maple leafs

Dermott departing? Dubas going down to the wire; Leafs vs. Predators

Mar 19, 2022 • 11:41 am

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The Toronto Maple Leafs take to the road to face the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena in their final game before Monday’s NHL trade deadline. Toronto is coming off a 3-2 victory over Carolina on Thursday with Erik Kallgren winning his second straight start. The 25-year-old Swede will be between the pipes again as Jack Campbell still recovers from a rib injury and the Leafs will get Auston Matthews back in the lineup after the Rocket Richard leader served his two-game suspension.

Matthews will return to his normal spot between Michael Bunting and Mitch Marner, with John Tavares returning to the second line between Ondrej Kase and William Nylander. Nick Robertson and Wayne Simmonds did extra work during the optional skate in Nashville, which indicates they will be healthy scratches. After a day off, David Kampf will center the checking line with Ilya Mikheyev and Pierre Engvall, with the fourth line consisting of Kyle Clifford, Alex Kerfoot, and Jason Spezza.

There will be one change on the blueline, as Travis Dermott will play for the first time since March 10 with Rasmus Sandin. Dermott has played 250 games for Toronto since 2018 and Saturday’s contest may be his last in Blue and White, as it is rumored that the Newmarket, ON native will be dealt before 3pm Monday.

"I think it's been hard obviously and (Travis has) handled it really well. It's not fun being on the lineup and he's a really good hockey player." Leafs defenseman Justin Holl said on Saturday. "I think he obviously wants to play every night."

Dermott has never really developed into the defenseman that Toronto envisioned after selecting him in the second round of the 2015 Draft, and with Sandin and Timothy Liljegren ahead of him on the depth chart and the Leafs looking to open up some cap space to add a forward or defensive help, clearing his $1.5 million salary and giving him a chance to play regularly elsewhere seems to be in the plans.

That should not be difficult, since there are other clubs looking for inexpensive blueline depth that may benefit from a change of scenery. The Seattle Kraken (with former Leafs assistant Dave Hakstol behind the bench) and Los Angeles Kings could be where Dermott finally ends up.

GM Kyle Dubas is reportedly busy looking to make some additions before Monday, which may be a necessity to keep pace with the Lightning and Panthers after Tampa Bay acquired winger Brandon Hagel and Florida adding defenseman Ben Chiarot and rumored to be getting Claude Giroux.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman indicated that the Leafs were in on Hagel (who has 21 goals and is signed for two more years at $1.5 million AAV), but that Dubas could not match (two first-round picks and two young NHL forwards in Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk) or was not willing to give up a young prospect like 2021 second-rounder Matthew Knies.

Dubas may be waiting until the final hours to see if the prices go down for possible D options like Mark Giordano, Justin Braun or Jacob Middleton, with Toronto not willing to trade any of their top prospects or their 2022 and 2023 first-round picks.

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