The deals made by the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the NHL Trade Deadline last February enabled the club to stock their shelves with young prospects and have given them assets to parlay into players that can make them more competitive in the near future.
The trades of Roman Polak, Nick Spaling, James Reimer, Dion Phaneuf and Daniel Winnik yielded four second-round picks, a third rounder, prospects Connor Carrick and Tobias Lindberg.
One of those picks was used to select Swedish forward Carl Grundstrom and Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello converted another along with Pittsburgh’s first round pick from the Phil Kessel deal into goaltender Frederik Andersen.
As the Maple Leafs enter a year where getting prospects Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner and others NHL experience will be the focus, Toronto is also set up to bring in more future picks and prospects with a handful of players on expiring contracts.
Polak re-signed with Toronto on a one-year, $2.25 Million deal after reaching the Stanley Cup Final with San Jose and will provide some toughness and experience to a blueline that is light on both, but it is likely that the 30-year-old Czech will be shopped for clubs looking for a veteran defenseman for the stretch run.
Matt Hunwick is also an unrestricted free agent after next season and has an economical $1.2 Million cap hit, which might be attractive to contending clubs with little flexibility under the salary cap.
Toronto also has Milan Michalek, Brooks Laich and Colin Greening entering the final year of their contracts. The 31-year-old Michalek is known for being injury-prone over his 11-year NHL career, but when healthy is an effective two-way forward. Laich is 33 and has value as a leader, but scored just two goals and six assists in 81 games last season.
For Lamoriello to get any significant return for either veteran forward or Greening (who spent most of last season with AHL Binghamton), the Leafs GM may have to retain salary, especially with Michalek and Laich making $4 Million or more.
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