For the Toronto Maple Leafs, It’s Time for Brad Treliving’s First Trade

The Toronto Maple Leafs are due for a trade.

More specifically, Brad Treliving, the new Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager, is due to make his first trade.

You don’t really know what you’re getting when you get a new GM, and so far, outside of the people who hated Kyle Dubas and were ready to anoint his successor as a savior regardless of who it was, reviews have been mixed. 

But you can’t really judge Treliving until he makes a trade, because ultimately, each GM ends up being known for a signature trade, whether good or bad.

In Calgary, Trelving is always going to be known for the trade that brought in Huberdeau and sent out Matthew  Tkachuck.  Kyle Dubas is always going to be known for trading away Nazem Kadri.

It’s how she goes.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, It’s Time for Brad Treliving’s First Trade

The first Treliving trade could be anything from a cap dump to a blockbuster.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are currently over the salary cap, so in theory, they could do a boring trade that gets rid of someone like Sam Lafferty or Connor Timmins to make some space.

Things could get a little more interesting if the Leafs try to improve their blue-line, which is an obvious weakness. 

Currently, the Leafs top four features no elite players.  Their best player is Morgan Rielly, and their top-four features just a single physical player, Jake McCabe, who is coming off of a fairly bad playoffs.  Brodie is expensive, but also seems ageless and losing him would really hurt.

The top-four would be rounded out by either a player the coach didn’t want to use in the playoffs, or John Klingberg, while whichever one of those guys is left will play with the ancient Marc Giordano on the 3rd pairing.

Obviously the team would like to get tougher and add a high-end player.  Doing both seems unlikely, however a package consisting of Brodie and Jarnkrok could clear up to $7 million dollars, assuming they get out of their current overage in other ways.

Regardless of what happens, training camp starts soon and the season is just over a month away. That means that the Toronto Maple Leafs still have time for one last late summer trade.

We know that Brad Treliving is eventually going to make his first deal, but the time is nigh.

Nigh, I say.