When there's even a slight chance to land a superstar player, any self-respecting contender should move heaven and earth to make it happen. With that in mind, Brad Treliving needs to find out if there's any room to orchestrate a Sidney Crosby trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Some unrest in Pittsburgh?
Earlier this week, Crosby admitted to Daily Faceoff's Matt Larkin that he understands the persistent trade speculation, chalking it up to a "hard part of losing."
In comments to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun on Monday, Crosby's agent Pat Brisson didn't just acknowledge the "reality" of trade speculation. Brisson admitted a trade is a "possibility."
“I mean, I’m answering something that … let’s put it this way, it’s always a possibility, you know?” Brisson said. “It’s been three years they haven’t made the playoffs. It all depends on how Sid is going to be and how the team is going to do. I maintain the same position that I do believe that he should be playing playoff hockey every year. In my opinion.”
Those types of comments leave the door open wider than possibly ever, prompting Penguins beat writer Josh Yohe to write that a trade could "make sense."
Any even semi-contending team should be salivating at these coy statements.
Plenty of potential hurdles
No doubt about it, there would be a long line to trade for the still-elite center, and the Maple Leafs wouldn't start at the front of the line for his services.
There's the undeniable lure of joining Nova Scotian buddy and commercial co-star Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado. The 38-year-old is not shy about noting his childhood love of the Montreal Canadiens; for all we know he's dying to share a photo of themed bedsheets. Perhaps he'd prefer to be the millionth star to somehow take their talents to Las Vegas.
It's also true that some other teams own more salary cap space and/or better picks and prospects to grease the wheels for a trade. You might need to get creative with salary retention, make things awkward by trading someone you just added, and so on.
All of those caveats make a trade less probable, but stranger things have happened, and Toronto most importantly stands as a plausible Stanley Cup contender. Sometimes an unexpected team swoops into the sweepstakes for a star player, so the Maple Leafs should bark up that tree.
Considering this is a responsible all-around star who's riding three straight 90+ point seasons, he's well worth the effort.
More of a very good thing
Beyond the actual plausibility of a trade, one can only imagine one other rebuttal to this scenario: some redundancy in role and skill?
If you're really rigid about positions, you might blanche at adding another star center with a left-handed shot to a the dynamic duo of Auston Matthews and John Tavares. All three forwards are even absolute beasts in the faceoff circle.
It's hard to imagine that being a major issue, though. Two years ago, Crosby expressed a willingness to move to Connor McDavid's wing for international play, and people have already floated the idea of Tavares moving to the wing as he ages.
The beauty of this scenario is that even if there was a beef, it would be a good problem to have. Each of those centers anchoring their own line would give Toronto the rare hope to actually hang with the Florida Panthers' three-line behemoth.
Imagine the possibilities.
Go top-heavy and combine a playmaker with 1,062 career assists with Matthews, one of the greatest goal-scorers who's ever lived. Let Crosby play off the creativity and fluidity of William Nylander, or pair him with Tavares to roll out two stars who thrive in the prime real estate of the attacking zone. Heck, it's fun to think about Matthew Knies serving as a super-charged 2025 version of Chris Kunitz.
Both Crosby and the Maple Leafs are in win-now mode, so why not do it together?