Th-th- That’s all friends. The Toronto Maple Leafs have shown us who they are in three miserable performances after the Olympic break. They are in last place again in the Atlantic Division, going 14–5 in three losses to the Panthers, Lightning and Senators.
That three-game winning streak going on hiatus? A distant memory. Coincidentally, the same can be said about their nine-year playoff appearance streak. They remain eight points behind the wild card. According to MoneyPuck, Toronto only has a 1.2% chance of making the postseason dance. That’s (marginally) better than only five other teams: the Devils, Blackhawks, Blues, Rangers and Canucks.
The Leafs can now focus on doing what needs to be done – selling almost anything over the next six days, not limited to Friday’s trade deadline. With the barren state of their property cupboards, they need to re-stock big time.
More than a dozen Leafs are now on the trade block
Insider Elliotte Friedman said on Hockey Night in Canada Saturday night that almost everyone is at the table…well, About Everyone.
The buzz now about the Maple Leafs is that they will expand the scope of what they will consider. Now, I don’t think it’s (Auston) Matthews or (William) Nylander or anything like that. But like I said, the buzz around them is that they’re expanding their ideas about what they can consider. They’re talking a little more about term players.
In other words, it’s not just pending unrestricted free agents like Bobby McMann and Scott Lawton. In fact, there are at least 13 leaves on the Daily Faceoff’s latest trade board. According to Matt Larkin, the list looks like this, in order of trade possibility:
- Bobby McMann
- simon benoit
- Scott Laughton
- brandon carlo
- Jarnkrok Street
- Oliver Ekman-Larsen
- nick robertson
- max domi
- Matthias Maccelli
- Anthony Stolarz
- nicholas roy
- Morgan Reilly
- troy stitcher
Reilly, with his no-move clause and $7.5M AAV, appears to be more of an offseason discussion. All of those names have very reasonable cap hits and could be easily moved.
Are there any leaves there? Will not done be dealt with?
Perhaps it would have been easier to list players who are not expected to be dealt. If we go by the daily faceoff table, those names will be as follows:
- auston matthews
- William Nylander
- Matthew Neese
- John Tavares
- Easton Cowan
- Jake McCabe
- chris tanev
- dakota joshua
- Joseph Voll
- dennis hildeby
The list seems long, but the fact is that all but four of them have no-move or no-trade clauses. Additionally, in the cases of Tanev and Joshua, injury concerns would deter any potentially interested parties. There are also reports circulating that Woll is actually the more likely candidate to move among the goaltenders, as his trade value is much higher than Stolarz at this point.
All hands on deck, as the good ship the Maple Leaf is on a arduous voyage over the next six days. Perhaps even more difficult than the five months before this.
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