The Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames are rumored to be in a feud regarding ex Flames GM Brad Treliving.
For whatever reason, the Flames have refused to deal with their old GM ever since he was hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, if the teams could bury the hatchet, there is an obvious trade that they could make.
The Leafs need a third-line centre. In their last game, they used David Kamp. The game before that, they used Pontus Holmberg. They only have 2 x top-nine centres on the roster, and so they are incredibly thin at one of the most important positions for playoff success.
The Flames have Nazem Kadri, won't be contender for years, and could likely be persuaded to eat enough money to make this deal possible.
The Toronto Maple Leafs best 3C option is to trade for an old friend
It's true that no one is more responsible for the Toronto Maple Leafs not winning a Stanley Cup during the Auston Matthews Era than Nazem Kadri. He was suspended for two consecutive game-sevens, and the Leafs were forced to trade him.
Not only would they likely have advanced against Boston at least once had Kadri played, but they likely would have been much more successful in the intervening years had they gotten to use the all-time greatest centre-depth in the history of the NHL's Salary Cap Era for more than one season.
But that is the ancient past, so who cares? What could be more poetic than Kadri returning to the Leafs to help them win a Stanley Cup in the last year of the John Tavares deal?
Kadri is still a solid player, and the hope would be that his bad numbers and low point totals from this season are just from playing on a bad team. Regardless, he'd be a massive upgrade on what the Leafs are currently using.
The cost would be free if the Leafs agreed to take his full contract - seven million cap-hit with four years to go - but they aren't going to do that.
For a nominal fee - a couple of low picks similar to what the Leafs got for Liljegren - the Leafs should be able to convince the Flames to pay some of Kadri's contract for the next four years while they rebuild. Who knows, maybe a blockbuster where the Leafs also get Rasmus Anderson or MacKenzie Weegar could also be worked out.
Bottom line is this: Kadri is exactly what the Leafs need, and he is likely to be cheap enough that they could still use their best trade chip to acquire the player they need the most.
Bring back Kadri!