Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving's trade strategy will ultimately depend on one key factor
The Toronto Maple Leafs have to make a deal by March 7's trade deadline to help their playoff push. But one factor is going to play a critical role in who they add.
It's going to be a tough go for Brad Treliving as he tries to make a deal ahead of the trade deadline. With a short pool of assets and no real attractive pieces beyond their top prospects; he's going to need to get creative in order to get a deal made.
But in their search for a third line center, there lies a player who could be a huge help to their issues without costing anything, it just depends on his health.
Calle Jarnkrok's Status A Critical Factor In Toronto's Trade Plans
Having missed the entire season so far after recovering from sports hernia surgery, Jarnkrok is a huge missing piece of the Maple Leafs lineup after he was expected to be a big part of the team's bottom-six.
He would fix their center issues, offer a viable scoring and playmaking option besides Max Domi, and be able to offer a lot of help on the penalty kill.
Last season was a bit of a down year for Jarnkrok with only 10 goals and 11 assists but a year prior to that he had a 20-goal season to go along with 19 points while playing exceptional defense.
Since 2015-16, Jarnkrok has never scored less than double-digits and consistently offered defense, discipline, and has some pretty solid faceoff numbers at 48.1% for his career.
An 11-year veteran, Jarnkrok was drafted 51st overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 2010 but was later traded to the Nashville Predators for the blockbuster bringing David Legwand to Detroit.
He spent eight years with the Preds, scoring 94 goals and 117 assists in 508 games before being selected by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. Only staying a year, he was traded to Calgary for a package of picks in 2022, but only played 17 games for the club.
Jarnkrok would give Toronto the chance to move Max Domi to the wing, and also give them a bit more defense and open things up for Domi as well as Bobby McMann (if he hasn't shot up the lineup by the time Jarnkrok arrives) to work offensively.
He is in the third year of his four-year, $8.4M contract he signed with the Maple Leafs in 2022.
Brad Treliving is really hoping that Calle Jarnkrok can get back to full health and on the ice soon, not only because it will give Toronto one of their more reliable pieces back.
But it buys him some more time to put a deal together for something other than a center; something they also desperately need.
