TORONTO — The goal now is to restock the cupboards, piece by piece.
And by dealing solid third-line centre Nicolas Roy to the first-place Colorado Avalanche Thursday, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recouped one of their first-round picks over the next two drafts. Probably.
The 29-year-old Roy’s playoff dreams were resuscitated in a talent-shedding deal that sends Colorado’s 2027 first-rounder and a 2026 fifth-rounder to Toronto. Both picks are conditional.
In the unlikely event that the Avalanche’s first-rounder lands in the top 10 of the 2027 NHL Draft, Colorado will send its unprotected 2028 first-round pick to Toronto. And because Avs hold three fifth-round picks in the ’26 draft, the lowest of those three picks (likely their own) will be transferred to Toronto as part of the transaction. (Colorado also owns Boston and Philadelphia’s fifths this spring.)
By trading Roy — who is signed through 2026-27 at a reasonable $3 million cap hit — Leafs GM Brad Treliving has officially waved the white flag on a disastrous campaign that has seen his intended contender tumble eight points and five teams back of a playoff spot with only 20 games to play.
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The deal is the first of many Treliving and his Etobicoke-based war room will try to execute over the next 24 hours, as Friday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline looms.
Ironically, Roy laced ’em up in Thursday’s 4-3 shootout loss in New Jersey while three of his former Leafs teammates and fellow trade candidates — Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Scott Laughton, and Bobby McMann — were scratched for “roster management” reasons.
A Stanley Cup champion in 2023, Roy was acquired in the off-season, via Vegas, as compensation for Mitch Marner. He grew up in Amos, Que., as a diehard Mats Sundin stan and spoke fondly of his 59-game Leafs tenure as rumours swirled on the day of his final game.
“It’s been fun,” Roy said. “I mean, growing up, I was a Leafs fan. So, for sure, really fun to be playing for this team here. Obviously, playing in Canada, big market, everybody’s really involved. Really good group of people. So, really enjoying my time.”
Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said he knows what he’s getting every night from Roy, who has five goals, 20 points and a 52.9 face-off percentage while contributing to the league’s fourth-best penalty-killing team.
It speaks volumes that, in Toronto, Roy started a career-high 67.9 per cent of his shifts in the defensive zone and converted on a career-low 9.1 percent of his shots, yet he still managed an even rating on a team with a minus-17 goal differential.
“I know that his production is not where he wants to be, and we would like it a little higher, too. But it’s not from not doing things right,” Berube said. “Overall, we’re pretty happy with his game.”
The Avalanche, who paid a decent price to rent the 2027 UFA for two playoff runs, know what they’re getting here — and they should be able to unlock a little more offence from the player.
Certainly not the offence a middle-six pivot like Calgary’s Nazem Kadri would bring, but Roy’s acquisition cost and term commitment was more palatable.
Watching fellow Western Conference contenders like Edmonton (Jason Dickinson) and Minnesota (Michael McCarron) beef up their centre depth, Colorado felt pressure to keep up.
Prior to getting dealt, Roy admitted that he did take outside interest in his skills as a compliment but appreciated life as a Leaf.
“I obviously have (79 games of) playoff experience, playing in Vegas for a while. So, yeah, for sure, a little bit,” Roy said.
Roy’s departure is a tidy piece of sell-off work from Treliving, who has been reluctant to go this route. The deal also suggests more to come.
And the more talent the Maple Leafs shed this week, the greater the team’s odds of tumbling all the way to the NHL’s bottom five. Just maybe, they’ll have first-round picks in 2026 and 2027 before the dust settles.
“We obviously don’t love where we are, but we don’t stop fighting,” leader John Tavares said Wednesday.
“As difficult as a spot we’re in or things may seem, personally, just not too much in the mindset of looking back and feeling sorry or being super disappointed with how things have gone. Not happy with where we’re at, but there’s hockey to be played and we’re going to keep fighting and keep moving forward and see what happens.”
