The Toronto Maple Leafs have made several key additions this offseason as general manager Brad Treliving attempts to turn over this team into something that might not be a perennial playoff disappointment. The latest trade rumors have them adding another forward (or two) with some Stanley Cup rings on their fingers.
and on it, he has the Maple Leafs linked to a winger who could provide a jump to their offense: Pittsburgh Penguins’ Bryan Rust.
Could Toronto be looking to add some rings in the room while addressing its scoring depth?
For Rust, it would be adding a player that is one of the only players clearly on the market and leaving a team that is trying to sink to the bottom of the standings next season. The Penguins might be the only team in the entire NHL that don’t desperately want to improve next season, with eyes on projected first-overall pick Gavin McKenna being a game-changing prospect next June.
The price for Rust is reportedly high, but the 33-year-old winger has three years left on his contract that carries a $5.125-million AAV. That contract isn’t the prettiest thing to have on a team’s books and with recent trade rumors having the Maple Leafs open to moving someone like Calle Jarnkrok or David Kampf to clear some cap space, they could potentially take Rust’s entire contract.
Would he be worth it, though? Rust has been consistently a very productive player even as he gets up there in age. In the last four seasons, Rust has scored 103 goals and 225 points in 274 games, averaging 0.82 points per game. And that average wasn’t boosted by one crazy season, either. Rust’s worst season was 46 points in 81 games, and that is the only season where if he played for all 82 games, he wouldn’t score at least 60 points. Plus, he’s coming off a season where he scored a career-high in goals with 31.
While he might not be the most perfect option, Rust could certainly hang being Auston Matthews’s second winger, or even form some rugged, heavy-possession trio if John Tavares and William Nylander connect again.
There is a world where it makes perfect sense for Treliving to take this kind of risk and instead of focusing so much on younger upside like he has with the Matias Maccelli acquisition, go get a winger with loads of experience playing with one of the best centers of all-time in Sidney Crosby.
This trade would certainly liven up a fairly dead period of the summer.