The Toronto Maple Leafs have started their historic day with a trade, and it's with the Ottawa Senators.
Just several hours before they eventually go up and select Gavin McKenna at first overall of the 2026 NHL Draft, the Maple Leafs have traded restricted free agent goaltender Sam Ersson to the Senators for a 2027 fifth-round pick.
TRADE: We've acquired a fifth-round selection in the 2027 NHL Draft from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the rights to goaltender Samuel Ersson
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) June 26, 2026
Ersson was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in the Joseph Woll trade just a couple weeks ago -- the deal that kicked off this extremely busy and chaotic NHL offseason.
Maple Leafs trade Sam Ersson to the Senators for a draft pick
By all accounts, the Maple Leafs did not plan to send Ersson a qualifying offer this summer. By doing that, the 26-year-old netminder would have become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and would be free to sign with any team. Just like what the Leafs did to get and sign Darren Raddysh earlier, the Senators are doing the same -- and it's hilarious that it cost the same draft pick.
Ersson, going by the numbers, was one of the NHL's worst goaltenders last season and has never really looked competent in Philadelphia's crease. There would be stretches where he would look like a solid backup for 10 or so games, but overall, his season would still look terrible. Just this past season, Ersson finished with an .870 save percentage and a 3.12 goals against average in 33 appearances. That's not good and it's understandable why Toronto is moving on.
For the Senators, it's embarrassing that Ersson is an upgrade. Of course they have Linus Ullmark as their starter, but backing him up last year was mainly Leevi Merilainen and in 23 games he earned an abysmal .860 save percentage and 3.51 goals against. When an elderly James Reimer is putting in better performances than your regular backup, you need to make a change.
The Leafs get to walk away from that trade with the Flyers with another pick and they basically get exactly what they paid to sign Raddysh early. All for a goaltender they were going to throw away anyways.
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