The Toronto Maple Leafs have been quiet ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline, which is Friday at 3PM, just over 24 hours away.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have seen four of the seven teams they're likely to have to beat to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals make big upgrades so far: Tampa added Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand, Florida added Seth Jones, Carolina added Mikko Rantanen and New York added J.T Miller.
The Leafs will have to get creative in order to make such a dramatic addition, and it is not expected that they will. I, however, hold out hope that Brad Treliving will redeem himself after last year's Trade Deadline Failure, which is now notorious among other Leafs failures like Rask for Raycroft and Courtnall for Kordic - though it does lack alliteration.
Let's round the rumours and assess the situation.
Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Deadline Countdown and Latest Rumours
The Latest
The Leafs have placed Ryan Reaves on waivers. It's about time. Rielly Smith was traded to Vegas and the Panthers also got Nico Sturm.
Rumours
Unfortunately, the rumours so far are not inspiring. The Leafs are linked to Scott Laughton, Brayden Schenn, Ryan O'Reilly, Luke Schenn, and Connor Murphy. None of these additions will do a damned thing to improve the Leafs cup chances. If the Leafs go down this road - which is the same road they went down last year - they will fail.
The current rumours are basically a list of things Brad Treliving should not in any way do. They seem kind of like a list someone wrote as a parody of the Leafs seemingly never-ending quest to add name-brand past-their-prime players.
Last Night
Last night the Leafs played a putrid game against the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Chris Tanev missed the game, and for some reason Jake McCabe had the least amount of ice time, meaning the Leafs blue-line used Myers the second-most at 5v5 last night, and it went about as well as you would expect.
The Leafs game last night illustrated their biggest need: defense. The Leafs dressed Rielly, Myers, Timmins, OEL, Benoit and McCabe which is pathetic for a team that hopes to win the Stanley Cup.
Needs
The Leafs are said to need a centre, a winger, and a defenseman. I disagree. I think they need a star defenseman who can play on the top pairing and move everyone else in the lineup down one notch.
The Leafs forwards will be much improved if they suddenly had an elite puck-moving play-driving defenseman on their team for 20 minutes a night.
In order to get this player, I posit that the Leafs should look to clear out a lot of the bad priced forwards - Domi, Kampf, Jarnkrok, Dewar, Reaves - and take advantage of having Bobby McMann, Nick Robertson, Matthew Knies, Pontus Holmberg, Alex Steeves and Fraser Minten for a combined price of just over $5 million.
IMO the Leafs play should be to bet on their own young forwards and funnel all assets and cap space into getting a defenseman.
Predictions
I don't believe that the Leafs can afford to stand pat or just make minor moves. I don't believe that they are a particularly well-run team, but the fact is that Keith Pelley was hired last year and he's just watching from the sidelines right now, but in the summer he's going to decide if Shanahan and Treliving still have jobs.
It is believed that the Leafs need to get to the Conference Finals, at the very least, in order to stick with the Shanaplan.
So are Treliving and Shanahan going to bet their careers on two Schenn brothers who combine to be 70 years old? I highly doubt it. Then again, this is the Leafs we are talking about.
I'm predicting that the Leafs trade for Noah Dobson.