In a year where the NHL lacks a collection of truly elite teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs have as good a chance as anyone, provided you don’t believe in their ghosts. As they head towards the trade deadline, which is in less than 48 hours, they sit tied for first in the Atlantic Division with a game in hand on Florida, who also have 79 points.
Here’s the catch, though: the other teams at the top are going to get better around the deadline too, with example A being the that very Panthers team going out and getting a 28-year-old Seth Jones who plays huge minutes, is cheap after salary retention, and possesses sneaky-good underlying numbers despite being on a very bad team. The Florida Panthers today are better than the Panthers that earned 79 points so far.
So when the Leafs make their deadline deals, they don’t need to just get better, they need to be more improved than their immediate competition. The more they lose ground in the deadline improvement category, the more luck they’ll need in the big games. As much as nobody wants to be declared the favourite, you do want to start any given playoff series with more talent than your opponent.
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With that in mind, they clearly need both a forward and a defenceman (at a minimum). Because there are so many teams still in the hunt, there are a surprisingly few sellers out there, and so, I bring to you a group of trade pairs: I’m talking about forward-plus-defence multi-player trades they could bring in by shopping from just one of the same few selling teams.
Would they be costly, sure. Would not winning a Cup or even going deep during the Core Four era also be costly (in different ways), absolutely.
Yes, there are some pie-in-the-sky combos out there, like Ryan O’Reilly and Luke Schenn, two former Leafs that would help them. Hell, if you wanted to get weird, bring my Colton Parayko and Brayden Schenn (these things are not happening, obviously). And yes, there’s also some pointless deals they could make too, grabbing some third pair and 4th line names you could pull from just about every non-playoff team. But for our purposes today, let’s talk about realistic options, deals that could actually happen, which make them varying levels of better.
In no particular order:
The players: Scott Laughton/Rasmus Ristolainen
This deal would be more about Ristolainen, as he’d scratch a major itch for Toronto, particularly if they could get Philly to retain some of the big D-man’s contract.
He’s a right shot that’s playing third most among Philly’s D, and he seems to have found his game after years of being a guy with “potential.” I’ve long believed that huge lanky D-men take time to figure out their bodies (see: Zdeno Chara and Nikita Zadorov), and there’s a chance this guy is there now at age 30. His two more years at $5.1 million under the elevated salary cap are a bargain, particularly if there’s even a nickel of retention. The Leafs could then roll out something like:
McCabe-Tanev
Rielly-Ristolainen
OEL-Benoit
Timmins/Myers
Maybe they’d go Rielly-Tanev (which has been better than people think for some reason), and McCabe-Risto, but either way, the puzzle pieces immediately snap into place better than they have over the past eight years. That’s been a quiet problem for them forever – the pieces haven’t fit on D, and this would get them closer (and would be fully righty/lefty if you subbed Benoit for Timmins or Myers.)
As for Laughton, it would take the Leafs third line of McMann-Domi-Robertson – a group you’re not overly confident in – to something like McMann-Laughton-Pacioretty, leaving a fourth line of Lorentz-Kampf-Jarnkrok (fill in as you like with guys like Nick Robertson, Pontus Holmberg, and Connor Dewar). Of course, one of those names would have to go into the top-six, but the point is you can create a third line that you’re comfortable can win you shifts and maybe even score occasionally. What a concept that would be.
The pro: you’re immediately improved, no doubt.
The con: it doesn’t really solve the forward puzzle the way it does the D puzzle.
The Players: Yanni Gourde/Jamie Oleksiak
This is a great example of a trade I could see them doing that looks like doing something – and is, somewhat! – but probably just helps them keep pace with everyone else’s level of improvement.
For one, Oleksiak is the type of name you could see them coveting – he’s just about the biggest player in the league, fairly affordable ($4.6 million), has term (one more season), and has veteran experience. But he’s also a left shot, and now you’re asking McCabe to play his off-side again, and suddenly things get a bit jumbled again back there.
As for Gourde, I’ve been a booster of his for nearly a decade, but at some point father time comes for us all, and since he’s already a smaller guy who has been through injuries, so what are you really getting with him in 2025?
Yes, he would make their third line better, he’s a hard-working Stanley Cup champ with a tremendous motor, a player I greatly admire. But it’s the same as the Scott Laughton conversation above. The Leafs offence would still be “Can the big guys come through” followed by solid depth, rather than providing them any significant help.
The Players: Ryan Donato/Connor Murphy
I kinda sneakily like this one. Donato is having a monster season at age 28, pacing himself for roughly 30 goals after averaging about 15 every other year. But he’s prime-aged, makes just two million AAV, can play center, and would be legitimate scoring depth. Now, I trust a guy like Yanni Gourde to come through in big pressure moments even with way lower totals (six goals in 39 games this year, just 11 last year), but Donato moves the offensive needle way more overall, and it’s not really that close.
But more than Donato, how about the Connor Murphy fit? His defending is improved to where he’s a positive contributor at suppressing shots, he’s around the top-40 in hits-per-game amongst defence, and he’s 6’4” and 212 pounds and kills penalties. He’s only 31, he’s a right shot, and he also has another year on his contract (at $4.4 million, though maybe you could do a three team deal and get some retention, as the Blackhawks have used all three of their retention slots).
It’s true that none of the mentioned defenders here create a ton offensively (Ristolainen has hit 40 points once), but you’re just looking to improve your team, and the Leafs would immediately be better pairing Rielly with someone like Murphy than say, Phil Myers.
There are a lot of single names out there the Leafs could add. Maybe you like someone more, and maybe the Leafs will be able to track down a few deals that all help. But the sand is sifting through the hourglass to trade deadline and making one two-player move like this is beginning to look more logical than trying to coordinate multiple deals at once.
If you’re a Leafs fan, their obvious needs and limited time left would make you a little nervous, I’d imagine. The hope is that something like the above comes through, and solves multiple problems in the nick of time.
