The Toronto Maple Leafs have gone over a month without registering a win, and it is possible that their losing skid could extend into double figures after playing two first-place clubs in the Anaheim Ducks and the Buffalo Sabres. The surprising Ducks lead the Pacific Division with 75 points and visit Scotiabank Arena on Thursday and are hoping to widen their three-point lead over Edmonton and Vegas, while the Sabres are the hottest team in the NHL, winners of eight straight coming out of the Olympic break and hoping to maintain a four-point lead on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Leafs have lost eight in a row and seem all too anxious to fast-forward through the next four weeks end and get started on the offseason and the expected upheaval that will undoubtedly commence after the last game in Ottawa on April 15. The dismissal of head coach Craig Berube seems to be all but a forgone conclusion, but the status of GM Brad Treliving may depend on how the club finishes off the remaining 17 games.
The Toronto media machine has been focused on possible trades of core players that may have been discussed before the trade deadline. The chatter regarding a potential trade of Matthew Knies in connection to the Montreal Canadiens has been a focal point even before last Friday’s deadline and over the last few days, the name of Leafs leading scorer William Nylander has begun to be mentioned.
It is the job of a GM to float all possible names out there, to see what teams might be willing to offer, and Treliving has the reputation of being in contact with his managerial colleagues constantly. That being said, putting Knies name out there is questionable, since the big power forward is only 23, and has 51 points in spite of battling through a knee injury for most of the season. Trading a talent like him would require a) a significant overpayment from any interested team and b) a divisional tax for teams like the Habs inside the Atlantic.
With Knies, it would be easy to generate a market for a young player with no trade restrictions, and according to David Pagnotta, Treliving was riding the wave of high asking prices of Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou to see if the Leafs could get three or more “first-round” level assets for the big winger, with at least two of them being NHL-ready pieces, but as with the Blues forwards, no one was willing to jump at that.
Nylander is less complicated. He leads Toronto with 60 points and has scored 40 goals three years in a row, but he turns 30 in May. If the Leafs have a retool in mind that will take a year or two accomplish, part of the plan could be to move the speedy Swede for a package of younger assets similar to Thomas or Kyrou. The $11.5 million cap hit may not be a burden to move, since the cap amount is expected to skyrocket, but the complicating factor is that Nylander has a no-movement clause for the remaining six years of the deal.
A return in a potential Nylander trade would depend completely on his willingness to give Treliving a list of teams he’d be willing to go to, but if he only wants to go to one or two destinations, it would severely hamper the Leafs to get equal value and their pursuit of reshaping their roster.
Toronto recalled forward Michael Pezzetta from the AHL Marlies on Thursday, possibly in response to Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher taking a run at rookie Easton Cowan and forcing Jake McCabe to step in take on Gallagher. Pezzetta is expected to start on the fourth line with Jacob Quillan and Calle Jarnkrok. Dakota Joshua and Steven Lorentz are slated to be scratches, and Joseph Woll is the projected starter.
