Despite having interest, the Toronto Maple Leafs did not land the NHL’s biggest fish this summer.
The big Erik Karlsson trade hockey fans have been waiting for finally came and gone, with the 2023 Norris Trophy winner being dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a haul involving the San Jose Sharks and Montreal Canadiens. Sadly, this means the Toronto Maple Leafs swung and missed on another top talent wearing the Blue and White, despite the team being heavily rumored to have interest in the 33-year-old for several years.
The deal included the Penguins shipping out names like Jeff Petry, Casey DeSmith, Jan Rutta, Mikael Granlund and Nathan Legare along with losing their 2024 first and 2025 second-round picks, while acquiring a 2026 third-round selection, Rem Pitlick and Dillon Hamaliuk.
The blockbuster move is former Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Kyle Dubas’ second deal as the new President of the Penguins, acquiring Reilly Smith and his $5 million AAV for the next two years as well.
The deal for Karlsson also involved the Sharks eating just $1 million AAV in each of the next four seasons, making the Penguins cost for Karlsson $10 million AAV per season.
Toronto Maple Leafs: The Only Way Rumored Trade Would’ve Worked
Despite several reports of the Toronto Maple Leafs being involved in talks for the player, it was made clear by Sharks General Manager Mike Grier that the team wasn’t going to go overboard in retaining salary on the player, and the former NHL player surely achieved that in the transaction.
This means if the Leafs were to be involved, Karlsson arriving would’ve costed the team a big name salary, unless they could have cobbled together enough spare parts (like Pittsburgh did) to raise $10 or so million in cap relief.
This would’ve involved names like TJ Brodie, Jake McCabe, Calle Jarnkrok, Timothy Liljegren and Matt Murray before he went to the LTIR candidates (since his salary now doesn’t count against the Leafs limit, trading him now wouldn’t offer any relief).
On top of that, the Leafs would have absolutely have had to included multiple draft picks, as the Penguins did and by the looks of it, the Leafs are short on that end of things. Could the team have traded their 2024 first and third round selections to make it all work? Possibly. But is that the right move given the team just finished the 2023 draft selecting just three players and only one inside the top 150 selections.
Basically the only way the Leafs could have found the salary needed to make the big deal would have been to trade Morgan Rielly to San Jose.
On one hand, Karlsson is a major upgrade and they are the same kind of player, and you don’t really need two players like that.
On the other, Rielly had a good post-season for the team, is seen as a captain like figure in the locker room, he also costs less than Karlsson, despite being on the books for longer. All things which make that less than ideal move for the Leafs.
In my opinion, the Toronto Maple Leafs dodged a bullet by not acquiring a 33-year-old Karlsson, who may have an incredible season alongside some of the leagues biggest names in history, but also could revert back to the player he was prior to this past year, a player who performed well under his average annual salary.