What Does the Toronto Maple Leafs Roster Look If They Trade for Chychrun?

The Toronto Maple Leafs are rumoured to be in on every player available. 

The thing about that is, while it’s generally good for a laugh, the Toronto Maple Leafs actually do figure to be in on every superstar that is potentially available. 

Clearly, the Leafs have been a team that could have won the Stanley Cup at any time over the last few years.  They are also clearly on the verge of winning one in the next couple.

There might never be a better combination of star players in their primes and young, cheap starts starting to contribute, and as such, it’s time for them to go all-in.

That means that until they go to other teams, players such as Jakob Chychrun, Timo Meier and Dylan Larkin are going to get linked to the Leafs.

Yesterday, Chychrun supposedly changed his Instagram status, making a whole bunch of gullible (until it happens, at least) people think he was on his way to Toronto.

Well if that’s the case, my concern is who leaves the Leafs blue-line, and how it’s constructed afterwards.

Toronto Maple Leafs Blue-Line of the Future

The Leafs blue-line is hard to figure out because you know that ideally, they would like to get a bit bigger and rougher.  However, they won’t want to do that at the expense of being talented.

In fact, they’ve lost for years under the mandate to get more “playoff type” players at the deadline.  Maybe not doing that would be the smartest thing.

Getting tougher doesn’t usually work like people think it will.

For instance, if you brought in Luke Schenn for Sandin, your team would be tougher, but it would also get significantly worse.

The difference would be like when Matthews is injured and can’t play, because while Sandin isn’t as good as Matthews, Schenn actually has negative value.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Toronto Maple Leafs have irrefutable evidence they can win with their current blue-line, because they outplayed the team that went to three straight Finals over seven games.  Their blue line today, with Liljegren, again putting up  in for Muzzin is much, much, better than it was in last year’s playoffs.

The Leafs fans probably want them to get tougher, but they’d be far better off just getting more talented.

Sandin is small and can at times be moved off the puck. He’s also – by far – the most aggressive player currently on their blue-line.  He may be only 5’9  but it’s not like he plays the same as Morgan Rielly.  Besides that, he’s on his way to being an elite player and should not be moved under any circumstances.

The Leafs are not moving Justin Holl, at least I would be shocked if they did.  He is their only large, body-moving, defenseman.  He also plays a ton of minutes for a top team.

Liljegren is their best defender, he’s untouchable.

Gio and Rielly both have contracts that make them unmovable, and you wouldn’t want to move them anyways.

That leaves just TJ Brodie. It’s unorthodox, but he’s the player I’d be looking to move. He makes $5 million you can just put Gio in his spot on the right side.

Chychrun – Liljegren

Sandin – Giordano

Rielly – Holl  

That blue-line is sick. It would easily be one of the best blue-lines in the NHL.  The crazy thing, is that Chychrun makes less than TJ Brodie.

And you can probably then move Brodie in a separate trade, recouping assets to use for a forward.

But what should the Toronto Maple Leafs pay to get Chychrun?  That’s the topic of our next post.