Maple Leafs should consider trading all prospects, expert says

This is an incredibly important season for the Toronto Maple Leafs and if they have an opportunity to improve their roster in the middle of it, one expert said that they should consider trading any of their prospects to do so.

In an appearance on The Leafs Nation on Friday, Daily Faceoff's prospect expert Steven Ellis wanted to stress that no prospect for this team should be considered untouchable in trade negotiations. This question originally was asked specifically about defenseman Ben Danford, but considering he is one of the Leafs' top prospects, this rule can easily be applied to every single young player in the Toronto pipeline.

"There is not a single untouchable prospect in the Toronto Maple Leafs' pipeline. Every single one of them should be available for trade, and Ben Danford is no exception," Ellis said. "There are teams that could use him, and just give where Toronto is, you expect them to be competitive for a few more years, right? When you do that, you look at the Florida Panthers, that's a team that isn't promoting their young guys and they're bringing in that veteran depth. Colorado, Tampa Bay -- the other teams that have been through the Stanley Cup grind that have been doing that.

"That's the thing. I don't think Danford's timeline fits with where Toronto is going to be at its peak competitiveness. He's got to be a trade option. Especially now that they don't have a first-round pick, they don't have Minten or Grebenkin, so they don't have a ton of value left. Danford should be a guy available to trade. Even if he makes the NHL, you're very happy -- that's a 6-foot-2, right-shot defenseman who plays well defensively -- he's a good prospect, 100 percent. But that also brings a lot of value in a trade and it will be interesting to see come February or March."

The logic is there. There isn't some game-breaking player that is instantly going to make this team better within the next few years as Auston Matthews and William Nylander remain in their primes and John Tavares is still here scoring 30 or so goals.

Sure, like Ellis said, having Danford (and this can be applied to Easton Cowan as well) on your team as a controllable player that would come in extremely cheap with his rookie contract, would be a nice luxury to have. But, is that really a player that Toronto management should be dying to keep over potentially moving him for a bona fide top-six forward, for instance? Of course not. Even if Cowan, in this case, becomes what we all dream of him being, it wouldn't happen until Matthews is heading to unrestricted free agency in 2028 and Tavares might not even be on the ice at 38 years old.

Now, while those players are still here and the Leafs still pose a true threat to come out of the Eastern Conference, should be the time to move the prospects, according to Ellis, and it's hard to disagree.