The Toronto Maple Leafs enter the 2025 trade deadline with a few clear needs. Unfortunately, some other teams have already gotten a jump start with some major trades having taken place already with; Mikko Rantanen, Taylor Hall, Martin Necas, Kaapo Kakko, Will Borgen, Mikael Granlund, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, and many more being moved over the past two months.
Most recently, the Edmonton Oilers nabbed Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins, the Tampa Bay Lightning acquired Yanni Gourde while the Montreal Canadiens inked Jake Evans to a four-year contract extension. These are centers who would have fit the Toronto Maple Leafs needs perfectly.
The Leafs are in need of an upgrade at center, a winger, and a top-pairing defender, with at least one of their upgrades being a major star player.
The Leafs are a team that has had stellar goaltending covering up most of it's weaknesses and is in first place. Therefore, it's hard to assess exactly what they need. Are they a first place team that only needs some fine tuning? Or are they a team with many weaknesses getting lucky results? Likely it's somewhere in the middle.
Historically, GM Brad Treliving is not a big deadline player with most of his bigger deals coming in the off-season. However, he has had a few big moves like his acquisition of Tyler Toffoli and Calle Jarnkrok, which both had high price tags as GM of the Flames in 2022. Last year, he made multiple trades and although he traded away six draft picks, he was reluctant to make a big splash and ultimately the Leafs deadline last year was a huge failure.
Although the team is without a first round pick, there are still a number of assets that the team has at their disposal to make a big deal. They have a number of solid NHL prospects; Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten, Nikita Grebenkin, and Ben Danford and future firsts, like in 2026 which may actually be more valuable than a 2025.
Brock Nelson, C, 1yr x $6 million
Brock Nelson has long been speculated to be one of the Maple Leafs top targets heading towards the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. He checks a number of boxes that the team would covet in a deadline acquistion; He is a workhorse, capable of playing center, and is able to score especially in the postseason.
Since 2020, Nelson has played 52 playoff games, scoring 20 goals and 19 assists for 39 points with the New York Islanders(hockey-reference.com). Although, he does seem to come with the perception that he is a much more physical player and while he does engage, he is not Ryan Reaves laying big open-ice hits on a nightly basis. I still think he should be one of the team's top targets for a rental nonetheless.
Nelson is a versatile player capable of playing down the middle in all situations and according to much media speculation, he seems to be one of the Leafs top targets. This makes a lot of sense and with his skillset, he would likely find success playing in a middle-six role with the team under head coach Craig Berube's style. He is 33 years old and would likely be a pure rental, which should make the Leafs question spending large assets for, especially with his $6 million caphit likely necessitating a third team for retention.