Insider Confirms Maple Leafs Will Trade One of Three Select Forwards
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
One NHL Insider in Toronto has confirmed that the Maple Leafs will trade one of three select forwards between now and the start of next season.
Coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, as teams returned to practice on Tuesday, The Athletic's James Mirtle released his latest 'Leafs Mail Bag', answering fan questions about the remaining third of the Leafs' season.
One of the questions asked to Mirtle was regarding moving some bad contracts up front, namely Ryan Reaves, Max Domi and David Kampf, due to their significant struggles this season.
In a lengthy answer, Mirtle discussed the three possibilities the Leafs could use to rid themselves of terrible deals - buyouts, trades and waivers.
He quickly dismissed the idea of buyouts for all three, but believes waivers could be an option for Reaves at the very least due to the fact that $1.1M of his $1.35M cap hit would come off the books.
For Domi and Kampf, who have both underperformed this season, even a trade would be difficult, but Mirtle had one suggestion that may work, before stating that at least one of the three won't be on the roster next season.
"There could be a scenario in which you move out one or both of them for a contract of another struggling player, using retention to finesse a deal," wrote Mirtle. "I'll be very surprised if all three are back after the seasons they've had, as that's been a wasted $7.5 million."
Reaves is obviously the easiest contract to move, but if the Leafs want more cap space, the most likely candidate to move could be Kampf, given his reasonable salary and 10-team no-trade list compared to Domi's $3.75M and 13-team no-trade list.
Regardless of which is moved, the Leafs need to clear out some of their bad contracts and fill out some of their middle and bottom-six with younger, cheaper options like Alex Steeves, Easton Cowan, Nikita Grebenkin, Jacob Quillan and/or Fraser Minten.
This off-season should be full of change for Brad Treliving and the Leafs. With John Tavares and Mitch Marner having the ability to at least test free agency, the gravity of those changes are still an unknown.
Depending on the playoffs, maybe the Leafs look to swap out Marner for another prolific free agent winger in Mikko Rantanen, as has already been suggested by Elliotte Friedman.
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