Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade Calle Jarnkrok Immediately

The Toronto Maple Leafs need to trade Calle Jarnkrok immediately.

Signing Calle Jarnkrok to a four-year deal at $2.1M AAV was a fantastic decision by the Toronto Maple Leafs last summer, but it’s time to move on from him.

For the first time in his career, Jarnkrok scored 20 goals in a regular season last year. As shown by many mid-level forwards (Zach Hyman, Michael Bunting, Connor Brown, Andreas Johnsson, Kasperi Kapanen, etc.), the Leafs have an ability to skyrocket your career.

With opening night around the corner, the Leafs have too many good forwards for a lot cheaper than Jarnkrok and need to trade him to clear cap-space.

Jarnkrok is day-to-day, which is why he’s not playing Monday night against the Montreal Canadiens, but that injury could cost him a spot in the Leafs line-up on opening night.

The following line-up for tonight’s forward group is (via: Jonas Siegel):

• Tyler Bertuzzi – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
• Max Domi – William Nylander – Nic Robertson
• Matthew Knies – John Tavares – Sam Lafferty
• Noah Gregor – David Kampf – Ryan Reaves

Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade Jarnkrok This Week

If Jarnkrok were to get inserted back into the line-up, the only person that he’d probably be replacing at this point is Noah Gregor, but Gregor seems to fit a fourth-line role much better than Jarnkrok.

Jarnkrok may have more of a scoring ability than Gregor, and although Jarnkrok is also strong on the forecheck, Gregor is more of a wrecking-ball with energy that can fit a fourth-line role better.

Toronto doesn’t need to add any more scoring, so Gregor over Jarnkrok makes sense.

People may disagree with the Ryan Reaves addition, but he’s playing every night and isn’t coming out of the line-up, so if the team needs to shed some cash, Jarnkrok is the perfect choice.

When I look at this current forward group, it’s hard not to get excited, even without Jarnkrok in the line-up. The fact that this team is losing a 20-goal scorer, yet is getting better, tells you everything you need to know about the state of this group.

Their defensive-group is still an issue, but offensively, this team is going to score a ton of goals and be one of the best in the NHL.

Leafs fans should be ecstatic about the look of this roster and if Knies and Robertson can live up to expectations, they’re not going to miss Jarnkrok one bit.