The dust has settled on another NHL trade deadline. No one can accuse the Toronto Maple Leafs of not pushing their chips forward and going all-in after a series of moves. General manager Kyle Dubas has done his best to upgrade the roster in hopes of going on a deep run in the playoffs.
Before the clock ran out on the opportunity to make more trades, Dubas made significant moves. They included acquiring Ryan O’Reilly along with Noel Acciari from the St. Louis Blues, Sam Lafferty and Jake McCabe from the Chicago Blackhawks, Luke Schenn from the Vancouver Canucks, and Erik Gustafsson from the Washington Capitals.
With all those transactions, it’s hard to believe that there were still misses.
Timo Meier
The player the Leafs would have loved to be flying Timo Meier to Toronto. Instead, he’s joining the New Jersey Devils. It took a package of forwards Fabian Zetterlund and Andreas Johnsson, defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin and Nikita Okhotiuk, a conditional first, a second, and a seventh-round pick to bring him to New Jersey. As part of the deal, the Devils also added forward prospect Timur Ibragimov, defensemen Scott Harrington and Santeri Hatakka, goalie prospect Zachary Emond, and a fifth-round draft selection.
Meier would have been a massive upgrade to the Maple Leafs’ forward group. He’s registered 52 points in 57 games. They’ve come on 31 goals and 21 assists. The addition of another powerhouse scorer would put any opposition on their heels.
The acquisition would have likely meant that Toronto couldn’t have also gotten O’Reilly. To make it work, Dubas would have had to send more salary out the door and create some cap room. Even with the LTIR space, there wouldn’t have been enough for both Meier and O’Reilly without losing well-paid NHL talent.
Even though it was reported that the San Jose Sharks had a big ask from the Leafs in a return for Meier, Dubas still should have found a way to make it happen. The reason this is considered a miss is because the Maple Leafs had the assets to make Meier a Leaf. Dubas may not have wanted to ship out one of the organization’s better prospects, or perhaps, he didn’t want to clear cap space in order to find room for both O’Reilly and Meier. Either way, it would have been an enormous opportunity for the Leafs should they have done it.