As the Maple Leafs disgrace themselves against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night, Elliotte Friedman provided the following updates on the team’s deadline picture six days out from the March 6 trade deadline:
Friedman: A lot of the talk was about the UFAs, and what they could do, but the word around the Maple Leafs now is that they’re widening their scope of what they’d consider. I don’t think it is anything like Matthews or Nylander — I don’t think we’re talking about anything like that — but the word around the league is that they’re widening their ideas of what they may consider. They are talking a bit more about players with term.
When it comes to Bobby McMann, I’ve been told that one could go either way. I believe both sides know there is an extension that could happen. The fact that he is still a Maple Leaf tells me that there is nothing out there that they’d trade him for at this point in time. We’ll see where it goes over the next six days, but I am told it could go either way.
Now, one of the Maple Leafs with term is Oliver Ekman-Larsson. I do believe he is on the Oilers’ radar. The Oilers lost again today to San Jose in a game where they had a lot of defensive troubles. From what I’ve heard, Edmonton is looking at two possibilities: a defenseman who can play the right side — OEL has done that before — or potentially a third center, especially if RNH stays on the wing. I think they are also considering a center. They have to move Andrew Mangiapane, but those are the two positions Edmonton is considering shoring up.
Lastly, Friedman spoke to whether Morgan Rielly is “a player with term” the Leafs are looking to move before March 6 at 3 p.m. EST:
I don’t know about [Rielly’s] name specifically — he also has no-movement protection — but I have just heard that Toronto is considering more things.
Another name the Leafs should be throwing out there among those term, a player who has also been a net-negative contributor this season, is Max Domi. Whether the Leafs could line up a suitor this week for players of Rielly and Domi’s current on-ice trajectories and contractual status is a big question mark. On the flip side, Brandon Carlo is another Leaf with term who has far superior marketability than those other two in terms of his cap hit, age, position, and handedness. Simon Benoit also falls into the “players with term” conversation, technically, as he has a year left on his $1.35 million AAV contract, and we haven’t even mentioned their goalies.
The Leafs, with so little draft and prospect capital after nine years of buying at the deadline, should be aggressively exploring the markets for all of these players, which seems more likely to be the case now — based on Friedman’s current intel — after a shockingly ugly string of losses coming out of the Olympic break. It’s a story for another day, but the fact that the Leafs are now in a position where they’re considering deeper changes without having made a head coaching change already is really head-scratching, to say the least. Some of these players should hold fairly significant value in the trade market regardless, but they’re truly spiralling with a pitiful on-ice product right now, and it’s not the ideal position to be trading from. Looking toward a potential retool for next year, it’s also a more difficult situation to assess the path forward when the team’s structure and effort level are so dire; everything and everyone looks worse, and the problems vs. solutions become more difficult to parse.
Ekman-Larsson is certainly a player Brad Treliving could move at the drop of a hat, regardless, but if they’re moving arguably their best defenseman this season — one who is signed for two more seasons at an attractive $3.5 million AAV — they should really be focused on more than just draft picks in return. Maybe there is a larger deal to be struck with the Edmonton Oilers that could include a forward plus OEL, fetching a package that includes a substantial, near-ready prospect such as an Isaac Howard, along with draft capital.
Should be an interesting six days ahead.
