The Toronto Maple Leafs have high aspirations of acquiring a centre before the NHL trade deadline on March 7th. One hockey insider says the Leafs are aiming high.
According to Sportsnet's hockey insider Elliotte Friedman, the Leafs interest in landing a centre is very real. He states that Leafs general manager Brad Treliving is doing what he can to land a second-line centre. However, due to limited resources, he might need to set his sights a bit lower, and trade for a third-line centre instead.
The Leafs do not have an abundance of tradable resources at their disposal. Many teams who are sellers at the deadline will be looking for a first-round pick in this year's NHL entry draft, which is something the Leafs don't own. The Leafs 2025 first-round pick was sent by former GM Kyle Dubas to the Chicago Blackhawks last February. It was used to land defenseman Jake McCabe, who Treliving has since re-signed, and who has become a very valuable top-four defenseman.
As for the rest of the Leafs draft-pick trade capital goes. Treliving has a 2025 second-round pick, which still holds some value. He also owns the Leafs first-round pick in 2026, 2027, and beyond. There is a chance that for the right player, Treliving will part ways with one of his top prospects to make a deal happen. Those top prospects are Fraser Minten or Easton Cowan.
Toronto Maple Leafs Checking Their Trade Options
With goaltender Anthony Stolarz returning to the lineup from LTIR, the Leafs current cap space, according to puckpedia.com is $2.20 million. Injured forwards Calle Jarnkrok ($2.1 million) and Connor Dewar ($1.18 million) are getting closer to returning too. Any move for a bonafide second-line centre will require some crafty maneuvering of salary from Leafs management.
Dylan Cozens (Buffalo Sabres), Yanni Gourde (Seattle Kraken), Scott Laughton (Philadelphia Flyers), and Brock Nelson (New York Islanders) have all been mentioned as players the Leafs are interested in. The highest guy on that list is Cozens, who could easily move up and down between the Leafs second and third lines. However, Cozens has a $7.1 million cap hit, so the Leafs would have to be creative.
I think we'll see Treliving, and the Leafs make a few minor moves to create more cap space before they go after their main target. Possible players being traded away are Dewar, Nick Robertson ($875,000), David Kampf ($2.4 million), and Conor Timmins ($1.1 million). It's also tough to know how the Leafs coaching staff and management feel about the struggling Max Domi, but if they could move his $3.75 million off the books, that would surely help. For now, we sit and wait.