A Mitch Marner trade that could actually make sense for the Leafs

There has been some speculation that the Leafs may look to trade one of Marner or Nylander in an attempt to shake up the core in Toronto and give the Leafs a different look next season. Brendan Shanahan has indicated that he'd like to bring all 4 of the team's core members back for another run next year, but whoever the new GM is might have some philosophical differences and could look to move the Selke nominee, Marner, as it would give the Leafs a lot more financial flexibility and could even help them better balance the roster.

Obviously, with Marner being as skilled as he is, there aren't many trades that you're going to win if you're shipping him out. However, rather than looking at it from a pure winner/loser standpoint, we should be looking at it from the perspective of whether it hurts the team or helps them roll a more balanced roster now and can also help them in the future. With that in mind, there might just be a trade that could help the Leafs balance their roster for the upcoming season and help them in the future.

There's a lot of speculation that ex-Flames GM Brad Treliving could be the man for the GM job in Toronto in Brendan Shanahan's eyes. At the moment, Treliving appears to be the frontrunner for the gig and if he does land the GM job in Toronto, perhaps he can swing a deal with his former team to bring a few of his guys with him and also add a solid prospect to the Leafs' pipeline and a 1st round pick in the process.

The Leafs could move Marner, forward prospect Alex Steeves and the Islanders' 3rd round pick in 2024 (which came over in the Pierre Engvall deal) in exchange for right shot defenseman Rasmus Andersson, sniper Tyler Toffoli, top prospect Matthew Coronato and the Flames 1st round pick in either 2023 or 2024.

The reason I say either this year or in 2024 is that the Flames may not want to move their first in such a deep draft. The other factor here is that the Leafs may actually prefer Calgary's 1st next year, as it would give them two 1st round picks to be able to trade at the deadline this coming season, or it could give them two 1sts to be able to use on draft day in one manner or another, be it to draft two solid prospects, to package them with other picks or prospects to move up, or use one to select a player and the other to trade down to acquire additional picks.

This move would give the Leafs another minute-munching top defender who can play in all situations, providing a MASSIVE upgrade over the departing Justin Holl, a solid scoring winger to play in the team's top six, a former 13th overall pick in Coronato, who had a strong rookie season for Harvard in the NCAA (the Leafs will also be very familiar with Coronato from his time with the Chicago Steel in the USHL), and, as mentioned before, that additional 1st round pick. Most importantly, aside from helping the team in the future, it would spread out the talent throughout the lineup.

Another reason why this deal could be beneficial for the Leafs is because it could allow them to move the final year of T.J. Brodie's deal, freeing up an additional $5M in cap space. With Andersson coming in, the Leafs could roll the following pairings and still look very solid without Brodie:

Rielly/Andersson
McCabe/Liljegren
Giordano/Schenn (if they can re-sign him)
Extra: Timmins

With the Leafs moving Marner's massive salary, they could also take a run at a number of free agents, such as Tyler Bertuzzi, Patrick Kane or Vladimir Tarasenko to help bolster their forward corps, especially with Michael Bunting likely leaving this summer.

In case you're curious as to what the Leafs might be able to do this summer and still have an abundance of cap space left over, take a look at the image below to see a mock-up of what would be possible, under the right circumstances:

We know that some changes need to be made. We can't possibly continue running the current group back year after year and expecting to win. They've shown an inability to elevate their game and, quite frankly, it's been an enormous waste of time if all they were able to accomplish was to win 1 round. A shake up is needed and this deal involving Marner could give the Leafs a lot of balance and flexibility.