Toronto Maple Leafs Trade for Joel Edmundson + Waive William Lagesson

A day after the rest of the league's top contenders were bringing in big name players, the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving responded Thursday by acquiring veteran defenseman Joel Edmundson from the Washington Capitals.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will be sending out the 2024 3rd Round pick they acquired from the New York Islanders last trade deadline for Pierre Engvall and the Chicago 2025 5th Round Pick they acquired along with Jake McCabe last season.

The 30-year old Edmundson is a veteran of 521 career NHL games after playing in St. Louis, Carolina, Montreal and Washington.

Here is hoping this isn't it for the Leafs additions this year.

Toronto Maple Leafs Trade for Joel Edmundson

Edmundson was acquired last summer by the Capitals from Montreal for a third round and seventh round pick; so Washington GM Brian MacLellan was essentially able to move up from the seventh round to the fifth round in the deal.

Edmundson had previously averaged over 20-minutes a night twice over his career, but in Washington this season he was averaging the lowest ice-time of his career since his rookie year at just 16:26 a night.

Many fans will likely be upset with the deal as Edmundson appears to be exactly what the Toronto Maple Leafs have an abundance of and that is bottom pairing/seventh defenseman that doesn't move the puck particularly well.

The Brandon, Manitoba native has been a negative Corsi player over his career and that trend continues this season. Not only that, but this now 4 x draft picks on waiver-wire quality players in the last week.

Leafs Waive William Lagesson

In response to the Toronto Maple Leafs acquiring Joel Edmundson earlier in the day, the club has placed 28-year old defenseman William Lagesson on waivers Thursday afternoon.

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving signed Lagesson on July 1 last summer to a two-way contract that pays him league minimum ($775,000) in the NHL and $450,000 if he is assigned to the American Hockey League.

Unfortunately he could not crack the season opening line-up and the Swedish defenseman was placed on waivers at the start of the year and went unclaimed which resulted him to starting the season with the Toronto Marlies.

After starting five games in the AHL he was recalled in late October on an emergency basis resulting in him staying with the team until Thursday.

As the Maple Leafs got healthy from injuries, Lagesson went over a month from late December to early February without dressing for a game, however found himself back in the line-up post All-Star Break including recently where he had averaged over 15-minutes of ice-time through the last five games.

In total, Lagesson skated in 30 games recording four assists (one off a career high) and three contests shy of his season high he set two years ago.