’s obviously a worse player than both Bjorkstrand and Pacioretty.

The difference here, however, is in the subtleties.  While it’s true that Kerfoot is worse than either of the two other players, the fact is that he is owed just $750 K in real money, thanks to the Leafs paying his signing bonus already.

Despite that, he has a $3.5 million dollar cap hit, likely making him an interesting player for a cheap/poor team looking to hit the cap floor.  He is also a pending UFA with a modified no-trade clause.

The return for Kerfoot won’t be great, but the Leafs almost certainly won’t have to pay someone to take him.

Likewise, the Toronto Maple Leafs other oft-rumored trade chip Justin Holl, despite playing the right-side of defense, is unlikely to be able to turn any real value in return.  He isn’t bringing in a first -rounder, but if the Leafs do want to move him, other team’s will definitely take him.

The market is potentially such that other teams know the Toronto Maple Leafs need the cap space more than the trade partner needs the player. This could prove problematic, but likely won’t because they probably aren’t desperate because they’ve built in a lot of flexibility for themselves by having no negative value long-term contracts.

The Leafs have options, but the market might not be good right now for teams who have to dump salary, and it’s possible the Leafs misread the market by going over the cap without first trading their movable players.  By doing so , they very easily could have lowered their potential returns, or even made their movable assets impossible to trade.