10 (Mostly) Elite Defensemen the Toronto Maple Leafs Could Trade For

10. Zach Werenski

Last but not least, we have Zach Werenski.

He has a full no-movement clause, and he makes almost $10 million dollars per year.

But you have to figure that the Columbus Blue-Jackets, who are just absolutely awful, would be interested in making a big move.

You also have to look at their recent moves and think you can take advantage of how stupid they are, so it’s a great scenario to try to make a trade that really helps your team.

The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t trade William Nylander for Zach Werenski straight up, because Nylander is more valuable than that.

But what else would the Leafs have to add if they wanted both Patrick Laine – the recently healthy scratched Patrick Laine, that is – and Zach Werenski?

I doubt that much, assuming Werenski would leave the worst team in the league to go to one of the best ones.

Werenski has always threatened to become an elite number-one defender, but he’s always been stuck in Columbus on horrible teams, usually with really bad coaches.

The Leafs might think they can rescue him.

Laine has three more years of an almost nine-million cap hit.

This sounds nuts, but Laine + Werenski is $18 + and the Leafs could trade Nylander along with Klingberg, Domi and Jarnkrok to more or less afford it for this year, and then figure out the rest later.

The Leafs have more than enough quality Marlies to replace what Domi and Jarnkrok bring, and Werenski would push Rielly to a better role on line two.

Laine would give the Leafs an insane group of forwards and they could use him as a weapon and not care what he does about defense, and never worry about him being the star or the main guy.

Yes it’s crazy and probably unrealistic. But it’s only unrealistic because NHL GMs have no imagination.

Werenski has put up a positive expected goals rating on the Columbus Blue Jackets in each of the last two years. Imagine how great he’d be on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This is a trade that would put the Leafs over the top similar to when the Toronto Blue Jays traded for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter.

No matter what happens, the Toronto Maple Leafs need to improve their blue-line, and they need to do it by getting a better player than just Nikita Zadorov.