The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Henry Thrun from the San Jose Sharks for nothing but a player that wasn't in their plans anyways. But adding another defenseman just adds to the logjam -- could we see another trade coming?
Thrun is not a nothing player that is just a throwaway in a deal. The 24-year-old has a total of 119 NHL games under his belt after playing three years at Harvard University and needing only 18 total games in the AHL to show that he should be at least in the NHL on one of its worst teams.
Just last season, Thrun played a career-high 60 games and accumulated 12 points through two goals and 10 assists. All while averaging 17:31 TOI, which isn't a whole lot but again, isn't nothing.
What the Maple Leafs could be hoping for is some of Thrun's previous offense comes out. While playing college hockey at Harvard, he averaged almost a point per game with 17 goals and 84 points in just 99 games. The 6-foot-2, 209-pound blueliner used his high-end mobility during his development days to make his offense click, but it just hasn't been able to translate to the NHL yet.
It certainly does not help his case for developing into a top-four, offensive defenseman when he's playing on the San Jose Sharks of all teams. He did spend the majority of his minutes next to Cody Ceci, but in front of him were the likes of William Eklund, Macklin Celebrini, and Will Smith -- all young budding players who will get even better in time. That should make the job a little bit easier, but still, it was the Sharks last year who finished at the bottom of the overall standings by a wide margin.
If the Leafs do see something in Thrun, they might be pressed to make another deal on the blue line.
As it currently stands, Toronto has eight NHL-level defensemen on its roster with the addition of Thrun. And considering the newest Maple Leafs is a left-hand shot, that makes it even more complicated.
Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe, and Simon Benoit project to be the left side of the blue line to open the season, with Brandon Carlo, Chris Tanev, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson rounds out right. While that might not change, Philippe Myers and now Henry Thrun add an interesting wrinkle to the current situation.
Even if Myers is an easy demotion down to the AHL, do the Leafs really view Thrun as just a seventh defenseman who will come in for a few games per month?
It's a big if, but if with this trade, the Leafs think that they can get at the very least, a regular bottom-pairing defenseman out of Thrun, could we see a move away from a separate defenseman. Especially with Thrun's cap hit being a crisp $1 million for just next season, could Toronto maybe sell off Ekman-Larsson and his remaining three years at $3.5 million? Maybe.
But that sort of move might be something that happens closer to the start of the season and maybe just before training camp as Leafs management starts to sort through their group of players to try to create something that can maybe win two playoff rounds instead of one.