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The Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to make their way through a challenging time with a short-handed blueline, as they finish off their three-game homestand against the archrival Boston Bruins on Saturday. The Leafs have won the first two games of the homestand in shootouts with Joseph Woll in goal, and the former Boston College product will make his fourth straight start for Toronto with Ilya Samsonov out with an illness that required Martin Jones to be called up on an emergency basis.
Their obviously will be a focus on Bruins team captain Brad Marchand and the incident that still has defenseman Timothy Liljegren on IR with a high ankle sprain, but the Leafs cannot be fixated on getting even with “King Rat… and have to just play with team toughness against one of the best clubs in the NHL.
“This is a Boston team that commands a lot from you. You have to give everything you have in between the whistles to play well and put your attention there, first and foremost.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the morning skate. “(The Liljegren incident) was a bit of a wake-up call for us, no question, in that area in terms of staying diligent with it, but that is the least of my worries going into a game like this.…
While the obvious focus for Toronto in the here and now is playing the reigning President’s Trophy winner, the near future has to be of some concern for GM Brad Treliving. The Leafs reportedly were in on a possible deal for defenseman Nikita Zadorov, but they needed Calgary to retain some of his $3.75 million cap hit, because at this point Toronto does not have a certain status on the injured John Klingberg.
With the current state of the Leafs blueline, Zadorov would likely have been plugged in as a second-pairing defenseman replacing William Lagesson, but that is slightly elevated from his usual role. Treliving will likely be pursuing the big Russian next summer if he hits the open market, but the weakness on defense is something that needs to be addressed immediately.
With more than three months from the NHL trade deadline, clubs like San Jose, Chicago, or Columbus (who are well out of the playoff race) are the only ones likely to be willing to move out a blueliner, except for a situation like the Sharks placing big defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov on waivers or former Leaf Tyson Barrie being permitted by Nashville to seek a trade.
Barrie was a salary dump in the Mattias Ekholm deal and is an expiring contract making $4.5 million this season, but the Leafs are not looking for an aging puck-rusher with defensive issues, their needs on the blueline are size and defensive ability.
Liljegren will likely not be back until late December, veteran Mark Giordano until the New Year, and it is rumored that Klingberg may be out for the season. With the return of Conor Timmins, the Leafs have six NHL blueliners when fully healthy, but no one can deny that even fully healthy their defense is average at best.
The name that continues to be connected to Toronto is Calgary’s Chris Tanev , but this is nothing new. There have been rumors of the Toronto native garnering interest from the Leafs going back to when he partnered with Morgan Rielly at the World Championships in 2016.
If you look at the Leafs objectively, they are as they have been the last five or six years, two top-four defensemen away from having a blueline capable of winning a Stanley Cup. They added Jake Muzzin, he got hurt….they brought in temporary hole pluggers that worked (Luke Schenn) and others that didn’t (Barrie and remember Cody Ceci). Treliving will continue his pursuit of defensive help, but where the Leafs are currently, they need solutions for multiple years and not temporary fixes that will cost them their top prospects or draft picks.
This pursuit may start now, but may not be addressed adequately until next summer, and will require significant cap space to address.
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