Plenty of Toronto Maple Leafs Defense Trade Rumours Floating Around

The Toronto Maple Leafs might be wise to dip into the market to see if they can add a defenseman given their injury woes.

With Morgan Rielly joining Jake Muzzin on long-term injured reserve, and with it seemingly likely that T.J. Brodie might be placed there retroactively, the Toronto Maple Leafs are down 3 defensemen. ,

While this will give the Leafs an opportunity to test out Liljegren and Sandin, they might add someone to the roster through trade.

There have been plenty of rumours already this year, at least that the Maple Leafs have kicked tires on certain guys, so maybe it’s time to take the plunge.

Who Would Benefit The Toronto Maple Leafs Most?

The obvious question is whether a certain defenseman would actually benefit the Toronto Maple Leafs or whether they’d be just as smart to promote internally and keep tallying deadline cap space against LTIR – $7.2 million and counting per CapFriendly.

Working through the list of names mentioned in connection to the team, the most recent was Vancouver defenseman, Tyler Myers. This is still a bad idea as even with the current situation, as even in his prime Myers was one of the worst players in the NHL.

Matt Dumba’s name has been mentioned too which actually sounds like a wiser choice in terms of replacing Morgan Rielly in the short-term. Certainly, the Minnesota Wild lack major leverage with their cap troubles and his expiring deal.

There were a trio of names explored that analysts had mentioned in Artem Zub from the Ottawa Senators, Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks or Dmitry Orlov of the Washington Capitals.

Of the three, only Orlov is a solid option and he’d be expensive.

. Finally, Luke Schenn has been mentioned more than once and given the dire state of affairs in Vancouver, he definitely requires another look.  He would add depth like Jordie Benn does, and wouldn’t have any real impact, however.

It’s never wise to deal from a position of weakness, and with your three name-brand defenseman on the shelf, that is exactly where the Leafs are at. Unless Dmitri Orlov is really available – and the Capitals may eventually punt the season – there aren’t a lot of good options on the table.

Therefore the best course of action right now is to whether the storm and promote from within. The Leafs really aren’t in that bad of a position with Liljegren, Sandin and Giordano to fall back on.