Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce present a dream opportunity for the Leafs
Both Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei of the Carolina Hurricanes are expected to hit free agency and present the Leafs and GM Brad Treliving with a dream scenario.
Since he took over as GM last May for Kyle Dubas, Brad Treliving has made it very well known that his goal is to build a much bigger, longer and physical blueline.
He first tried to acquire Nikita Zadorov and Chris Tanev during the regular season but lost out in the bidding wars. When that failed, it led to him adding Ilya Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson at the deadline, but neither are expected to return to the Leafs next season.
The Leafs have continuously been connected to the aforementioned Zadorov and Tanev, which makes sense given that Treliving acquired both of them during his time with the Calgary Flames, and are rumoured to want to sign at least two of the top-six defenders available on July 1st.
If he feels so inclined, Treliving could solve a major issue by bringing both Skjei and Pesce to Toronto, as was proposed by The Leafs Nation's Jon Steitzer.
We've seen time and time again that new acquisitions take awhile to become acustomed to their new team, style of play and teammates, but bringing in Skjei and Pesce, who have an established chemistry and understanding of each other, would limit that issue.
The two Hurricanes defenders played just over 986 minutes together at 5-on-5 last season according to Natural Stat Trick and were premiere shutdown defensemen with Skjei chipping in 47 points and 13 goals along the way which would inject much-needed secondary point production on the Leafs blueline.
Signing both won't come cheap, with Evolving Hockey projecting a 7x$7.5M deal for Skjei and a 6x$5.5M deal for Pesce, which would eat up $13M of the Leafs' $19.7M in available cap space. However that doesn't leave much room for a goalie and to bring back both Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi. On the bright side, it would instantly give the Leafs two top-pairing defensemen and an excellent top-four that already includes Morgan Rielly and Jake McCabe.
Source: The Leafs NationBrady Skjei and Brett Pesce are a readymade solution for the Maple Leafs
| POLL | ||
18 JUIN | 355 ANSWERS Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce present a dream opportunity for the Leafs Which pairing should the Leafs sign? | ||
| Tanev/Zadorov | 94 | 26.5 % |
| Skjei/Pesce | 90 | 25.4 % |
| Pesce/Zadorov | 147 | 41.4 % |
| Skjei/Zadorov | 24 | 6.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
