4 Toronto Maple Leafs That Will be Gone by the NHL Trade Deadline
Which Leafs players may no longer be with the team when the trade deadline approaches?
As we hit the halfway mark of the 2023-24 NHL season, the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves right in the thick of things for the playoff race while hanging on for dear life at the same time.
Currently third in the Atlantic Division with a 21-13-8 record, the Toronto Maple Leafs have somehow survived the onslaught of injuries earlier on in the season, in particular to their back end and goaltending.
Powered by William Nylander’s career year along with the rest of the core four of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares, the Leafs are currently fifth in the league in goals for, as they have played a huge role in many of the team’s victories throughout the season.
But as well as the season has been going for the Leafs, they are currently mired in a four-game losing streak, showing that there are still some aspects of their game that needs improvement. With just a little less than seven weeks away from the NHL trade deadline, the Leafs will be looking to add the right pieces to address their needs by bolstering their roster for the stretch run.
4 Toronto Maple Leafs That Will be Gone by the NHL Trade Deadline
In doing so, there will also be some current Leafs that will unfortunately be gone by the trade deadline as a result of the upgrades being made to the roster. Here, we take a look at four Leafs players that will likely no longer be with the team for the Stanley Cup playoff run.
Ryan Reaves
Signed during the 2023 offseason to help toughen up the lineup, Ryan Reaves has been quite the disappointment so far for the Leafs this season.
Averaging just a little over seven minutes of ice time per game, Reaves has only one goal to show for in 21 games played.
But more importantly, he has been on the ice for 13 goals against compared to just 2 goals for, along with a 42.86 CF% at 5v5 despite his limited playing time, proving that he was quite a liability when deployed. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Prior to his current lower-body injury that has put him out since mid-December, Reaves was already used sparingly with the call-up of Bobby McMann.
Now with the solid play of recent call-up Pontus Holmberg, there may no longer be a spot for Reaves in the everyday lineup upon his return as he will need to show his value to garner any sort of playing time once again.
More significantly, the Leafs have attempted in the past to utilize toughness in their lineup when the playoff season commenced. But each time as the playoffs progressed, they chose to remove the toughness and reverted to more scoring and defensive options in the end instead.
A prime example of this took place last season with tough guy Wayne Simmonds when he was removed from the lineup following two ineffective games where he racked up 14 PIMs of unnecessary penalties.
As a result, if they truly learned from the past, they could forgo that option earlier this time and acquire the right complementary piece(s) at the deadline instead to take its place.
Conor Timmins
After being acquired from the Arizona Coyotes last season by the Leafs in exchange for Curtis Douglas, defenseman Conor Timmins made quite the impression with his new team by registering 10 points in his first 12 games.
More importantly, he provided a strong right-handed shot option on the blue line that the Leafs significantly lacked with a stacked left-handed shot back end.
However, as the Leafs got more healthy, along with some big acquisitions at the trade deadline in Luke Schenn, Jake McCabe, and Erik Gustafsson, Timmins was slowly squeezed out of the rotation in the daily lineup.
In the end, he found himself as the team’s extra defenseman and saw his time mainly up in the booth. He would finish the 2022-23 season with 2 goals, 12 assists for 14 points in 25 total games played.
During the 2023-24 preseason, Timmins appeared to have the upper hand in landing a spot on the Leafs roster for Opening Night with his stellar play in training camp. However, an ill-timed injury put him out of the picture for nearly two months until the end of November.
Since then, Timmins has only got into 14 games so far and has put up 6 points in the process. With the Leafs blueline all healed up, along with the stronger defensive option of Simon Benoit being deployed more often, Timmins has seen limited played time once again this season.
How much longer he can endure this remains to be seen, but if upgrading the current defense is what’s on the table by the trade deadline, Timmins’ time with the Leafs could be ending pretty soon.
Ilya Samsonov
After leading the Leafs past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in over two decades last season, goalie Ilya Samsonov was looking forward to another strong season with the Leafs after being awarded a one-year, $3.55 million deal through arbitration.
He displayed some hiccups during his play in preseason, but many had thought he was just working out the kinks in preparation for the regular season.
However, what we saw during training camp unfortunately was a forecast of what was to come for his 2023-24 NHL season. Samsonov has endured in his worst ever season in the league so far by posting a 5-3-6 record with a gaudy 3.88 GAA and .863 save percentage, ranking him second last and last in the league respectively among goalies with at least 10 games played.
He was even waived and demoted to the AHL to get his game back on track at one point in time, and has yet to regain his stellar form from last season.
With third-string goalie Martin Jones holding the fort in the meantime but beginning to show some cracks in his game, the current scenario is not a recipe for success in the long run. As a result, the Leafs will need to address the goaltending issue as soon as possible before it is too late.
To keep deploying Samsonov in his current state could spell disaster for both Samsonov and the Leafs.
He should be given a stress-free environment where he can rediscover his game and regain the confidence to become a strong NHL-level goaltender once again. That can be accomplished by either trading him to a non-contending team or have him spend more time in the AHL away from the rigors of playing in front of the intense atmosphere of the Leafs. Whatever ends up working, we just wish the best for Samsonov in revitalizing his once-promising career.
T.J. Brodie
This may come as the unexpected surprise on this list to say defensive stalwart T.J. Brodie will be gone by the trade deadline.
After all, Brodie has been solid as a rock ever since joining the Leafs via free agency back in 2020 on a four-year, $20 million deal.
Not only does he position well on the ice, he is superb in breaking up odd-man rushes and offensive cycles, along with providing high quality shot-blocking.
However this season, whether he is getting slower or Father Time is beginning to catch up to him, Brodie has seriously lost a step in his game. And with the fast-paced action in the game nowadays, that could spell trouble for someone whose main strength is being in the right place at the right time when defending.
Looking a little more closely at his stats at 5v5, Brodie has given the puck away 24 times compared to just 9 takeaways in 41 games played, marking the highest giveaway-takeaway ratio of his career. On top of that, he has seen his CF% decrease below 50% down to 49%, and for the first time in over five seasons, his expected goals rate and scoring chances rate also fell below 50% to 49%. (All stats from hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick.com)
With the Leafs looking to upgrade at the trade deadline or prior to it, they will also need to balance the books properly to make things happen as they are tight right up to the cap space.
As a result, with Brodie’s annual AAV of $5 million and his gradually declining skills and abilities, he is the ideal trade bait at the deadline to help the Leafs land the necessary missing pieces to take them to the next level.
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After all, with Brodie also becoming a free agent following the end of the season, it may finally be the time for the Leafs to not just let their star players walk in free agency for nothing like they did in the past.