Senators, Stars GMs Scouting Maple Leafs Game in Person Amid Trade Speculation
Scouts and executives, including two general managers, show up in droves to Maple Leafs game as rumours of a potential trade continue to swirl.
Monday's contest between divisional rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning took center stage with Amazon Prime holding the broadcasting rights. With Tueaday set to be "Frozen Frenzy", where all 32 teams play with spaced-out time slots, the Maple Leafs and Lightning were the only two teams playing on Monday.
With that being said, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period tweeted out pre-game that scouts from 23 teams were on hand for the Leafs/Lightning contest, including 2 general managers in Steve Staios of the Ottawa Senators and Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars.
It remains to be seen who they could be scouting, but rumours have been rampant for the last few weeks regarding defenseman Timothy Liljegren and every team covets right-handed shooting defensemen like diamonds in the modern game. Unfortunately, with Liljegren not playing on Monday, nobody was there to scout him.
David Kampf, Pontus Holmberg, and Nick Robertson have also dealt with their fair share of trade talks in recent months, but it could also just be the fact that they're the only two teams playing. Nevertheless, a situation to monitor moving forward.
This is also not the first time this season that scouts have packed the Scotiabank Arena as almost half the league had scouts present during the Maple Leafs' game last week against the Los Angeles Kings. You know what they say.. where there's smoke, there's fire.
The Maple Leafs skated away with a 5-2 victory, controlling much of the game, which had the fanbase in Toronto on their feet and heavily involved and invested, with several chants breaking out during the game, including the traditional "Go Leafs Go!", to a more pointed, "Where is Stamkos?", and finally, "Ref, you suck!". If you ask me, it's about time the crowd in Toronto livened up like that.
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