What Does a Dream Trade Deadline Look Like for the Toronto Maple Leafs?

Centre

Now, I don't have anything against Max Domi personally, but it's frustrating how people attribute his father's tenacity and toughness to a guy who absolutely refuses to play defense.

If used as a fourth line offensive player who only starts in the o-zone, a la Jason Spezza during the Leafs portion of his career, Domi might be effective.

As it is, the Leafs shelter him like crazy and he's still under 50% expected goals while only scoring a half point per game. The Leafs need more reliable third line, but they don't need to go old-school and bring in a checker.

The dream scenario here is to add a player who can eventually take over for John Tavares at 2C and who can make the Leafs better in his minutes without having to be sheltered as much as Domi.

Zegras had great stats in his first two years, but the Ducks have been so bad the last two years it is almost impossible to get a read on his game. The bottom line though, he's amazingly talented and would be an insane addition to a team that already has Marner and Matthews.

If the Ducks are frustrated and willing to move on, this is a great low-risk/high-reward move to take. Zegras would run wild against team's who have to use their best defenders on the Matthews and Nylander lines.

The Leafs have often had trouble scoring in the playoffs when teams are hyper focuses on shutting down their stars. The answer is more stars. This would be the Leafs leaning into their offensive abilities and it would be amazing.