5 Great Options for One Big Summer Trade for the Toronto Maple Leafs

Noah Dobson

Age: 24

Position: Defense

Status: Left shooting elite #1 defenseman with three straight 50 point (pace) seasons, coming off a 70 point breakout. Also provides excellent defense, and is 6'4.

Why He'd Help: The Leafs have never paired Auston Matthews with one of the NHL's best defenseman. The best they've done is Morgan Rielly and, assuming he doesn't decline too much, Chris Tanev.

Dobson would give the Leafs a franchise player on the back-end for the first time since Tomas Kaberle retired. He would give them a player who can win the Norris Trophy, and who would make their blue-line the best in hockey.

The Leafs have a very good blue-line, but all the teams who have a true number-one defenseman without any caveats, are all better.

Why He Wouldn't Help: Elite Status + Cheap Cap Hit = Enormous Acquisition Cost.

Recommended Trade: Matthews Knies + Fraser Minten + Ben Danford + 2 x first-round picks + whatever it costs to move the salary of Kampf et. al. to another team because the Islanders probably can't take them.

This might seem like a lot, but the Coyotes traded 2 x top prospects, including Connor Geekie who is better than anything the Leafs have to trade, and a 2nd for Mikhail Sergachev, who is older, has a more expensive contract with four years left on it, and is much, much worse than Dobson.

Would Dobson even be available? Would the Leafs even consider paying this high of a cost? Should they?

Here's the thing: These players are extremely rare. If you are on the verge of winning and could make your blue-line the best in the NHL, and you can find a team who would do it, trading a bunch of lottery tickets for a surething is probably the right move.