The Toronto Maple Leafs might have a very busy trade deadline ahead of them and they could be getting right into the action with one of their biggest deals of the century.
According to ESPN's Kevin Weekes, the Maple Leafs have expressed interested in acquiring for New York Rangers star winger Artemi Panarin. The 34-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent and barring something unexpected happening, is going to be the most talented player available before the NHL trade deadline on March 6.
Toronto is not alone, unfortunately. Weekes also named roughly a billion other teams who have at least run up Rangers general manager Chris Drury to see what they need to do to get Panarin on their team.
Leafs named among teams interested in trading for Artemi Panarin
Per sources, as of today, I’m told the following have expressed interest in Panarin ; ANA, LA, SJ, VGK, DAL, UT, COL, MIN, SEA, TOR, CAR, WAS, TBL, NYI.
— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) January 29, 2026
More clubs will join, and importantly player has to approve any move first. @NYRangers #HockeyX pic.twitter.com/feOsmPIs1o
This deal should be happening soon and could go down before the Olympic roster freeze next week. Right now, the Rangers are holding Panarin out of all games, not running the risk of their biggest trade asset getting injured before they can cash in. ESPN's Emily Kaplan went as far to say that the all-star Russian has likely played his final game for the Rangers already.
Are the Leafs really a contender to get Panarin?
What obviously makes a deal like this complicated and probably unlikely to go down for the Leafs is just how bad they have been. Maybe this is old information and Toronto general manager Brad Treliving checked in on Panarin during the Leafs' surge a few weeks ago -- and now there is no possible way they would run the risk of trying to get the aging skilled winger in Toronto for his big eventual payday.
And even if the Leafs were still so dedicated to this season that they would look at their 24-20-9 record and think they should invest in a roster that sits 10 points out of the playoffs; they don't really have the assets to pull it off. Unless they're willing to move a massive piece like Matthew Knies (would be otherworldly stupid to do that), piling together Easton Cowan and Ben Danford to go along with their pathetic collection of draft picks will not compare to the packages that other teams like the Ducks, Sharks, or the Mammoth, could put together.
This is almost certainly not happening, but it is at least nice to see what is probably the last report of the season about the Leafs being interested in a rental as we suffer more through the remainder of this campaign.