The Toronto Maple Leafs are reportedely one of 14 teams that have expressed interest in trading for Artemi Panarin.
In what world do the Leafs think they should trade for Panarin, or even think they have the assets to make that happen? After losing six straight games, the organization can not seriously think that they're a buyer at this year's NHL Trade Deadline can they?
For the past nine years, it's been nothing but sunshine and rainbows for the Leafs during the regular season. They would march their way through the Atlantic Division, make a splash for a veteran such as Ryan O'Reilly or Nick Foligno at the trade deadline, then hope that their core-four of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner and John Tavares could carry them to a championship.
It was a recipe that we all thought would work in 2019, but after the fifth time of trying, we realized that maybe it was the core that wasn't going to get them over the edge. With Marner now in Vegas, the Leafs have struggled. The team can still be good without Marner, but injuries to their blue-line and goaltending have really made this a season from hell.
So instead of waving the white flag and selling off for a year, the Leafs are expressing interest in a 34-year-old pending UFA winger who makes $11.6M. The organization is essentially looking to acquire an older Marner who most likely won't be on this team next year.
Trading for Panarin would set the Leafs back 10 years
Panarin is a stud, but he's essentially Marner 2.0 who's a little better at scoring. With 927 points in 804 games played, Panarin lights up the regular season, but similarlily to Marner, when the playoffs start, his stats falter. He goes from a 1.15 points per game (PPG) player in the regular season to a 0.83 PPG player in the playoffs.
If you're curious, Marner averages 1.12 PPG in the regular season and 0.90 PPG in the playoffs. Comparitively, Panarin's goals per game (GPG) average goes from 0.40 in the regular season to 0.28 in the playoffs, while Marner's drops from 0.33 to 0.18 GPG.
By reaching out to New York about Panarin, the team is essentially just telling the fanbase that they made a mistake with Marner. It shows that they should have done everything in their power to make Marner stay in his hometown because they clearly want to replace his offense with the exact same player who's amazing in the regular season, but falls short in the playoffs.
Not only would trading for Panarin show their mistake with Marner but it would show thier fanbase that they're dellusional and tone-deaf. The Leafs are unfortuantely not a very good team this year and that's okay. They don't hold their first-round pick unless it falls into the top-five, so it's tough to believe that they can fall that low with Matthews and Tavares still here, but they need to look themselves in the mirrior and accept the tank.
Instead of looking at trading for a pending UFA in Panarin, the organization should be trading away all of their UFA's and collecting prospects and draft picks. The organization barely has any picks and prospects to trade themselves right now, they'd have to sacrifice their entire farm system for Panarin and that seems like a pretty dumb move.
Panarin will make the Leafs a better team for the short-term and give them a shot at the playoffs, but it could set them back 10 years in the long-term if they made this splash.