5 Players the Toronto Maple Leafs Should Consider Trading

Ilya Samsonov / Martin Jones

Once Joseph Woll returns to the Leafs lineup, the Leafs need to make a hard decision on his goaltending situation.

Both Samsonov and Jones are pending unrestricted free agents (UFA) this coming off-season. Samsonov is having a down year and needs to find the level he played at last season. Jones has done well filling in but has allowed three or more goals in each of his past five games.

I really think Treliving is going to need to trade one of them, since there is no sense in having three goalies on the roster.

It would be risky to try and sneak one of them through waivers down to the AHL Toronto Marlies. Both have made it through waivers once already this season, but there is no guarantee that they will get through a second time.

Samsonov has a 6-3-6 record through 17 games with a 3.69 GAA and a .866 SV%. His salary cap hit is $3.55 million, which could help him get through waivers, but if he builds off his win in Seattle and starts playing well, the Leafs will want to keep him.

As for Jones, he has a 9-6-1 record through 17 games with a 2.64 GAA and a .911 SV%. His salary cap hit is $875,000 and would be harder to sneak through now compared to the beginning of the season.
(Stats from hockey-reference.com) Salary cap info from capfriendly.com)

Trading Samsonov would free up more salary cap space, but the fact is there is no way the Leafs can be happy with what they have in net, so there is a chance that they also trade for outside help.