The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be heavily involved in the trade market for the next couple of days. With the NHL trade deadline coming up on Friday afternoon, the Leafs have just a short amount of time to make deals that could affect the future of this organization.
One way they could nail this trade deadline is by getting a hot commodity like a former second-overall pick who could transform the Leafs' blue line.
On Wednesday morning, The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun dropped a bombshell. As the New Jersey Devils continue to flounder and are even lower on the standings than the Leafs, they're reportedly taking calls on 22-year-old defenseman Simon Nemec. This could be massive.
Going to be interesting to see what happens on the Simon Nemec front. Devils are taking calls on the second overall pick from '22. No shortage of teams checking in. New Jersey happy to keep him, but if there's a deal that upgrades their forwards in a real way, they're going to…
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 4, 2026
Simon Nemec is the perfect trade target for the Maple Leafs
After potentially being somewhat of a bust after being taken at second overall, ahead of all-star talent like Logan Cooley, Cutter Gauthier, and so on, Nemec has really developed into a solid offensive contributor. In 47 games this season, he has nine goals and 21 points -- he won't continue shooting at 12.5 percent, but it's still noticeable. Plus, he's averaging 19:42 TOI, so he's really getting his opportunity in New Jersey, finally.
His main attribute is his speed, though. He sprints up the ice and can be that rover-esque player from the back that creates as much offense (or more) than some forwards he shares the ice with.
Essentially, he's someone the Leafs have been dying to acquire for some time now.
With Morgan Rielly seemingly on his last legs and the rest of the Leafs' blue line aside from elderly Oliver Ekman-Larsson being made up of pure shutdown defensemen, Nemec would be a breath of fresh air unlike any other.
If the Leafs don't want to completely bottom out -- partly because they can't because they don't have their own first-round pick for the next two years -- then betting big on a transformative young blueliner is something they are going to have to do and Nemec feels like the right age and player to really nail down.
What could the Devils want in return for Nemec?
The part that is worrisome is that the Devils also don't want to bottom out and tank. But, the benefit that the Leafs could potentially have is that New Jersey general manager Tom Fitzgerlad is virtually a dead man walking and is fighting for his job. Could he really be fooled into taking someone like a Nicolas Roy or Nick Robertson or Matias Maccelli as that big upgrade to the Devils' forward group in return for Nemec?
It's not crazy to think about them liking any of those players, especially Roy, for what they envision in a successful season next year.
It's a deal that needs to happen for the Leafs to do anything in the near future. There's not really going to be as good a puck-moving defenseman who is just 22 years old, as Simon Nemec. It will be interesting to see if anything happens in the next two days.