The Toronto Maple Leafs almost made a bigger swing at last year's trade deadline than just trading away a whole lot of future draft picks for Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo. A deal was on the table to land St. Louis Blues center Brayden Schenn.
A report earlier this week came our from Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos that there was a trade involving the Blues and Leafs that would see Schenn coming to Toronto, but it would also involve the Leafs' two top prospects, winger Easton Cowan and defenseman Ben Danford, going the other way to St. Louis. It was a trade that would completely empty the cupboards for the Leafs.
Brayden Schenn was almost a Maple Leaf last year
Of course, this feels a little crazy to go all-in like this, but on Friday, Kypreos's colleague and top NHL insider Elliotte Friedman confirmed the report and what the potential deal was going to be.
"I absolutely think that was the package that was on the table that was going to have to get it done for Schenn. Nick is totally right that that was what it was going to take to get him," Friedman said on Friday's episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast.
But the two teams hit a snafu when Schenn, allegedly, refused to waive his full no-trade clause unless somehow, the Leafs were able to form a family reunion and bring his brother and defenseman Luke Schenn back to Toronto.
"Schenn wasn't going to waive to Toronto unless the Maple Leafs got Luke. When all that was going on about reuniting the Schenn brothers, that's what Toronto was trying to do, and if the Leafs had gotten Luke, I think Brayden would've waived to go there," Friedman explained.
And if that happened, this pairing of centerman and defenseman would have been on the team instead of Laughton and Carlo. Which, I guess is a little bit of a different deal.
Leafs lucky they didn't pull this off
In the world where the Leafs get both Brayden and Luke Schenn, the entire team looks a whole lot different. Brayden is locking up the third-line center spot for the next three years as his contract runs through the 2027-28 season, and Luke would be a pure rental on the blue line.
Now, we're just making massive assumptions, but with Brayden down the middle, maybe the Leafs don't target Nicolas Roy as the compensation from the Vegas Golden Knights to facilitate the sign-and-trade for Mitch Marner. Maybe, instead, it's someone like defenseman Nic Hague (who wasn't traded to Nashville yet) to theoretically replace Luke.
Considering how Roy and Laughton have both really found their footing as the bottom-six centres for this Leafs team recently, it certainly feels like that's a better option than overpaying Brayden Schenn to be in that role as he declines rapidly into his mid-30s.
Plus, Carlo might end up getting traded before the deadline this year anyways and the Leafs could get at least some of their assets back, just to make it a big wash.
This Schenn-filled path feels like it would've been going all-in on a roster that didn't really deserve it and now we see that it would've led to potentially even more pain than the Leafs experienced earlier this season.