The Blockbuster Trade to Transform the Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t where they’d like to be early in the season. While results haven’t been disastrous, the team hasn’t yet lived up to expectations. Struggling to beat lower tier teams has plagued the Leafs early on.

Finding the path to success can be difficult, especially when you have $20 million to spend in the summer and flush most of it down the toilet, as new Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving did.

While goaltending has, at times, been shaky and unreliable, the team’s biggest weakness is their blue-line. They haven’t given the tandem of Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll enough help.

Through the first 13 games the Maple Leafs played, they are the fifth-worst club in the NHL at giving up goals. They have an average of 3.62 goals against.

The Blockbuster Trade to Transform the Toronto Maple Leafs

Knowing that more defensive help is needed, the franchise must target a player who can help course correct. It would need to be a high-end talent on a team that is likely to miss the playoffs. That’s because the only team willing to let go of a difference maker is a group who has resigned themselves to missing the post season.

A team who matches this description is the Calgary Flames. They are 4-7-1 in their first 12 games. The player the Leafs need from Calgary is MacKenzie Weegar.

At age 29, he has been sensational for the Flames since they acquired him as part of the trade with the Florida Panthers for Matthew Tkachuk. The six-foot, 206-pounds defenseman from Ottawa has played 12 games and scored two goals and three assists.

A deal of this magnitude could change Toronto’s fortunes. Beyond bolstering the team’s defensive capabilities, Weegar’s arrival would infuse composure during high-pressure playoff scenarios, addressing a critical need in the pursuit of their Stanley Cup.

Weegar’s possession metrics point to his individual success. According to Hockey Reference, when playing at even strength, he has a Corsi rating of 57.8, which is 3.3 better than his team. While some may be concerned with the small sample size, he was even better last season. Over Weegar’s 81 games playing at even strength, he had a Corsi of 61.2, which was an impressive 6.0 better relative to his team.

A deal of this magnitude could change Toronto’s fortunes. Beyond bolstering the team’s defensive capabilities, Weegar’s arrival would infuse composure during high-pressure playoff scenarios, addressing a critical need in the pursuit of the Stanley Cup.

That is why Weegar was signed to a massive, eight-year contract extension with the Flames in October of 2022. According to Cap Friendly, he is under contract until the conclusion of the 2030-31 season. His deal has an AAV of $6.25M.

Taking on that deal is a big risk for the Maple Leafs. By the end of Weegar’s contract, he will be 37-years-old, and he will still carry a cap hit of $6.25M. However, the NHL salary cap will certainly have risen quite a bit over the span of eight years. That means Weegar’s AAV will not eat the same percentage of the cap as it would now.

With the Flames recognizing that their best option is to go into rebuild mode, they may not want to have Weegar attached to them for so long. His best value, where they can get the greatest return, is right now. While it would be shocking to see him moved, it could be a useful decision for the Flames.

The Toronto Maple Leafs would have to include a player with a large cap hit to make the money work in an exchange. The Buds best outcome would be if the player they traded was John Klingberg. The Flames may like him because his $4.15M contract expires at the end of this season.

Klingberg wouldn’t be the only return the Flames would accept for the trade to work, but if the Leafs were willing to take on an extremely long, expensive contract for a player who won’t be any good by the time the Flames rebuild, the cost likely wouldn’t be very high.

Taking on the contract might mean as much or more to the Flames as getting the player would for the Leafs.  The Leafs might have to add something, but it wouldn’t be the kind of asset it would usually take to get such a player.

While acknowledging the difficulty of relinquishing promising prospects and draft picks, this trade emphasizes the delicate balance between immediate success and long-term sustainability. Investing in a defenseman of Weegar’s caliber not only positions the Toronto Maple Leafs as contenders in the short term but if Weegar’s game doesn’t degenerate, it also secures a reliable asset for sustained success in the future.

With Weegar playing behind stars like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, the Toronto Maple Leafs could be one of if not the most dangerous team in the NHL.