With the 2025 NHL trade deadline just around the corner following the conclusion of the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Toronto Maple Leafs will be gearing it up for potential moves to help bolster the squad for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs should look to impact players that could be a difference maker for the club down the stretch run. As for their main areas of need, both depth at center and on defense should be on their bucket list.
Weirdly, the Leafs are being linked to four ex-players that they've had before.
As a result, we will take a look at four former Maple Leafs players that could make their unexpected return to Toronto at the 2025 NHL trade deadline.
4 former Maple Leafs who could return to Toronto at the 2025 trade deadline
D Luke Schenn
It didn’t seem to be that long ago when the Leafs brought back bruising defenseman Luke Schenn to help with their playoff run in 2023. At the time, Toronto surrendered a third-round pick to get it done with the Vancouver Canucks, and it was an overpayment.
Luke Schenn is 35 years old and has a $3 million cap-hit and is signed through next season. The Predators could give him away and the Leafs should still pass.
Schenn is the laziest trade rumour possible - he has been a topic of conversation seemingly every single trade deadline since the Leafs traded him the first time.
He's also a terrible fit. The Leafs blue-line suffers currently from being too slow and not being good enough at moving the puck - two things Schenn would make worse, not better.
Schenn the human hitting machine has been at it once again with the Nashville Predators this season, leading all defenseman in the league in hits with over 200 despite playing just bottom-pairing minutes. But even with a struggling Predators team, he has raised his CF% back up to a respectable 51% and expected goals rate to 54% in 5-on-5 situations this season. Those numbers seem good, but if putting up strong 3rd pairing minutes meant anything, Timothy Liljegren would still be on the Leafs.
It is hard to imagine a worse trade the Leafs could make that adding Luke Schenn.