The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a bit of a pickle when it comes to William Nylander.
While the old Toronto Maple Leafs regime was responsbile for starting the top-heavy studs-and-duds trend that other teams (like Tampa and Colorado) are now employing, it’s unclear if the Brad Trelving Regime abides by the same principle.
There is a chance that they aren’t as keen on signing Nylander as I am.
In that case, they would trade him, ideally for a top-pairing quality defenseman that would help their team right now.
However, those types of players are rarely traded and there isn’t a single top ten defenseman on a bad team that looks like he’ll be traded soon.
A better thing to do would be to try to trade for a young prospect with a ton of upside who can play on the Leafs today, ideally on an entry-level deal that would give them cap space.
Toronto Maple Leafs: The Only Plausible Helpful William Nylander Trade
There are two players who fit this bill, both of whom are currently owned by the New Jersey Devils.
The Devils, however, are unlikely to have much interest in William Nylander, since they have Meir, Toffoli and Palet as expensive wingers already.
However, every team needs something, and I’m sure there could be a third team that has something the Devils would want.
The Devils have two of the top defensive prospects in the world and therefore it seems reasonable that they’d at least consider trading one of them.
Luke Hughes is a 6’2 former 4th overall pick left-shooting defeceman, and Simon Nemec is a 6’1 right-shooting defensemen who was taken 2nd overall.
Both players have elite, top-pairing upside.
Both players could likely play on the Toronto Maple Leafs top pairing in 2023.
Now, this isn’t likely to occur because three-way trades are even rarer than blockbuster trades to begin with, and the Devils might just want to keep both players and use have the potential of star players on cheap deals.
They might, however, be temped by a goalie. What if there was an all-star goalie who might be available who is one of the only consistently excellent goalies on earth?
You would have to think that the Connor Hellebuyck would interest New Jersey very much.
Could the Leafs send Nylander to Winnipeg, have Winnipeg send Hellebuyck to Jersey and then ultimate receive one of Hughes or Nemec?
Probably not, but this is the kind of thing the Toronto Maple Leafs have to at least be trying to pull off.