The Toronto Maple Leafs embark on their longest road trip of the season with an Atlantic Division tilt against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Saturday. It is only the second meeting between the historical rivals (Toronto won 3-2 in the season opener courtesy of an Auston Matthews overtime goal) but they will become quite familiar down the stretch, facing each other three times in the 29 remaining games.
Montreal trails Toronto by just one point for second place in the Atlantic (but the Leafs have two games in hand) and are one of the hottest clubs in the NHL (8-1-1 in the last 10 games), matching the Leafs three-game winning streak with a 5-2 victory over Winnipeg on Thursday.
The Leafs did not make any lineup or line/pairing changes at their morning skate on Saturday, in spite of an inconsistent effort in which they blew a two-goal lead early in the third period in a 5-4 win over the bottom-dwelling Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.
Frederik Andersen will make his third straight start for Toronto and with rest days in between each of the six games over the 14-day road trip, it is possible that head coach Mike Babcock could use his starter in every game. Carey Price (23-13-4, 2.52 GAA, .916 save %) will be in goal for Montreal.
The biggest move that Toronto made just prior to the last two deadlines were trades to shore up their depth up the middle with the acquisition of veterans Brian Boyle and Tomas Plekanec. The deals were made at the insistence of head coach Mike Babcock because of a lack of acceptable options on the fourth line (Ben Smith two years ago, Dominic Moore and Frederik Gauthier last season), but both failed to have a significant impact and cost Toronto a pair of second round picks.
Leading up to last year’s deadline, there was significant chatter that the Leafs had inquired about Detroit forward Luke Glendening, but that they shied away from acquiring the Babcock favorite from the Red Wings because of his salary ($1.8 Million), term remaining on his contract (three years) and the asking price (reportedly a second-round pick).
TSN’s Frank Seravelli reports that Toronto has once again kicked tires on the 29-year-old’s availability before February 25th. This would indicate that the Leafs head coach is unhappy with his fourth line options of SHL veteran Par Lindholm and Gauthier and wants to add the feisty forward (who is on pace for a career-high in points and ice time, and is part of the Wings penalty killing unit).
Seravelli speculates that the Wings asking price would be a second-round pick, because of the similar cost that Nashville paid in acquiring Boyle from New Jersey earlier this week.
The difficulty for Toronto would be Glendening’s salary for a fourth line pivot, with the Leafs already spending over $27 Million next season with the cap hits of Matthews, John Tavares and Nazem Kadri. Gauthier has not had much impact in his first full NHL season, with a lack of willingness to take advantage of his size and inability to contribute on special teams, but could be part of a deal with the Wings based on his youth (23 years old) and inexpensive salary ($675,000 through 2019-20).
Cap room is said to be a consideration for Toronto as well, but they have options in demoting Lindholm or Igor Ozhiganov’s $925,000 ELC deals to the AHL to make room or convincing the Wings to retain salary.
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Saturday marks the third anniversary of the Dion Phaneuf deal to the Ottawa Senators. Of the many things that Lou Lamoriello did right during his tenure in Toronto, the nine-player deal that sent the last Leafs captain may have been his finest achievement.
Toronto took back over $9 Million in salary with the contracts of Jared Cowen, Colin Greening and Milan Michalek, but were free and clear of all three contracts by the end of the 2016-17 season and did not have to retain one dollar of the remaining five years of Phaneuf's seven-year, $49 Million contract.
Ottawa had to retain $1.75 Million of Phaneuf’s $7 Million AAV in the trade to Los Angeles last February and the 33-year-old was a healthy scratch for the first time in his NHL career on Thursday. With the salary cap getting increasingly snug with the contracts of John Tavares, Auston Matthews and the upcoming deal for Mitch Marner, just think of the situation that Kyle Dubas would be in with a declining Dion having another two years left on his deal.
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