With nearly three months between now and the trade deadline, teams have begun to plot which players they may entertain dealing.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have 10 unrestricted free agents next summer, but unlike last season when James Reimer, Roman Polak and Daniel Winnik brought back a slew of draft choices and prospects, most of this year’s crop; which includes Brooks Laich, Colin Greening, Milan Michalek, Matt Hunwick, Ben Smith, Polak and Jhonas Enroth will not get much of a return or will necessitate Toronto retaining salary to get something back.
An option open to Toronto GM Lou Lamoriello could be moving veterans with term left on their contracts (James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Jake Gardiner or Leo Komarov) to bring significant assets in return. The Leafs are known to be looking for help on the blueline, but more a long term solution than a short term fix.
The club has young cornerstones Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, and is deep on the wing with rookies William Nylander, Connor Brown, Nikita Soshnikov and Zach Hyman in the NHL and Kasperi Kapanen and Brendan Leipsic playing well in the American Hockey League.
ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun and TSN’s Bob McKenzie have both postulated that van Riemsdyk could be trade bait if the Leafs want to upgrade the defensive group that includes Morgan Rielly, Nikita Zaitsev and Gardiner.
A number of contending teams will be looking for scoring help down the stretch and van Riemsdyk(only 27 years old) leads the Leafs with 10 goals, is a legitimate top six forward and has a reasonable cap hit at $4.25 Million through 2017-18.
Van Reimsdyk will be 29 when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in July 2018. That will coincide with Nylander’s entry-level deal expiring and Marner and Matthews being eligible for extensions, which likely means that Toronto will be opening up their checkbooks to lock them for on long-term deals and looking to save in other areas.
The real question is when will be the right time to get the most in a trade.
Toronto has flexibility to take on salary in trades since they have three players (Stephane Robidas, Joffrey Lupul and Nathan Horton) on injured reserve that can be placed on LTIR and the ability to retain salary on two traded players.
Both factors erase some of the salary cap limitations that come with the trade deadline, but they are not considerations if Toronto decides to make the move over the summer.
The determining factor may come down to how attractive a commodity van Riemsdyk is closer to March 1 and how many teams will be desperate to move a highly regarded young defenseman and something else for a player that could be the final piece to the puzzle.
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Swedish outlet Expressen reports on Friday that Leafs 2016 second rounder Carl Grundstrom will be among the 15 forwards selected for the preliminary roster of Team Sweden for the 2017 IIHF World Junior later this month.
Grundstrom (selected 57th overall last June) scored a goal and assist in a 4-0 Frolunda win over Lulea on Friday, tying the 19-year-old winger with Libor Hudacek for the SHL goal scoring lead.
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The Leafs practiced in Vancouver on Friday in preparation for the finale of their Western Canada road swing against the Canucks on Saturday. Goalie Frederik Andersen did not skate due to an unspecified illness, but is expected to make the start for Toronto.
Martin Marincin, who has been a healthy scratch the last three games, skated with Jake Gardiner, while Connor Carrick was paired with Frank Corrado and will likely be the odd man out.
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Listen to the latest edition of Off The Post with Anthony Mingioni, Russ Cohen, myself and special guest Joe Yerdon of NHL.com.
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