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Addressing The Areas Of Need

April 22, 2016, 5:14 PM ET [334 Comments]
Mike Augello
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
One of the many reasons why Maple Leafs Team President Brendan Shanahan and GM Lou Lamoriello have carefully managed expectations during the first year of the club’s transition and rebuild is because it would be impossible to put the pieces together for Toronto to become a consistently competitive club in one or two off-seasons.

The Leafs are like most teams at the bottom of the NHL standings, who need to improve at forward, on defense and in goal to be competitive. Some of those upgrades will be addressed internally by young prospects selected in the NHL Draft, but the timetable for them being NHL contributors is inexact.

Adding quality players via trades and free agency are subject to what is available and the market this summer is not overflowing with talent.

It is realistic that Shanahan and Lamoriello can address one or perhaps two areas of need before training camp in September, but the question is which direction they should go.

The Leafs clearly do not have confidence that Jonathan Bernier is the future answer between the pipes but their options for next season are limited. The goaltending free agent market is remarkably thin with James Reimer and veteran Cam Ward as the most attractive options.

Anaheim’s Frederik Andersen, Andrei Vasilevskiy of Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh youngsters Matt Murray or Tristan Jarry may be available as trade options, but all would be costly to acquire.

Keith Yandle, Alex Goligoski and Kris Russell are attractive blueline options on July 1, but based on the escalating prices of defensemen, they will all draw more than the $5 Million AAV that Toronto signed Morgan Rielly to earlier this month. The Leafs are will attempt to add experience after jettisoning Dion Phaneuf and Roman Polak before the trade deadline, but it may be more cost-effective to trade for someone already locked up on a long-term deal like Minnesota’s Jonas Brodin, Colorado RFA Tyson Barrie or Kevin Shattenkirk of the Blues, who is one year away from free agency.

The forward picture will become clearer after the April 30th NHL Draft Lottery and whether the Leafs are in position to choose center Auston Matthews or wingers Patrik Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi or Matthew Tkachuk. If they get Matthews, Toronto may not pursue free agent center Steven Stamkos with as much vigor and could use the cap space earmarked for Stamkos to add size on the wing in Milan Lucic or Kyle Okposo or deal for Matt Duchene, who is rumored to be on the outs in Colorado.




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