Toronto Maple Leafs: 5 Players to Trade For With LTIR Money

With Jake Muzzin on Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR), the Toronto Maple Leafs now have a ton of cap-space available to make a trade.

Losing a two-time Stanley Cup winning defenseman was never ideal for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but you have to find the optimism in hardship. Jake Muzzin, when healthy, was a top-four blue-liner who made life difficult on the opposition.

However, the “when healthy” statement is the biggest takeaway.

Over his tenure with the Leafs, by no fault of his own, Muzzin has continued get hurt. A number of the injuries have been freakish, but for whatever reason, he’s continued to suffer serious ailments that have kept him out of the line-up for a long time.

When your second highest paid defenseman is getting hurt all of the time, it puts a huge damper and responsibility on the rest of the team, which is unfair. $5.625M is a large chunk of change for a player who’s often injured and it’s tough to replace his production, when the team is already so tight against the salary cap.

However, now that Muzzin is on LTIR, it seems imminent that he’ll stay there for awhile. It could be all season and it could even be for the rest of his career.

When Mitch Marner mentioned that they want to “make sure that he’s going to be able that he’s going to be able to do whatever he wants to do the rest of his life and enjoy the time with his family, his kids,” that comment made me believe that he could be on the verge of retirement.

Obviously he would never retire before his $5.625M contract for the next two years expires, because he’d be giving up millions for no reason, but he could be left on LTIR until then.

As a result, with his salary cleared up and the potential of Matt Murray staying on LTIR as well, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a lot of salary cap space available. Here are five players they could acquire with that money freed up.

No. 1 Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Option: Patrick Kane

We’ve been saying this for a few years now, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are in win-now mode. As a result, the team needs to do whatever they can to improve their roster.

Whether that means trading draft picks, prospects, roster players or ushers from Scotiabank Arena, it doesn’t matter. If the trade means an improvement to the roster, then they need to make it and not worry about the potential long-term problems.

If you think the Leafs offense is already loaded and they don’t need any help, ask yourself what that core has done over the past five years?

They haven’t advanced past the first round in 19 years and in every meaningful game the team’s best players can’t score any goals. So, who better to fix that problem than a player with three Stanley Cup ring’s, a Conn Smythe and Hart Trophy?

I don’t care how expensive his contract is. Kane has 52 goals and 132 points in 136 career playoff games and would be re-motivated to try and win his fourth ring.

He obviously has a “no-move-clause” so joining the Toronto Maple Leafs would be his decision, but who wouldn’t want to play alongside Auston Matthews every night and have a chance at another Stanley Cup for an Original Six team.

If the Leafs can get anyone, it should be Kane.

No. 3: Brenden Dillon

Another player who should be on Toronto’s radar is Brenden Dillon, who currently plays for the Winnipeg Jets.

The veteran defenseman provides little offense, but is defensively-sound and plays a physical game.

At 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, he’s an intimidating force on the blue-line and someone who’s tough to play against.

Currently making $3.9M AAV for the next two years, Dillon makes an affordable contract and could be a good replacement to Muzzin on the Leafs blue-line.

Dillon’s team is in a weird spot right now.

They’re too good to tank but probably not good enough to contend, so if they start to slip away from a playoff spot this year, they may be interested in clearing his $3.9M AAV contract to obsorb Muzzin’s LTIR money.

No. 4: Damon Severson

Although he’s a right-handed shot, Damon Severson could help the Leafs blue-line tremendously.

He has size (6-foot-2, 205 pounds), but also would bring more of an offensive output than Muzzin did.

He’s a clear top-four defenseman, and can be utilized in all situations which is great.

As a pending UFA, Severson is going to be highly-touted next summer and the Devils need to figure out whether or not he’s going to re-sign with them.

If he doesn’t want to re-sign in New Jersey, then the team should look at trading him to acquire assets before losing him for free.

As such, the Devils could fetch a solid package including prospects and draft picks, and Toronto should give those two things up if it means acquiring Severson.

If Toronto wants to go with someone who plays the exact same way as Muzzin than Severson may not be that player, however if they want to acquire the best available player, than Severson may be the perfect fit.

No. 5: Jakob Chychrun

Jake Muzzin getting injured opens the door for the Leafs to acquire Chychrun so much easier than before.

The Arizona Coyotes are known for taking on contracts of players who never play for them, so Muzzin could join the list of Bryan Little and Andrew Ladd who are currently on that LTIR list.

Making it work through the salary-cap was always the biggest issue for Toronto but now that they don’t have to worry about that, they should be making a large trade package to acquire Chychrun. Not only he such an appealing player to trade for because of his talent, but it’s also because of his contract.

At $4.6M for the next three years, Chychrun’s contract is a steal, especially for a 24-year-old defenseman who scored 18 goals in 56 games two years ago.

The former 16th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft has so much talent and he could finally unleash all of it by playing on a good roster, like the Leafs.

As such, the Toronto Maple Leafs should do whatever it takes to acquire Chychrun before another team jumps in and acquires him.