The daily top story on Hockey Hot Stove is powered by Watrhouse Brands, dedicated to quality, consumer education, and awareness: Benevolent Bakery, SoSHEL beverages, and Smokiez vegan fruit chews. Today: Can the Leafs get full value for their rentals and other players.
The Toronto Maple Leafs continued their post-Olympic downfall on Monday, with an uninspired effort in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Leafs and Flyers both put forth an effort that would bore even the most ardent hockey fan to tears, as Philadelphia took a 2-1 lead in the third period on a goal by Noah Cates, but Toronto tied the game late in regulation on a William Nylander power play tally.
In the shootout, Nylander beat Flyers goalie Dan Vladar, but Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras each made Anthony Stolarz look bad on their conversions, and Auston Matthews and Max Domi could not beat Vladar, handing the Leafs their fourth straight loss. The defeat served to put an exclamation point on the club’s dysfunction and downturn prior to the trade deadline.
The burning question at hand is whether GM Brad Treliving will make significant moves before 3 pm Friday to recoup some draft capital and prospects, or whether he will continue to play the fiddle while Rome is burning.
The trade dominoes have begun to fall, as Chicago dealt right-handed rental defenseman Connor Murphy (retaining 50% of his $4.4 million salary) to the Edmonton Oilers for a 2028 second-round pick. Murphy is an unspectacular but steady veteran who probably fits in the Oilers bottom pairing, but that move likely means they were not willing to pay the price for Leafs veteran Oliver Ekman-Larsson or that the blueliner did not want to waive his no-trade protection to go to Edmonton.
According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, seven playoff teams over the last week showed interest in Murphy, which logically means that six of those teams are moving on to their Plan B or Plan C options, which could include OEL or Brandon Carlo. LeBrun also reported that winger Andrew Mangiapane, who cleared waivers on Monday, is someone who could be involved in a potential trade with Toronto and mentioned that Edmonton may have interest in Leafs center Nicolas Roy.
Roy is under contract for another season at $3 million and is a Cup-winning big right-handed center, who would allow the Oilers to move Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the wing and Roy to play third-line center behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Coupled with taking on Mangiapane, the Leafs would likely be looking for one of the Oilers 2027 first-round pick, young forwards Matthew Savoie or Isaac Howard, and perhaps an additional draft pick.
There continues to be chatter of the Leafs having talks with pending UFA’s Scott Laughton and Bobby McMann, but there is no reason for the club to sign these players when they can re-sign them in July. Toronto is in a position that they must recoup prospects and draft picks for rentals while they can. Both players have reportedly said they would like to stay in Toronto, but it is at the point where that should be put to the test in July after they’ve been traded and the Leafs have recouped some of the prospect and draft capital they expended over the last few years.
Of note, there were a large contingent of scouts at the Leafs – Flyers game, including four from the Buffalo Sabres. Reports from Eliotte Friedman indicated that the Sabres might be interested in former Sabre Rasmus Ristolainen, but there had been reports that Buffalo had some interest in Carlo last summer in a deal involving JJ Peterka.
There are some hints that the Sabres are interested in upgrading their depth on D and they have a large pool of prospects, but former GM Kevyn Adams already traded their 2026 second-round pick in the Dylan Cozens-Josh Norris deal, and the Sabres are hosting the 2026 NHL Draft, making it unlikely that they would be willing to trade their top pick in any deal.
