Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Rumour Decider: Good or Bad?

Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Rumour Analysis

The following pages will go through potential acquisitions the Leafs might make at the upcoming trade deadline and attempt to analyze whether these would be good or bad movies.

Ryan O’Reilly

There’s a lot of miles on this 31 year old body, but his $7 million cap-hit would likely be half-retained, and he’s a UFA after the season ends, so there are worse ideas out there.

He’s injured, so he wouldn’t cost that much, and he’s got Cup Wins and Experience coming out of his skates.

But also, the Leafs have been down this road.

An aging, former star, with all the qualities venerated by hockey-guys the world over.

Ever heard of Nick Foligno? I guarantee you Kyle Dubas has, and it’s also why I’ll guarantee you this is never happening.

A bad idea, unless the Blues eat half his cap and take a second rounder or less.

The Leafs have all the depth and the experience they are ever going to need. None of that has been what’s missing (nothing has been missing; that’s the frustrating part.

Verdict: As the major trade the team makes to add for the playofs, NO.

However, if they add an elite forward like Meier, and they also add O’Reilly on the cheap, I think that would be pretty cool.

Patrick Kane

Kane had over 90 points last year, and it’s got to be hard for the former Cup Champ, future Hall of Famer with 1200 points and who is maybe the best American player of all time, to get up for Blackhawks games this year.

I don’t hold his 30 points in 40 points against him. I think he’d compete for a scoring title if he was on Auston Matthews wing.

But demote Michael Bunting?  Not for anyone else, but for Kane, sure.

Then there is that contract.

It would be pretty expensive to have it double-retained.  I think the Hawks will ask for the moon here, and the only way I’m biting if I’m the Leafs is if it’s nearing three of the clock and they realized no one is going to give Arizona a first rounder to pay half his salary.

I highly doubt it’s happening.

However, whatever the cost, if it did happen, I would be excited. How could you not be? Patrick Kane? on the Leafs? It would likely just be a dream, then you’d wake up to find out they traded for Nick Foligno again for some reason.

Erik Karlsson

If there was any way to take on another four years at $11.5 million dollars annually, the Leafs would do it.  But there is no way this contract can be moved.

At least, I don’t think so.

The risk would be enormous, but Karlsson is probably the only defenseman on Cale Makar’s level right now, and he instantly makes the Leafs into the NHL’s best team without any doubt.

But even if the Sharks would give him away, it will cost so much to get them to retain over $5 million annually for another four years.  Might as well keep the player if you’re doing that.

I just don’t see this as a realistic possibility, although it would of course be awesome if it happened. Same with Kane.

Jonathan Toews

He has massively declined, and while he was once known for his leadership, subsequent scandals have called that into question.

I have zero inclination to see Toews on this team. I wouldn’t claim him on waivers.  Hard Pass.

Players the Toronto Maple Leafs Should Not Want At All

Max Domi 

He’s having a decent season, but where would he even fit on this team?  He also seems to be a bit of a dud, so I’d pass.

Ivan Provorov

He never lived up to the hype and now he’s probably available at a massive discount.  I wouldn’t pick this piece of trash up off the street, let alone put him on my favorite hockey team.

Radko Gudas

The Leafs have never really  showed an interest in these players, but the people who fail to understand how good of a GM Kyle Dubas is would love to get him. That’s all you need to know.

Nick Bonino

He would be a great addition – five years ago.  As depth who isn’t expected to play, if thrown in in a different deal? Sure, I guess. No interest though.

Luke Schenn

If you actually think the Leafs should trade for Luke Schenn, I hope it just seems like you smoke crack and that you do not actually have a bad drug addiction.

Vladislav Gavrikov

After researching him for this article, I’d like to see the Leafs get him. He seems like the closest thing to Jake Muzzin, and while I’d loathe giving up on Rasmus Sandin, I think he’d also make a massive trade chip.

The likes which would help acquire:

Timo Meier

The 6’2 220 tank of a player has 50 goal potential, and the idea of having Matthews, Nylander, Meir, Marner and Tavares all on the same roster is insane. In a cap league, to have that much pure goal scoring talent would be extremely rare.

It also makes being goalied much more unlikely.  What team has this kind of elite goal scoring? No one is even close.  This is the best player available and should be the Toronto  Maple Leafs main target.

Note that a lot of the info for this article came from capfriendly.com.

Bo Horvat

Meier is the better goal scorer, but Horvat at 3C with Kampf moved down to 4C gives the Leafs an incredible amount of depth and strategic options.

The Leafs already use Kampf to help get Matthews slightly easier minutes, and with Horvat they could still do that while having more scoring from the bottom of their lineup. Of course he could move up when a goal is needed.

Lawson Crouse

He is signed for too long at too much, but if the Coyotes were to eat half his contract in exchange for an overpay, I think the Leafs have gone too long without this type of player.  Cruise is impossible to evaluate because he does all the things hockey people overrate, and his numbers stink.

But he scored 20 in about 60 games last year, so he’s got the ability to score, and I think also to give the Leafs a different look.

But he’s never got to crash and bang alongside elite players. This is the kind of creative move that could really help out.

The Verdict:

The Toronto Maple Leafs need to go all-in.  If, next year, Kyle Dubas has to watch lesser men destroy his vision, then he should at least go down swinging.

The best trade deadline the Leafs can have is as follows:

Trade a 2025 first and Alex Steeves to the Columbus Blue Jackets for V. Gavrikov.  Then trade Rasmus Sandin and a 2024 first to the Sharks for Timo Meier.

Then trade Matthews Knies to Arizona for Cruise and half his salary retained.  Someone takes Kerfoot for a pick.

This is the lineup the Leafs then dress:

Bunting – Matthews – Marner 

Crouse- Nylander – Meier

Jarnkrok -Tavares- Engvall 

Aston Reese – Kampf – Holmberg 

The Blue Line:

Gavrikov – Liljegren

Rielly – Brodie 

Giordano – Holl 

This lineup gives Keefe a ton of options, including moving Tavares up when needed, and making the Leafs incredibly difficult to play against with an elite third line centre.  Their fourth line is a shut-down line that can have Engvall added to it if it has to shut-down to lines.

It will be interesting to see what the Toronto Maple Leafs actually do, but at least now they can sleep soundly knowing they’ve got my recommendations!