The Toronto Maple Leafs top 3 trade chips heading into the 2024-25 NHL season
By Edward Eng
Trade Chip #1: 2026 First-Round Pick
For any rebuilding team that would be willing to give up a premium player to a contender, one of the key assets that they would usually ask for in return would be in the form of a draft pick.
In particular, the prized first-round pick is usually the one that ends up getting sacrificed to get back any true value for the contender.
As perennial contenders since the start of the Auston Matthews era, the Maple Leafs haven’t kept their own first-round pick to use in the draft since selecting Timothy Liljegren back in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. They have, however, done a good job of getting other team's first round picks (Rodion Amirov, Rasmus Sandin, Easton Cowan and Ben Danford) as well as doing a decent job picking in the second round (Fraser Minten, Nick Robertson, Matthew Knies).
The Leafs have had to trade their picks because they have often used it as their main trade chip to recruit top quality players for their playoff run. That trend will likely continue as long as the Leafs contention window remains open.
The fact they keep getting other team's lower picks has really helped them spit the difference, and create a situation where they now have a lot of good young players ready to suppor the core.
Their 2025 first-round pick already gone to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Jake McCabe/Sam Lafferty trade, the Leafs will have their 2026 first-round pick as their main ammo to use for any potential top trade transaction this coming season. Of note is the fact that the 2025 first-round pick that they traded is top 10 protected. But with the Leafs likely a playoff contender once again this year, they will most likely be beyond the top ten spots in the draft, thus assuring that the pick will likely be with the Blackhawks.