Toronto Maple Leafs: 3 Potential Christmas Miracle Trades

A christmas miracle for the Toronto Maple Leafs this year would be a Stanley Cup, but even in our wildest dreams that seems unrealistic.

As much it feels like the Toronto Maple Leafs will never win a Stanley Cup in your lifetime, it’ll happen, eventually. One of these years, a miracle is going to happen and Bay Street is going to be filled with a blue-and-white parade, but I can’t make that type of bold prediction, yet.

Even if the Leafs were up 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, I’d assume they’d find a way to lose.

I wonder what Chicago Cubs fans were thinking when their beloved baseball team was one out away from winning their first World Series in 108 years. Do you think they were celebrating early, crying before that final out, or do you think they just assumed it was all going to come crashing down?

Regardless of how they felt, by some miracle, the “Billy Goat Curse” ended and so will the Leafs.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, if you’re a Leafs fan, we’re all in this together and it’s no secret that everyone of us wants a trade to improve the roster. This team is clearly good enough to potentially win a President’s Trophy, but who knows what’s going to happen in the playoffs.

If the Leafs are finally going to break their drought, the team should go all-win and trade for a player who will make this team better immediately. Not some work in progress who could play on the fourth-line, but someone who will be asked to score in the biggest game of the year.

As a result, here are three Christmas Miracle trades that every Leafs fan would love to see.

No. 2: Vladimir Tarasenko

The Trade:

• Toronto Maple Leafs acquire: Vladimir Tarasenko
• St. Louis Blues acquire: 2023 First-Round Pick, Pavel Gogolev and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev

At $7.5M, Tarasenko is much more affordable for the Leafs and could provide some incredible firepower at the top of the line-up.

The five-time 30-plus goal-scorer has been consistent every year he’s played and bounced back after a serious injury, scoring 34 goals and 82 points in the 2021-22 season.

Although it’s still possible, it feels less likely that Tarasenko will re-sign with St. Louis next year, based on their salary cap.

They’ve already spent a lot of money on a few younger players, so it feels like they may be cap-strapped.

If the playoffs started right now, the Blues wouldn’t be in a playoff berth, so if that continues, the team may be much more willing to trade their best asset at the NHL Trade Deadline.

Every contender in the NHL would be lining up for Tarasenko, as his 41 goals in 90 career playoff games is incredible valuable.

No. 3: Matt Dumba

The Trade:

• Toronto Maple Leafs acquire: Matt Dumba
• Minnesota Wild acquire: 2023 First-Round Pick, Mac Hollowell & Alex Kerfoot

The Wild are in a weird spot right now. Despite being very competitive, they have dead cap-space money for the next five years, with the 2023-24 and 2024-25 season’s being affected the most.

As a result, the team is going to have get to super creative to stay under the salary-cap, all while staying in contention.

Their biggest UFA for next year is Dumba and unless they trade someone else, there’s a zero percent they can afford him at this rate. Although they’d love to have him, so would a ton of other trades at the NHL Trade Deadline, including Toronto.

The right-handed defenseman is someone’s who’s been linked to Toronto forever and would look great in the blue-and-white. With injuries to Jake Muzzin and Morgan Rielly already this year, who knows what’s going to happen near the playoffs, so the Leafs could always use another top-four defenseman.

Dumba would legitimize the Leafs defensive-core and would be an unbelievable pick-up as the team should still look at improving the top-four despite playing at an elite level lately.