Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade for Players With Term

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are often involved in trade rumors throughout the NHL. They get linked to every available player, no matter the cap hit or contract type.

This season, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in rumors regarding Patrick Kane from the Chicago Blackhawks and Bo Horvat from the Vancouver Canucks.

As skilled as these players are, and as much as they would help Toronto’s top six, I think adding a rental player is a bad idea.

Since November 1st, Toronto has been near perfect with a 15-1-4 record.

The Maple Leafs currently hold the third-best record in the NHL. Toronto and the New Jersey Devils have 44 points and are three points behind the Boston Bruins.

Everything is clicking for Toronto right now. Their stars are performing, the defense is playing great, goaltenders are playing incredibly well, and the bottom six have started to provide more secondary scoring.

Considering their level of play since November 1st, Toronto does not need to add anyone. That could, and likely will change between now and the NHL trade deadline, but Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas should not be in a hurry.

One reason Toronto should avoid trading for pending unrestricted free agents is the bidding war that will occur.

Unless Dubas feels this is the year that Toronto has the best shot of winning and decides to go all in, he should avoid bidding wars for rental players. He will be better off trading for a player with term that can help us this season and beyond. So which players should Kyle Dubas and the Toronto Maple Leafs target?

If we take a player with Bo Horvat’s cap hit ($5.5 million) but add more term to the contract, we end up with Travis Konecny from the Philadelphia Flyers.

Konecny has two more years left on his deal after this season. He has 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points in 24 games this season.

Those 25 points would place him fifth on the Toronto Maple Leafs between Michael Bunting (21) and John Tavares (30), though he’d unlikely get the prime minutes in Toronto he is used to on the Flyers. (Stats from hockey-reference.com) (Salary cap info from capfriendly.com)

Konecny finished the 2021-22 season with 16 goals and 36 assists for 52 points in 79 games.

He could be a good option for Toronto to use as the left winger for John Tavares’ line. The 25-year-old Konecny is averaging over 20 minutes a game and could be a perfect fit for Toronto’s top six. His Corsi numbers are also above 50%, which means the team controls the puck more than 50% of the time when he is on the ice.

Playing on the Maple Leafs and playing with guys like John Tavares and Mitch Marner would elevate Konecny’s stats. He registered 61 points during the 2019-20 season and could reach or surpass that number by playing with Toronto.

As the Philadelphia Flyers continue to struggle, Konecny’s name is one that fans should keep an eye on.

Carter Verhaeghe is one of those players the Toronto Maple Leafs let get away.

He was traded before he reached his full potential. His cap hit is $4.166 million for two more seasons after this one. It is an easier contract to manage than Konecny’s from a cap standpoint. Verhaeghe has 15 goals and nine assists for 24 points in 29 games this season. He had his breakout season last year with 55 points in 78 games.

Toronto selected Verhaeghe in the third round of the 2013 NHL draft with the 82nd overall pick. Once drafted, Verhaeghe returned to Niagara Ice Dogs in the OHL for the 2013-14 season.

He recorded 28 goals and 54 assists for 82 points in 65 games that season. Toronto’s GM at the time, Dave Nonis, signed Verhaeghe to a three-year entry-level contract.

He never played a game for the Toronto Maple Leafs as he was traded to the New York Islanders in 2015 along with four other players in a contract dump for Michael Grabner.

He spent two seasons in the Islanders organization before being traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2017.

His first NHL season was in 2019-20 for the Lightning, and he recorded nine goals and four assists for 13 points in 52 games.

Next. Revisiting the Kane Rumours. dark

Since then, he has gotten better each season. I think Verhaeghe would welcome a trade to the team that drafted him. He has the tools to be productive in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top six.

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