Nils Hoglander may be the Leafs' primary trade target in Vancouver
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks have been scouting each other extensively for several weeks, and while it was originally thought that the Leafs had been scouting winger J.T. Miller, could there be another winger who the Leafs are looking at?
The big rumour out there right now involving the Canucks is that they would prefer to move right winger Brock Boeser and retain the services of J.T. Miller, but given the fact that the Leafs are very deep at RW, it's doubtful that they're looking at Boeser.
If it's not Miller and it's not Boeser, who could it be? Well, we don't need to look too far back to discover that Leafs GM Kyle Dubas has had his eye on 21-year-old Nils Hoglander since his draft year.
Back in November of 2018, mere months before the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, Swedish reporter Uffe Bodin had reported that several Leafs scouts had been present at a game between Djurgarden and Rogle and actually had a meeting with Hoglander. There's really no reason to do that unless you're interested in the player and you think he might be available in the range where your pick could land.
Ultimately, Hoglander ended up being selected by Vancouver 40th overall that year, with the Leafs opting to select young Nick Robertson just 13 spots later at 53rd overall.
Why is this interesting? Well, Bruce Boudreau has been using Hoglander less and less. In fact, the Swedish winger has seen just 7 minutes of ice time in each of his last two games. He has also exceeded the 13-minute mark just a handful of times in his last 19 games.
Could Hoglander be available? If he is, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if that's who the Leafs have been scouting. He's a young player who is known to the scouts and the GM, he's affordable, carrying a $1.125M AAV through next season and will be a restricted free agent when his current deal expires, meaning he'd still be under team control.
Hoglander, although small, does play a harder style of hockey than his size might indicate. He also has a decent shot and recorded 11 points in 7 games at the World Juniors in 2020.
He has played just 115 NHL games and still has a decent ceiling at just 21 years old. As far as what it would cost to acquire him, that's another conversation - one I'm sure that Dubas, if he's interested, has already had with the Canucks.
