The Toronto Maple Leafs are rumoured to be interested in Seattle Kraken centre Yanni Gourde, but they have to aim higher. Gourde is a great addition, to be sure, but he cannot be the biggest addition.
While Yanni Gourde is a very good player, given his age, upside and potential acquisition cost, it is obvious that the Toronto Maple Leafs could do better. Gourde should be acquired, if the team upgrades in a bigger way elsewhere. If he is their main addition, it will be a huge failure.
If the Leafs were to trade for Gourde, there team would be way better than it is now. The point I want to make is that the Leafs are not one Yanni Gourde away from winning.
They have to aim higher.
Maple Leafs Need to Shoot Higher Than Yanni Gourde at the Trade Deadline
The Leafs are in win-now mode, and with Marner heading to free-agency and Chris Tanev, Morgan Rielly and John Tavares not getting any younger, winning only gets harder from here.
Which is why the Maple Leafs need to make a good decision when it comes to upgrading their team this year. Gourde is a pending free-agent who makes almost $6 million against the cap. He's also 33 years old.
At his peak, Gourde scored 25 goals and 65 points for the Lightning, but that was seven years ago. Today Gourde will be lucky to crack 40 points - he scored 33 last year.
Regardless of the lower point totals, Gourde is a very solid player who ALWAYS wins his minutes. If the Leafs could land a huge upgrade for their blue-line, Gourde would be an awesome second addition.
But if the Leafs aren't going to go big on the blue-line, they should go big with the forward they trade for. Gourde is good, but he's not going to upgrade the team's scoring issues too much.
The Leafs need to be thinking Dylan Larkin, Dylan Cozens type thoughts right now. They need to go out and trade for a huge piece, hopefully while Auston Matthews rests until the playoffs start so that they can fit in under the salary cap.
But maybe that big addition comes on the blue-line in the way of an Erik Karlsson or Zach Werenski (as unlikely as that may be, these are the types they need to try for) and if that is the case, then by all means, trade for Yanni Gourde.