The Toronto Maple Leafs have never had a defenseman win the James Norris trophy as a member of the franchise. This is in large part due to the Leafs not having a true number-one defender throughout most of the club’s history.
Currently, the man tasked with playing the minutes of a number one is longtime Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Morgan Rielly. Despite his role, it is not a shot at him to say that his caliber is not that of a Cale Makar, Adam Fox, or Quinn Hughes.
Right now on the market there is a player who is believed by many to have the potential to become a number one defender, David Jiricek. The Czech 6-4 210lb right-shot defenceman was drafted sixth overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2022. At the time of his draft he was argued by many to be the top defender of the class, and was a near consensus top-five prospect.
Since his draft, there has been signs of a rocky relationship between him and the Blue Jackets organization. There have been multiple demotions and healthy scratches, which have even resulted in many people voicing their opinions of the club’s ‘mishandling’ of this star prospect.
Even Jiricek himself publicly aired his frustrations, saying "I'm an NHL player right now. That's my opinion: that I should be in the NHL right now." to Aaron Portzline of the Athletic on his demotion this past January.
This has all lead to now, where it has been heavily rumoured that the Blue Jackets are actively shopping their top prospect. Players of this calibre rarely hit the open market, and when they do all 31 teams should be aggressively trying to acquire them, the Maple Leafs included.
The Toronto Maple Leafs should acquire David Jiricek
When looking at any trade, the first question should always be; Is there a fit? Currently, the Leafs are playing Connor Timmins, Jani Hakanpaa, and Simon Benoit on rotation for their bottom pairing. Jiricek should be able to fill in at least in a bottom pair role, right now, and eventually push everyone down a notch.
The next question then should be, what is the cost? Looking at some recent deals, there have been a number of high-profile prospects dealt in the last year or so.
Most recently, 2022 ninth-overall pick Matthew Savoie was traded for Ryan McLeod and Tyler Tullio. As well, top goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov was traded along with Nolan Burke and a third round pick for a top-10 protected first, Magnus Chrona, and David Edstrom.
Then, there was the one-for-one swap of Rutger McGroarty for Brayden Yager between the Winnipeg Jets and Pittsburgh Penguins. A final high profile prospect from the 2022 draft was traded last season, fifth overall Cutter Gauthier was dealt from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie Drysdale and a second round pick.
Based on recent precedence, these trades typically involve a good young player/prospect and/or a pick depending on other factors. Although the Leafs are without a first this year, they have firsts the next two seasons and a second and third round pick this year. So, they likely have the draft capital to make it happen. In terms of good young players and prospects, they have a number of them that could fit this bill.
It’s hard to evaluate which players would be on the Jackets’ radar given the lack of insight into their player evaluation. However, some names that could be of interest are: Ben Danford, Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten, Artur Akhtyamov, and Dennis Hildeby.
A few things to note are that the Leafs would likely not be able to get away with a quantity over quality approach (packaging multiple prospects to make up for lack of value) as the Jackets have been in rebuild mode for a few seasons and have accumulated a good number of prospects already.
If I had to guess, the team would likely want to address the potential loss to their blueline pool which could make a Danford highly coveted in a trade like this. As well, the team seems to lack a solid goaltending pipeline which could make a Hildeby or Akhtyamov enticing as well. All information via Hockeydb.com
The Maple Leafs should stop at almost nothing if it means securing a potential future number one defenseman in David Jiricek.