The Toronto Maple Leafs top 3 trade chips heading into the 2024-25 NHL season

Trade Chip #3: Jake McCabe

This one could be a little perplexing to some. After all, Jake McCabe had put together his best season in the NHL to date last year with the Leafs when he put up 8 goals, 20 assists for 28 points in 73 games played.

In addition, he has held his own as well in the defensive end, while maintaining a CF% of greater than 50% in 5-on-5 situations during his tenure with Toronto thus far. So why would he be a valuable trade chip to use?

That’s because the Leafs should fully capitalize on McCabe’s value while it’s at its highest right at this moment. With his contract set to expire following the 2024-25 season, he will no doubt get a huge bump in salary for his next contract, one that the Leafs probably cannot do because of already existing commitments to three other defenseman who are older than McCabe.

So rather than losing McCabe for nothing, they could get back some of that value if he used in a trade. Not only that, his current $2 million AAV contract as a result of the Blackhawks retaining 50% of his salary makes him an easily movable piece. (All stats from NHL.com and naturalstattrick.com, salaries from PuckPedia.com)

In addition, prior to joining Toronto, McCabe never amassed more than 4 goals and 22 points in a season. Nor has he ever posted a CF% greater than 51% and xG% greater than 50% in 5-on-5 situations other than his outlier 2020-21 season where his stats were skewed due to appearing in just 13 games.

Hence, there is a very good chance that McCabe already had his best season and it would be smart to move on from him at this exact point. Further making this a good move in the Leafs favor is that McCabe - while a valuable addition to the team - isn't a star player and thus he wouldn't be that hard to replace internally.