Leafs Nation, Hold Onto Your Hat! Toronto Trade Plans are About to Get Real and it’s Going to be a Wild Ride
The Toronto Maple Leafs are actively working on trade deadline moves, evaluating potential acquisitions based on two key factors.
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman shared details on the team’s approach during Friday’s episode of the “32 Thoughts” podcast, explaining that general manager Brad Treliving has already built a “wish list” and is exploring the talent and price of each potential addition.
According to Friedman, Treliving is balancing how much acquiring a player would take for Toronto to send the other way in a trade, as well as how much the Maple Leafs like each player and his possible fit with the team.
“Toronto’s got, I would call it, a ‘wish list,'” Friedman said. “They are working through (the list). ‘Here’s this person that we kind of like, what would it take? Here’s this person we kind of like, what would it take?’
“And I think it’s a combination of A) how much do they like the player and B) what’s it going to cost to get that player?
“So I think they’re working through that.
Friedman added that while the Leafs are considering second-line centers, their main targeted type of player, their targets are not limited to that position.
“You kind of have your group of people that you like, and you try to figure out what can you do (to get a player). Like, what is reasonable?” Friedman said. “And so I think the Maple Leafs are kind of going through all this right now and saying, ‘Okay, if it’s X, we have to give up Y. If it’s Z, we have to give up Q. Or is this not even really a possibility at all?’”
Toronto has won three consecutive games and only has one matchup left on the schedule before the league goes on a two-week hiatus for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
In a rather bizarre development, the Leafs have alternated three-game losing streaks and three-game winning streaks from the past month of play, completing two streaks of each variety.
Toronto sits second in the Atlantic Division with a 33–19-2 record, trailing only the reigning champions Florida Panthers by one point but with two games in hand.
