Trade Grades: 2 Potential Trades Come Off the Board for the Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are gearing up for the Trade Deadline on Friday, but early moves continue to pour in.
Just last week the Toronto Maple Leafs missed out on Chris Tanev, a move I was originally happy about.
My reasoning was that Tanev wasn't good enough to be the Leafs main upgrade, and that their limited asests could be better spent. But then I saw what the Leafs spent on Ilya Lyubushkin and concluded that they should have just bit the bullet and paid the cost for Tanev since the difference between a 1st and a 3rd and a 3rd and a 6th is smaller than the difference between Tanev and Lyubushkin.
While the Leafs are yet to make any more moves, other teams in the NHL are getting in on the action early.
Trade Grades: 2 Potential Trades Come Off the Board for the Leafs
The first move is that the Minnesota Wild have re-signed Zach Bogosian. This is a pretty boring move, and it only affects the Leafs a little bit - they can no longer trade for Bogosian.
I didn't want them to, and now they can't. I feel the Leafs have more than enough defense-only one-dimensional players in their lineup and do not need any more. Bogosian was a Leaf a couple of years ago and didn't really play all that well. I am happy to know he's staying in Minnesota.
The big news of the evening is the trade by the Golden Knights for Anthony Mantha, aka Anthony Manthony.
Mantha has great numbers this year and the Knights made a great trade to pick him up tonight. Mantha is coming with a 50% retained cap-hit for just a second round pick and a fourth round pick.
The Knights get a player who is scoring a ton at 5v5 and who has the analytics to back it up. This is an A+ move for the Knights because they get an impact player at a massive discount and barely any cap hit.
I don't even know how they consistantly do it, but they are an amazingly well run team. D- for the Capitals here because they definitely should have gotten more.
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This is unfortunate for the Toronto Maple Leafs because I was sort of hoping they would land Mantha as an upgrade to their lineup. I don't really think the Leafs need any wingers, but Mantha would be a solid upgrade over any of Nick Robertson, Calle Jarnkrok or Bobby McMann.