For some time now, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been linked to a blockbuster deal to land a star goaltender, and according to all reports, they came close to making it happen recently.
Unfortunately for Toronto however, they fell short in the bidding war to land Jacob Markstrom, despite the fact that their offer to Calgary was very similar to New Jersey.
Now, NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman has elaborated on why the deal fell apart, and unsurprisingly, it dates back to the politics between the two franchises given the position of Brad Treliving as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
These politics date back to the potential deals of Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov, all of whom were linked to Toronto before deals never came together. It appears as though there's still some hard feelings between Treliving and his former team, and until that gets worked out, we may not see a deal done between these two teams anytime soon.
