NHL Insider says Leafs pursued two other star defensemen leading up to the deadline before settling on the McCabe deal
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman dropped a bombshell on Leafs Nation on Saturday night during HNIC. Friedman revealed during his 32 Thoughts segment of the program that the Leafs' first choice leading up to this year's trade deadline was not the top-4 defenseman they ended up with, Jake McCabe.
Per Friedman, the Leafs were engaged in talks with both the San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators for star defensemen Erik Karlsson and Mattias Ekholm. Naturally, Karlsson wasn't moved and Ekholm was eventually acquired by the Edmonton Oilers.
The lack of movement on Karlsson had more to do with San Jose not wanting to retain much - or any - salary on Karlsson, who still has 4 seasons remaining after this one at $11.5M per season. Reports from earlier in the year indicated that Sharks GM Mike Grier was only willing to retain $1M, less than 10% of Karlsson's contract.
On the Ekholm side of things, the Predators only ended up having to retain 4% of Ekholm's $6.25M salary to push the deal through with the Edmonton Oilers. He remains signed through the 2025-26 season.
Friedman stated that, while the Leafs were very high on both players, the money simply didn't work, given how little the Sharks and Preds were willing to retain on Karlsson and Ekholm. In the end, they were able to get McCabe at 50% of his original $4M salary. He's now on the books in Toronto for 2 seasons after this one at a very modest $2M cap hit.
| POLL | ||
5 MARS | 273 ANSWERS NHL Insider says Leafs pursued two other star defensemen leading up to the deadline before settling on the McCabe deal Did the Leafs make the right decision at the deadline going after McCabe instead of Karlsson or Ekholm? | ||
| Yes, McCabe is solid and cheap | 203 | 74.4 % |
| No, they should have paid for Karlsson | 26 | 9.5 % |
| No, they should have paid for Ekholm | 44 | 16.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
