Auston Matthews Urging Maple Leafs' Management Team to Complete a Trade
Photo credit: Amber Searls - USA Today Sports
With the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning beefing up ahead of the trade deadline, Auston Matthews is hoping the Toronto Maple Leafs can follow suit.
The Atlantic Division is tight once again with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, and Tampa Bay Lightning jockeying for position as they are separated by just 3 points.
With the trade deadline less than 2 days away, both the Panthers and the Lightning have done their due diligence on the open market and have considerably improved their current rosters.
The Panthers acquired Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks last week, claimed Jesse Puljujarvi off waivers, and traded for Vitek Vanecek from San Jose, whereas the Lightning just traded for both Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand from Seattle on Wednesday.
That doesn't leave the Maple Leafs with many options or time to counteract those moves, but they are still linked to players like Brayden Schenn and Scott Laughton despite their lofty asking prices.
However, with all the moves being made around them, Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews is hopeful that the Leafs can do something ahead of the deadline.
"You look at our division in particular, it's obviously very tight. Management's going to do the best they can. All we do is trust in them. Of course you'd love to see a boost. I think with the way that we've played this year, the position we're in right now, we feel really confident, really good about our team, our group. But, this time of year, you see teams adding and you want to add as well. So I'm sure the management and staff are doing a lot of thinking right now, doing a lot of homework and stuff like that. And I'll just leave it in their hands."
With how active the Leafs have been in recent years, it's a little surprising that they've waited this long to make a move. It's almost a foregone conclusion that they will be adding someone to the roster between now and Friday's deadline, but their waiting game is proving costly.
On top of the moves that were made today, Trent Frederic and Jake Evans were both taken off the board yesterday when the former was traded to Edmonton and the latter signed an extension in Montreal.
With limited options and cap space, the Maple Leafs are going to have to get creative with any moves they make and considering how their rivals have beefed up recently, they might have to swing for the fences.
The Maple Leafs' hold on the top spot in the division is almost assuredly contingent on what Brad Treliving does in the next two days, so it will be interesting to see what he does under pressure.
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