The Leafs have another opportunity to acquire a defenseman that they recently missed out on
Photo credit: NHL
On November 30th, the Vancouver Canucks out-bid the Toronto Maple Leafs to acquire hulking defenseman Nikita Zadorov from the Calgary Flames for a 2024 fifth round pick and 2026 third round pick. The 6'6, 250 pound blueliner was told by a Leaf while with the Flames that he was exactly what the team needed. Unfortunately, after being dealt to Vancouver, it looked like the Leafs would have to wait until the off-season to add him to their roster if they desired to do so.
In an interesting development over the last couple of days, the 28-year-old's name has now resurfaced in trade rumours. Elliotte Friedman mentioned him on the Jeff Marek Show on Monday, and yesterday on popular Vancouver radio show Donnie and Dhali, Canucks reporter Don Taylor revealed that there may be issues with him within the Canucks' dressing room.
"I wonder a bit about Zadorov too. I think they're going to clear some room to open up the ability for them to do something whether it's Lindholm, or (Jake) Guentzel, or (Adam) Henrique, or someone I haven't thought of yet," said Friedman.
Since being acquired from Calgary, Zadorov had been playing between 18 and 20 minutes per game, but recently has seen his minutes drop as low as 12:40 against St. Louis following a third period benching late last week.
"You're starting to hear the odd thing [about Zadorov], I'm wondering how happy they are with him and I don't mean just on the ice," said Taylor. "I'm wondering how he's meshing in that room... I'm not so sure there's a mesh there right now..."
Taylor's co-host Rick Dhaliwal also noted that Zadorov's agent, Dan Milstein is not pleased with rumours becoming public and that teams have called the Canucks about him.
Whether Taylor is right about Zadorov's fit in the room or he is simply a cap casualty as Friedman speculates, it would seem that the Leafs have an opportunity to acquire the rugged defenseman again. The good news is that it should not cost the Leafs more than what Vancouver paid two months ago, but the bad news is that he comes with a $3.75M cap hit and the Leafs just don't have that kind of cap space without sacrificing a roster player or two, or paying more to have the Canucks retain salary - something they definitely would not want to do if they are trying to clear space.
The rumours regarding Zadorov will be interesting to pay attention to as we get closer to the March 8th trade deadline and if they continue to escalate, we could see a second trade request from him in the same season, which I don't think has happened in the NHL in quite some time - if ever.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 31 | 604 ANSWERS The Leafs have another opportunity to acquire a defenseman that they recently missed out on Should the Leafs take another shot at acquiring Zadorov? | ||
| Yes, they need someone like him | 285 | 47.2 % |
| No, it would cost too much for retention | 153 | 25.3 % |
| If he's having all these problems, I'd avoid him | 166 | 27.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
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