Why the Toronto Maple Leafs Will Never Trade for Jakob Chychrun

The Toronto Maple Leafs are rumored to be interested in acquiring Jakob Chychrun.

I wrote about this hockeybuzz.com rumour yesterday, and ended by stating that the Toronto Maple Leafs likely aren’t realistically going to make this trade. 

I love rumours, they’re super fun.  But this one isn’t happening, because there probably isn’t a worse fit for Chychrun than the Leafs, in addition to all sorts of other reasons.

Here they are:

Why the Toronto Maple Leafs 100% Will Not Be Acquiring Jackob Chychrun

Consideration the First:

Chychrun is potentially a franchise player, but he’s also potentially already had his best year. You really don’t know what you’re getting when you take a player who has never played on a good team.  There are no-doubters, but he isn’t one.

Second Consideration: 

The Leafs are coming off a season where they were 2nd in 5v5 goals, and 1st in Power-Play goals.  Why do they need to add a purely offensive weapon to a team that is already the best offensive team in hockey?

Third Consideration:

The Leafs have nine NHL defenseman.  They have seven left-handed ones.  Chychrun is left handed.

Fourth Consideration:  

The upgrade of Chychrun over whoever he replaces, be it Morgan Rielly,  Jake Muzzin, or Mark Giordano it wouldn’t be a very big upgrade.  These are all star players as recently as 2021, and even with some slight age-related decline, only Chychrun’s full potential makes the upgrade worth it.

And you must measure that against the downgrade from Nylander to whoever he is replaced with.  This is a gap basically guaranteed to be bigger than the upgrade of Chychrun over (say) Muzzin, and makes this trade a loser for the Leafs.

This is the main reason you know this trade is impossible.

Fifth Consideration:

You also have to bail on Rasmus Sandin if you get Chychrun.

 Sixth Consideration:

Why is Arizona interested in a non-blue-chip prospect (the Leafs have none), a very late first round pick (almost certainly) and a 26 year old with one year before free-agency?  If their GM is that stupid, why would the Leafs even pay this much in the first place?

They are a perpetually losing laughingstock, but even they could probably see how moving  Chychrun for a blue-chip, recent high-end pick or a possible lottery pick in a future draft would be more conducive to rebuilding their team.

Seventh and Final Consideration:

If you were running an NHL team that was stacked with lefties, but you still wanted to improve your already great defense, would you move all three of your best trade chips in a single package for a player who represents only a slight upgrade at the position you are already deepest in?

The package suggested could probably net the Leafs a similarly potentiated right-handed defenseman, so why settle for Chychrun?

It was fun to think about, but it ain’t happening.