Trade Talks Picking Up Surrounding Blues' Brayden Schenn; Leafs Confirmed to be Involved
Photo credit: Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images
The Toronto Maple Leafs may have found their perfect piece to add at centre as a trusted NHL Insider confirms discussions taking place involving Brayden Schenn.
With just 1 month to go until the NHL's 2024-25 trade deadline, the Toronto Maple Leafs have still not pulled the trigger to acquire some additional centre depth.
The Leafs are rumoured to be interested in adding a pivot with some term who can either play in a 2nd line centre or 3rd line centre role, with the most recent reports suggesting that Brock Nelson, Yanni Gourde, Scott Laughton and Dylan Cozens are some of their top potential targets.
Well, there is another impact player who we can add to the mix, and he happens to have won a Stanley Cup with Craig Berube in St. Louis: Blues captain Brayden Schenn.
"There is potential of Brayden Schenn being traded by the St. Louis Blues. The top contenders looking at the market, looking for a centre, are interested (in Schenn), and that would include the Toronto Maple Leafs," said TSN's Darren Dreger on Thursday during a segment of "Insider Trading".
"The return would have to be mammoth. Is there a team that is willing to pay it? It's too soon to say, but I do believe the Blues are at least testing or gauging the market to see what that level of interest is, and ultimately will probably have to make that call in the weeks ahead."
"The return would have to be mammoth. Is there a team that is willing to pay it? It's too soon to say, but I do believe the Blues are at least testing or gauging the market to see what that level of interest is, and ultimately will probably have to make that call in the weeks ahead."
There's absolutely zero doubt that Schenn checks just about every box the Leafs are looking for. He can play both centre and wing, he's big, nasty, physical, can chip in offensively, has a ton of playoff experience, and has won a Stanley Cup.
The problem that comes with acquiring a piece such as Brayden Schenn is his cap hit. The younger brother of former Leaf Luke Schenn, Brayden is signed through 2027-28 at a $6.5M cap hit. For a cap-strapped Leafs team, that could create some problems and force someone else out.
There's been some chatter surrounding a potential move in Max Domi's future as the journeyman forward has not been very productive of late. However, much of that chatter has calmed down since his promotion to the top line with Matthew Knies and Auston Matthews earlier this week.
Even if the Leafs did opt to move on from Domi and his $3.75M cap hit, the Leafs wound still need to move out and additional player and perhaps even discuss some salary retention on Schenn.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting development and should not be viewed as an ambitious and far-fetched report. Schenn, as I alluded to earlier, does check just about every box for the Leafs, and that familiarity and prior success with Berube cannot be ignored either.
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