Leafs and Blackhawks talking trade? A 23-year-old Hawks winger appears to be the target
Per Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli, the Toronto Maple Leafs are among four teams who are rumoured to have reached out to the Chicago Blackhawks regarding one of their top young wingers.
Seravalli reported on Thursday that the Leafs, Flames, Devils and Panthers have all contacted the Hawks about 23-year-old winger Brandon Hagel, who is currently on a 25-goal, 50-point pace.
For those who may be unfamiliar with the player, Hagel is a left winger who can also play the right wing if needed. He is set to earn $1.5M for the next two seasons, at which point he will become a restricted free agent - so he'd be under team control for several seasons.
Another useful quality that Hagel has is that he is able to kill penalties. With the Leafs already being a top-5 team when down a man, it's not exactly an area of weakness, but it's never a bad thing to have extra bodies who can play on the penalty kill in the event that one of your primary PK guys ends up taking a penalty himself.
The Hawks are looking for a return of a 1st round pick along with a high-end prospect in a deal involving Hagel, and it is very possible that they get a return in that ballpark, given Hagel's performance this season and the fact that he has term remaining on a very good deal.
The Leafs on their first round picks in both the 2022 and 2023 NHL Entry Drafts. Could a package of one of those picks along with Finnish defender Topi Niemela be enough to land Hagel from the Hawks? Does a prospect like Nick Robertson make more sense for the Hawks, since he's closer to NHL-ready? I'm not sure I'd be comfortable giving up that much, but for a team in win-now-mode, it would certainly be an understandable sacrifice.
Side note: Can you imagine having TWO Michael Buntings on the same team?
