The Toronto Maple Leafs are not expected to do much of anything at this year's trade deadline.
If you listen to the pundits, whether on Twitter, on a podcast or on the TV, the most you will hear about is the Toronto Maple Leafs having interest in Yanni Gourde or Scott Laughton. Maybe Chris Tanev, maybe Ryan O'Reilly or Trent Frederic.
The combination of assets, cap space, no-trade clauses and regrettable long-term committments is expected to producce a quiet deadline for the Leafs.
The team's appetite to pull off something akin to the Mikko Rantanen trade (by which I mean adding a Rantanen, not trading one) is thought to be virtually non-existant. Afterall, they have basically no cap space, they don't have a good prospect pool and they have a GM who publically stated multiple times that he doesn't really like making in-season moves and doesn't care for the trade deadline.
But none of that matters.
Why the Maple Leafs Actually Will Go Big at the Trade Deadline
The thing is, all of those objections can be overcome. The Leafs just saw a team that was already better than they are add one of the best players in the NHL to their team. They are up against a Rangers team that has an absolute ton of cap-space, not to mention the reigning Cup Champs and several other strong Eastern Teams.
There is just nothing to suggest the current version of the Leafs, with their inexperienced goaltending, their paper-thin centre depth, their dump and chase offense, and their middle-of-the-pack blue-line can win the Stanley Cup.
There are, however, several reason why they don't have a choice but to try.
1. Mitch Marner - He's a pending UFA
2. Auston Matthews / Marner/ Nylander Prime Years - these are extremely limited.
3. Old as Hell Blue-Line Aint Getting Any Younger or Better
And finally, the main reason the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to have no choice but to go big or go home at the Trade Deadline:
4. it's Brad and Brendan's Last Dance.
The fact is, even though hardly anyone talks about it, MLSE, the company that runs the Leafs, hired Keith Pelley above Brendan Shanahan this past April.
Pelley has taken the same approach that Shanahan took when he first joined the Leafs and left Dave Nonis in charge for a year. After that, Shanahan had seen enough and he made massive changes that we are well aware of at this point.
Ten years later, Shanahan himself is essentially in the Nonis position and if the Leafs do not advance past the second round he is highly likely to be fired. If Shanhan goes, no person in their right mind would keep the personality-free, risk-adverse Treliving, whose body of work is sub-John Ferguson Jr at this point, in charge of the team.
So even though all other analysts are saying the Leafs won't make a big move, that they will stick with what they have, I fully believe they are going to clear a bunch of cap space and then put all their eggs into a single basket to bring in a ringer to compete with what Carolina just did with Rantanen.
They have no choice: If they don't do it now, they won't be here next year to do it then.