No. 3: St. Louis Blues
Torey Krug’s name has been in the news a lot lately and the Leafs need a top-two defenseman so a Nylander trade to St. Louis could make some sense.
The 32-year-old just denied a trade to the Flyers, but could be open to a move to Toronto, since they’re clearly a much better organization.
The Toronto Maple Leafs likely wouldn’t make an aging and declining defenseman the centre-piece of a trade, but Krug would help on a win-now team like the Leafs, and the Blues could always add more to the deal.
Krug averages over 20 minutes of ice-time per night and would be a solid defenseman on the Leafs if the team made a deal for him.
In 523 career games, Krug has 337 points, so not only could he eat up a lot of minutes but he would be big help on the power-play, as the team saw very little offensive output from their defenseman last season.
The Blues just recently turned the page with Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly, so adding a younger player in Nylander could really help their team.
They have an abundance of good defensemen, who all have some sort of a No-Trade-Clause, so it may be harder to make it work, but if one of them is willing to waive that clause, a Blues/Leafs trade makes a lot of sense.
As much as it pains me to see Nylander moved, his price-tag is going to be too much next summer, so if the team can get somewhat equal value for his services, I think a deal has to be made.