How to Fix the Toronto Maple Leafs in 3 Easy Trades
The Toronto Maple Leafs are buyers at the trade deadline.
There is no debate. Is Mitch Marner in his prime? Is Auston Matthews? Is William Nylander? Is Morgan Rielly? End of debate. The Toronto Maple Leafs are buyers.
Brad Treliving has a lot to make up for because it would be complimentary to call his summer acquisitions terrible.
And, not only does Treliving face enormous pressure to improve this team on the fly, he's got limited cap space and few tradable assets.
Though it will be difficult, it's worth adding to this team. They have a core group of players (You'd have to say Morgan Rielly is now better and more important to the Leafs success than John Tavares, for the record) who can win any game where their goalie gets hot.
With a better goalie, a better blue-line, and some production from the left-wing (not to mention some oomph on the roster) this team could go a long way. Even if they do nothing, they could get lucky, but why count on that?
The Leafs have no choice but to go for it.
Here is how they do it.
How to Fix the Toronto Maple Leafs in 3 Easy Trades
The first and most important trade is for the Leafs weakest position: goalie.
You simply cannot rely on Joseph Woll to be your starter because he only averaged about 20 games, total, over the last three years before this one.
He's a rookie, and he's injury prone.
The Toronto Maple Leafs basically do not have a goalie right now. There is one obvious solution.
He's 30 years old.
He's signed for 3 years after this one, at a reasonable $6 million cap-hit.
He has a Stanley Cup, and his current team is behind the Arizona Coyotes in the standings, so he's likely available.
I'm talking Jordan Binnington.
As a bonus, goalies don't tend to cost very much, so it's likely the Leafs could do this and still have some assets left over to improve their team elsewhere.
Binnington makes $6 million dollars, and Pavel Buchnevich makes $5.8 (signed through next season), which is just under $12 million.
To cover that, the Leafs could send Ilya Samsonov ($3m) and TJ Brodie ($5m) with the Blues retaining the rest. The Leafs would need St. Louis to retain $4 million to make it totally equal. The motivation for the Blues here is that all the Leafs contracts expire this year, while both Blues deals continue on into the future, so they stand to save significant future money and cap space.
To further incentivize the Blues, the Leafs could send them defensive prospect Mikko Kokkonen and a 2026 first round pick. I think the money the Leafs are saving them makes it a fair deal, but if other assets are needed, and they might be, add until you have a deal.
The Leafs now have an NHL goalie on their roster, and a first line left-winger.
The Leafs now have their goalie, and a top left winger.
The only thing to do now is to improve the blue-line. Their next stop should be for a couple of UFA's from the Calgary Flames.
Elias Lindholm is the perfect 3C for the Maple Leafs. Maybe he's not quite Ryan O'Reilly, but the thinking is similar. Give the team a monster 1-2-3 combo down the middle, making them extremely tough to play against.
Noah Hannifin is big, he can move the puck, and even if he's not a clear-cut #1, he's still going to be, at worst the Leafs second best defenseman.
For this trade to work, Calgary has to retain 50% of the salaries. This means the Leafs would need to move out $5 million..
The Flames will be receiving David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok, which is close enough - $4.5 million - to get the job done.
In terms of assets, this is going to be expensive. Nick Robertson, Topi Niemela and a 2027 first....does that get it done? Probably not. Do you want to win the Stanley Cup? Then keep adding till they accept.
The Leafs shouldn't care at all about trading anything that won't help them win now.
There are always more draft picks and more prospects. You rarely have a chance to be the best team.
So far the Leafs have added four impact players and sacrificed much of their future.
There is no time like the present, so might as well go all-in if you've gone this far.
The Leafs - after the previous trades - have an incredible lineup, they just need another defenseman, preferably a right handed one.
The answer here is to go old-school, and trade for 34 year old John Carlson. He's currently having a decent season, he's still valuable offensively and he doesn't hurt you defensively.
Carlson is right handed, 34, and probably pretty cheap to acquire. In fact, he would probably be damn near free.
That is because he makes $8 million for the next two seasons after this. Yes, it's a horrendous contract, but if you want to win you have got to get creative. The Leafs already spent all their assets in the previous two trades I made up.
Washington would give you a 50% retained Carlson for a player to be named later. They just want out of the contract, they don't care. Maybe it costs some future 4th rounder. No one else is going to just come along and save them $8-12 million dollars.
To facilitate the $4 million cap hit, the Leafs have to send Max Domi and Ryan Reaves to Washington.
Later they might have to pay someone to take Carlson, but worry about that then. For now, it's about winning the cup and adding John Carlson for free would be amazing.
He is a great puck mover and the Leafs desperately need that. I realize, as I write this, that people will mock the fact that I am suggesting trading for an $8 million dollar 34 year old.
I know that it's a weird idea. But the thing is, the Leafs don't have a ton of assets to move nor do they have a ton of cap space. By finding a player that meets all their needs - right handed D, top four, puck mover - and getting him for free, the Leafs solve the problem of how to build their team with limited resources.
In the future, you can send a draft pick to a team that is tanking in order to get out of the contract.
Now let's check out what the new and improved Toronto Maple Leafs look like.
The New Look Toronto Maple Leafs:
It's early April.
The Leafs have just had some of the most significant in-season surgery to a competitive team that anyone can remember.
The fans are going nuts at the sheer gumption of Brad Treliving. Editor In Leaf has just written a 3999 word essay praising him as the best general manager in franchise history.
The Playoffs are on the horizen, and thanks to this incredible new Leafs lineup, the boys in blue and white are the favorites to come out of the East, after going on a run after the trade deadline the likes of which has never been seen.
This is their lineup:
- Pavel Buchnevich – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
Tyler Bertuzzi - John Tavares - William Nylander
Matthew Knies – Elias Lindholm – Bobby McMann
Nick Abruzzese - Pontus Holmberg - Alex Steeves
Morgan Rielly – Timothy Liljegren
Noah Hannifin - John Carlson
Jake McCabe - Mark Giordano/Simon Benoit
Jordan Binnington
Joseph Woll
This may not be a perfect team - the blue line isn't that physical, and there are a lot of young players on it - but I think it's got a lot of star power, and the players who are coming in will all make significant impacts. The players leaving don't. This is obviously a better roster than what the Leafs currently have, and it's cap compliant, and I think all three trades I suggested are realistic.
manual
The upside here is that while this team might lack some depth, it is very flexible, and there are a lot of different looks you could make with it. The current lineup - for example with Domi and Kampf both being opposite one-dimensional players - just doesn't work. This lineup can win the Stanley Cup.