A Sleepy Brad Treliving Misses Out on Young Center Whom the Leafs Were Previously Connected To

With the March 7th trade deadline fast approaching, especially when you factor in the 4-Nations Face-Off break in between now and then, trade rumours have picked up and it sounds like the Toronto Maple Leafs lost a previous trade target in the late hours last night.

The Philadelphia Flyers and Calgary Flames orchestrated a 4-player deal that had Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee moving to Calgary in exchange for Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, with some balancing pieces involved.

The Maple Leafs have often been linked to the Aurora, Ontario native, who had ties with the organization as his father, Andy Frost, was the public address announcer at the Air Canada Centre between 1999 and 2016. Morgan Frost was also the perfect buy-low candidate to fill out a top-9 role down the middle of the lineup.

The former 27th overall selection from the 2017 NHL Entry Draft never panned out for the Flyers and part of it had to do with injuries and COVID-related stoppages in the first half of his career. He struggled with consistencies in his game in the latter half and very rarely saw eye-to-eye with head coach John Tortorella.

Frost was set to become a restricted free agent at the end of this season and was in line for his 3rd contract in the last 4 years, but the Flyers finally ripped off the bandaid and have moved on from their former first round selection.

The Maple Leafs will now have to look elsewhere to fill out their third line center position. Secondary scoring has been an issue for Toronto this season, and Frost's playmaking ability could have potentially been the perfect fit for both parties, but he will now try to figure things out in Calgary.

Toronto has been heavily linked to former St. Louis Blues' forward Brandon Saad, but that doesn't necessarily help with their biggest weakness at the moment.

Max Domi's lack of offensive pop has many worried and Pontus Holmberg isn't necessarily a prized option to round out the top-9.

Other options now include Brock Nelson from the New York Islanders, Yanni Gourde of the Seattle Kraken, and Jake Evans from the Montreal Canadiens. It's going to be a bumpy ride between now and the trade deadline as the Maple Leafs continue their search for a cost effective center.