A Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Still Likely This Summer

It feels like it’s been a decade since the Toronto Maple Leafs last played a game.

The summer is supposed to be quiet for Toronto Maple Leafs news, but it seems eerily still as of late. While the hockey world is squeezing in every last once of summer at their cottages, fans everywhere are still anticipating a trade by their favorite team.

When you look at the Leafs roster, it feels incomplete.

Although the defense is set, their goaltenders are in-tact and they have a ton of forwards, for whatever reason it feels like they’re not done for the offseason.

Is this roster better than last years?

I mean, maybe?

Personally, I think it’s practically the same, if not worse, because Rasmus Sandin is unsigned, and Mikheyev wasn’t exactly replaced with a similar player.

Losing Sandin would be a big loss and the two sides need to come to an agreement soon. I know the team is struggling with salary-cap concerns, but Sandin’s ticket won’t be too big that it should cause a huge departure.

Since the offseason ended, names such as Alex Kerfoot, Justin Holl and Jake Muzzin have all been rumored to be on the trade-block to help increase cap dollars, but all three of them are still with the team.

Will one of them get traded soon? Hopefully, but who the heck knows.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Can Still Make a Trade Before the Season Starts

Once Rasmus Sandin signs (or doesn’t), that’ll determine whether or not a current roster player gets shipped out.

With Sandin on the blue-line, the Leafs defense looks pretty good. Instead of shipping Justin Holl or Alex Kerfoot away, who are both on team-friendly deals, the easy answer is to trade Jake Muzzin.

As much as I’ve loved his play over the years, his health is a huge problem. Not only that, but he makes way too much money for the services he brings. Without him on the Leafs blue-line right now, they would still be very competent and his $5.625M contract could be used elsewhere.

Muzzin is 33-years-old and although his contract seems expensive on the Leafs, there would be a ton of teams lining up for his services, because as mentioned, when he’s healthy, he’s a solid top-four defenseman. He has two Stanley Cup rings as well, which teams always value.

With two years left on his deal, Toronto could trade him in a heartbeat and they should.

We shall see what happens over the next few weeks, but hopefully something happens before the regular season because it’s been a boring few weeks to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.