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The Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Minnesota Wild at Scotiabank Arena on Friday, which will be the last time the club will play on home ice before the NHL Trade Deadline. The question over the next seven days is how busy GM Kyle Dubas will be. It is generally accepted that Toronto will make a move to bolster their blueline with whatever cap space they have remaining, but it is unknown whether the Leafs will add some depth and physicality on the back end, or leverage more draft capital for a top-four defenseman.
The trade dominoes in the Eastern Conference continued to fall on Thursday, as the Boston Bruins made their move to add on defense and up front, acquiring Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway from Washington for a package of draft picks. This on the heels of the Leafs move for Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari, and the Rangers trade for Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola from St, Louis. With the clock ticking towards March 3rd, the potential of New York adding Patrick Kane seems likely, and both Tampa Bay and Carolina are looking to make moves. The Hurricanes are reportedly looking for more scoring with the loss of winger Max Pacioretty and may be in the mix along with New Jersey for San Jose’s Timo Meier.
Tampa is limited by their cap situation and a lack of draft picks from deals made last season, but GM Julien Brisebois has a nasty habit of pulling off the unexpected.
The Leafs will have to manage not only their cap but their roster situation before the deadline. The clearing of Joey Anderson on waivers on Thursday will open up $750,000 in cap space when Toronto demotes the forward to the AHL, and that move could happen prior to their departure on a five-game road trip, and the return of Matt Murray (who skated on Friday, will take part in practice on Saturday and accompany the Leafs on the road swing) will likely result in Joseph Woll and his $766,667 salary being sent to the AHL.
Toronto is currently at 49 contracts and will have to send a player as part of any deal made since they have to reserve one slot for prospect Matthew Knies to be signed after his NCAA campaign is completed.
Ilya Samsonov will make his third straight start, while Minnesota will likely go with Filip Gustavsson after Marc-Andre Fleury earned his 73rd career shutout in Columbus on Thursday.
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