The Toronto Maple Leafs held one of the best pure rental wingers at the trade deadline last week and it shows by just how many teams were interested in acquiring him.
Bobby McMann might have ended up being traded by the Maple Leafs to the Seattle Kraken for a second- and a fourth-round pick, but a whole lot of teams were scratching and clawing over one another to try and get the pending free agent winger on their team.
Bobby McMann was Leafs' hot commodity at trade deadline
According to a recent report from The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta, as many as three additional teams were in the conversation to land McMann at last Friday's trade deadline. The three teams he managed to publicly name are: The Edmonton Oilers, the Colorado Avalanche, and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
David Pagnotta: The Oilers, Avalanche and Blue Jackets were among the teams in the mix for Bobby McMann before he was dealt to the Kraken - Fourth Period (3/9)
— NHL Rumour Report (@NHLRumourReport) March 10, 2026
The Oilers are not a surprise at all. They need scoring so badly and in the same way of Vasili Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen, they're looking for any cheap help they can get their hands on to be able to play up their lineup and with the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. McMann fit that perfectly.
With just a $1.35-million AAV cap hit on the contract and no long-term commitment as a pending free agent, Edmonton would be able to splurge a little bit to maybe push for one of the top spots in what has been a horrendous division.
For the Avalanche, it's more of the same reasoning. Although Colorado does have plenty of talent on the wings and a pretty rock-solid top six, McMann would give the middle six some much-needed oomph and just make that team even tougher to play against. And as they make their way through the gauntlet of the playoffs, more and more talent like McMann would be needed.
The wild card is Columbus. While they are red-hot ever since they brought in head coach Rick Bowness and are currently just two points out of a wild card spot, it doesn't feel like they're one move away from really making a splash in the East. Would they be giving up those decent draft picks for McMann to just get bowled over by the Tampa Bay Lightning? Probably.
In the end, the Leafs took the Kraken's deal and now supplemented some of their draft picks they have been slowly leaking during the time where this team actually posed a threat.