Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade Every Asset They Have

This may sound like a broken-record but the Toronto Maple Leafs need to go all-in this season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t reached the Stanley Cup Finals since 1967, but even more embarrassingly, haven’t won a playoff round since 2004.

As of January, the Leafs lack of playoff success is old enough to drink in Toronto, which is hard to believe. What’s even crazier to think of right now is that Auston Matthews was drafted seven years ago.

Imagine telling yourself on that wonderful evening of April 30, 2016, that by April 1, 2023 the Leafs still haven’t had won a playoff round? They would’ve thought that was an April Fools joke.

Sure, we’d all believe that they wouldn’t have won a Stanley Cup because that day will probably never happen but a playoff round seemed highly unlikely.

Sorry to bring pessimism to the chat, but it comes with great optimism. The Leafs are a very good hockey team and have been for a long time now. However, when it’s come to big splashes, the team hasn’t put all of their chips into the middle of the table.

They’ve dabbled with first-round draft picks and decent prospects but they haven’t shipped away their number-one prospect or multiple first-round picks in a trade to give themselves the best opportunity to win.

Toronto Maple Leafs Must Go All-In

Without a contract extension, Kyle Dubas is currently a lame-duck GM. As a result, if he fails to advance past the first round again this year, he’ll likely be gone.

With that being said, what better way to keep your job then to sell the farm and go all-in for a Stanley Cup this year?

What does he really have to lose at this point? Nothing has seemed to work yet, so why not trade everything you can and improve the roster to its best ability?

If Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner don’t re-sign with the Leafs for their next contract, the team is doomed anyway. As a result, you may as well mortgage the future and try to trade for a star or two at the NHL Trade Deadline.

The Leafs have the luxury of being the mecca of hockey. Regardless of whether or not they’re a good team, free agents will always flock to Toronto because they’re either from the surrounding area, want to play for an original six team, or want to be apart of the first team to win a Stanley Cup since the 1960s.

Even if the Leafs traded Matthew Knies, Topi Niemela, Nick Robertson, Roni Hirvonen and a few first-round picks, I’d suspect that the team could get that talent back from free agency or trade.

Also, just because they’re high-end prospects, it doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to find success in the NHL. All of those players could be busts, although that seems unlikely.

The Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Lakers traded the world over the past few years and it’s hurt them in the long-run, but you know what, they won in the short-term. Leafs fans across the world would sacrifice one Stanley Cup run for another 50 years of failure, because it’s not like things having been going well lately, anyways.

It’s time to give up the world and go after someone like Timo Meier or Vladimir Tarasenko because even though it could hurt the team in the future, it’s worth it for the now.