Toronto Maple Leafs Hot Trade Rumour: Jakob Chychrun

The Toronto Maple Leafs need to trade for Jakob Chychrun.

As we all know, Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas is on the last season of a five-year contract. It doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t be in the executive in-charge next year, but if things go sideways (again), it’s possible that he’ll be let go.

Throughout his tenure, he’s done a fantastic job maneuvering the salary-cap and constructing a winning hockey team. I know they haven’t had playoff success, but that’s not exactly his fault because this team has been good enough to win for the past few seasons.

I know people only care about playoff success, but making the playoffs every year and having the most regular season points in franchise history is a big deal. This is a team that’s been around for 104 years and they had their best two regular seasons ever in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

That’s not by fluke, but instead is because of the work done by Dubas and head coach Sheldon Keefe.

Winning in the playoffs will eventually come, and that may happen this year, but Dubas is on a short-leash. That may not be fair, since he has built a solid program, but that’s professional sports in a nutshell.

As a result, Dubas needs to make a splash this year to improve the roster and not worry about the future. Draft picks and prospects should be on the table in every trade because it’s all about acquiring better NHL players who can win with this team NOW.

Toronto Maple Leafs Must Go All-In To Acquire Jakob Chychrun

TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that the Leafs are in the conversation, regarding a Jakob Chychrun trade, as reported below in a post on TSN.ca:

"“Now some of the teams that are listed with interest include the Ottawa Senators, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Edmonton Oilers, the Los Angeles Kings, the St. Louis Blues, the Columbus Blue Jackets and on and on it goes. However, it is a challenging one. Despite the quality of player and the contract, there’s some cap hurdles that many of teams I just mentioned are going to have to overcome” (via: TSN.ca)"

Now that Rasmus Sandin has signed, the Leafs defensive pairings look a lot better but they can still improve.

The team has been dealing with injuries and that will continue all season, so the team needs as much depth as possible. Victor Mete and Jordie Benn are good insurance pieces, but you don’t want those players eventually playing a playoff game.

As a result, in a perfect world, you’d love to shed Jake Muzzin’s $5.625M contract and acquire Chychrun. Prospects and draft picks would have to be apart of the deal as well, but moving Muzzin out and acquiring Chychrun in-return would be the ultimate win for Dubas and the Leafs.

Chychrun’s had a few injuries himself, but his offensive abilities and potential outweigh any risk in acquiring him. He’s been stuck on a terrible Arizona Coyotes team for too long and needs to spread his wings on a contender.

As such, there’s no better team than the Toronto Maple Leafs to join, as he could be a missing piece this team needs.