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The Toronto Maple Leafs lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Florida Panthers. The Leafs have made the playoffs nine straight years, but have not made it to the conference finals in that time. Adding to the woes of the offseason, the Leafs lost one of their top players. Now, general manager Brad Treliving needs to make a trade to fill that hole in the top-six forwards.
The Maple Leafs positively opened their offseason, bringing back John Tavares on a four-year deal. They were also able to trade for Matias Maccelli while bringing back restricted free agent Matthew Knies. Still, the Leafs would lose Mitch Marner, a pending free agent.
Treliving should get some credit as he was able to work a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights, bringing back Nicolas Roy in return. Still, this leaves a massive hole in the lineup for the Leafs. Marner led the team last year with 102 points, and while that is most likely not directly replaceable, someone is needed to help make the transition more manageable.
Currently, the projection is that either William Nylander, who was on the second line last season, or Maccelli will take the spot of Marner with Knies and Auston Matthews. Maccelli is not a top-six forward capable of providing anything close to a replacement for Marner.
Last season, he scored just eight goals while adding 10 assists, good for just 18 total points. Furthermore, his career high is just 57 points, which was in the 2023-24 campaign.
That year, he still scored just 17 goals. The Leafs need a forward to be on one of the top two lines. They have just under $6 million in cap space, and with the current free agents still available, a trade will need to happen for this to become a reality.
Maple Leafs get a top-six forward
There has been a member of the Flames in the rumor mill as an option to be traded. That has been their defender, Rasmus Andersson, potentially on the move. There has also been the rumor of the Maple Leafs going after Nazem Kadri. Treliving has been quoted as saying, “Mitch was a top-six forward, and we haven't replaced that hole. That's really where our focus is.”
Adding a player like Kadri to the mix will fill that hole. Kadri was the seventh overall pick by the Leafs in the 2009 NHL draft. He played one game in the 2009-10 campaign with the Leafs and then split time with the team and their AHL affiliate over the next three seasons. Still, he became a solid player in Toronto. Kadri became a 30-goal scorer and had a high of 95 points in 2016-17.
The Ontario native was traded to the Avalanche in the summer of 2019, winning a Cup with the franchise. He then signed as a free agent in 2022 with the Flames.
Kadri is a great scorer. He consistently has scored 30 or more goals in a season while having 35 in his last campaign. He has also put up 50 or more points in four straight seasons with 142 over his last two years combined. The forward has also played in all 82 games each year over the last three years.
Kadri will make $7 million this upcoming season, so a player with at least a $1.2 million salary would need to go back to the Flames in return. Furthermore, there has been speculation that the rumor of the return of Kadri to Toronto may not be completely true. Regardless, this would fill a need for the Maple Leafs.
Another option is for the Leafs to partner up with the Pittsburgh Penguins. There are rumors that Pittsburgh could move Bryan Rust or Rickard Rakell. Both players would fit well on one of the top-two lines for Toronto. Rust was a 2010 draft pick of the Penguins and broke into the NHL in the 2014-15 season.
He is a solid scoring option, having 20 or more goals in each of the last six seasons. Furthermore, he has 40 or more points in each of those six years while having 65 points last year. Rust also brings a winning pedigree. He is a two-time Stanley Cup champion.
Rackell was a first-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks. The Swede is coming off career highs in both goals and points. He also has 60 or more points in two of the last three seasons while also scoring 30 goals three times in his career. Both players have a salary just over $5 million, and both are under contract for the next three seasons. They also both play top-line minutes.
Kadri, Rust, and Rackell all fill the need of a top-six forward for the Leafs, and the Maple Leafs need to find a way to trade for one of them.
