As the excellent Elliotte Friedman (Sportsnet) reported last week, he expects to see the Leafs make at least one, possibly two big moves this summer.
The pressure is on their GM Kyle Dubas to stir the pot and change the recipe a bit.
With Toronto being as intense a market as we are here in Montreal, there are plenty of reporters out there fishing for information and The Athletic has learned a good one in preparation for another eventful NHL summer.
According to their information, the Maple Leafs have let other organizations know that they are perfectly open to talking to make some very big trades.
Several big names would be available, in fact, they would only have three untouchables: Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly. Wow.
So that means names like William Nylander (80 points and 34 goals in 81 games this season), John Tavares (76 points and 27 goals in 79 games this season) and notably Michael Bunting (63 points and 23 goals in 79 games in his rookie season this year) are all available on the trade market.
We can also add Alexander Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev, Rasmus Sandin, Jake Muzzin and others.
Several interesting and high quality players could be traded by GM Kyle Dubas,
Obviously, Nylander (26) and Tavares (31) are the two big names that are getting the most attention, perhaps along with Bunting, who is a candidate for the 2022 NHL Rookie of the Year award.
Tavares earns 11 million per season through 2025, while Nylander earns a reasonable 6.9 million per season through 2024.
Would you be interested in either of these players?
POLL | ||
Which Leafs player do you think is the most interesting on the trade market? | ||
William Nylander | 1528 | 53.6 % |
John Tavares | 519 | 18.2 % |
Michael Bunting | 429 | 15.1 % |
None | 373 | 13.1 % |
List of polls |