The Toronto Maple Leafs have resumed practicing at the Ford Performance Centre in Etobicoke in preparation for the restart of the NHL regular season after the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. As with all clubs, the post-break schedule will be daunting, with 25 games to be played in the remaining 51 days of the schedule, and the Leafs will take begin with back-to-back games in Florida against the Lightning and Panthers, and returning to Scotiabank Arena for their third game in four nights a week from Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.
Toronto begins the stretch drive six points behind Boston and seven points in back of Buffalo for the two Eastern Conference wildcard spots, and does not have games in hand on either. The question yet to be answered is what the posture of GM Brad Treliving and Leafs upper management is with less than two weeks to go before the NHL trade deadline.
League insiders such as Elliotte Friedman, Pierre LeBrun, and David Pagnotta have indicated that the club has put feelers out there in anticipation of being a seller before March 6, with the likes of pending unrestricted free agents Bobby McMann, Scott Laughton, and veterans Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nicolas Roy, Brandon Carlo, Anthony Stolarz, Nick Robertson, Matias Maccelli, Calle Jarnkrok, and Simon Benoit being potential trade targets.
Others such as TSN’s Darren Dreger and NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger, have cast doubt on the willingness of the Leafs hierarchy to be sellers in a limited or full-fledged fashion, until just before the deadline when it is more certain they are not within range of a playoff spot. This hedging of bets on the off-chance that they can climb back into the race is the sort of stuff that the club did in the late 2000’s, when they hemmed and hawed and failed to read the landscape correctly, failing to make the playoffs by a few points and failing to get into the draft lottery to pick higher in the NHL Draft.
The draft aspect is not a factor, since the only way the Leafs can have a pick this June is to finish in the bottom-five and Toronto is 11 points up on the fifth-worst record, so the only way they would keep their pick is to win a top-three spot in the Draft lottery.
It is possible that signals are being floated out there that the Leafs are contemplating keeping their players, in hopes that teams will up the ante on the likes of McMann or one or more of their vets to get Treliving to bite. Otherwise, if they are convinced that Toronto is in full sell-mode, the only leverage that Treliving will have is a bidding war between contending clubs.
The good news from the Olympics after Sweden lost in overtime to Team USA on Wednesday was that Ekman-Larsson played well after seeing limited ice time early on and that the veteran blueliner came through unscathed. William Nylander missed several practices in Italy, which may be indicative that the Swedes were using load management to avoid aggravating the groin issues he encountered just before the break. Interest in OEL could end up yielding a first-round pick under the right circumstances for the Leafs.
Wingers Matthew Knies, Dakota Joshua, and defenseman Morgan Rielly were in need the most of a respite. Knies played through a knee injury the last few weeks before the break and received treatment in Arizona on his knee, while Joshua (lacerated kidney) and Rielly (upper-body) skated with the club after missing time. Defenseman Chris Tanev has also been on the ice, but is skating before practice.
The Leafs play six times before the deadline, and the likelihood of them jumping over three other clubs to close the gap on the Bruins or Sabres is remote, but allowing Treliving to do the prudent thing will be up to Keith Pelley and the ownership group, since that will likely result in meaningless games in March and April and no playoff gate this season. But let there be no illusions, the chances of their being playoff games at Scotiabank Arena this spring are a long shot. Even if they do by some miracle, make a charge and punch their ticket to the postseason, the odds of making a run in the playoffs are infinitesimal.
