Leafs send 3 down to the American Hockey League; are we officially on trade watch?
All eyes are on the Toronto Maple Leafs after the Calgary Flames traded Nikita Zadorov to Vancouver last week. We know that the Leafs were in on both Zadorov and Chris Tanev, and that now that Zadorov is gone, they may still pursue Tanev. Per Elliotte Friedman, from his most recent 32 Thoughts Podcast, the Leafs would like a right-shot defenseman with some grit to his game.
The Leafs are out of action until Thursday, which means that Brad Treliving will be working the phones in earnest this week to try to get something done to bring in a reinforcement or two in the absence of John Klingberg, Timothy Liljegren and Mark Giordano.
The interest of Leafs Nation has been peaked on Monday evening, as the team announced a trio of demotions from the NHL roster to the AHL roster. According to CapFriendly, Bobby McMann, Max Lajoie and Martin Jones have all been loaned back to the Marlies.
Does this mean that a move is close? It certainly could. It could also simply be to keep these guys active in the American Hockey League since the Leafs have such a long layoff between games.
The Leafs don't currently have to worry about their salary cap situation with John Klingberg and Timothy Liljegren still on LTIR. As a result, they have over $3.8M in available cap space with a 20-man roster.
The fact that this is all going down on Monday evening instead of on Sunday could be an indicator that something may he getting close. However, all we can really do is wait and see at this point, as the Leafs have been very tight-lipped behind the scenes this season.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 5 | 620 ANSWERS Leafs send 3 down to the American Hockey League; are we officially on trade watch? Will the Leafs complete a trade for a defenseman before Thursday? | ||
| No | 415 | 66.9 % |
| Yes | 205 | 33.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
