Potential Trade Coming for the Toronto Maple Leafs as Opening Night Approaches
With opening night two days away, and the Maple Leafs needing to open up some cap, there's some trade potential involving some club veterans.
After Sunday's rapid-fire reassignment period and the conclusion of the preseason, teams now have until 5 pm on Monday to submit their rosters for the 2024-2025 regular season. Toronto placed defenseman Marshall Rifai and Matt Murray on waivers as they continue to whittle down their team for Wednesday night, and still have a few moves they need to make before then.
There's still a matter of signing Max Pacioretty and Steven Lorentz off of their PTO's to official contracts (something expected to happen Monday) and the emergence of Nick Robertson has led the Maple Leafs to re-think a few things, and one of those options is trading one of their veteran forwards according to James Mirtle of The Athletic:
So which veterans could be traded to make room?
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a few options to choose from regarding veterans they could move, such as Calle Jarnkrok and David Kampf. Both men come at a combined cost of $4.5M and in the case of Kampf, being paid too much for his production or lack thereof. Jarnkrok has been dealing with injuries this preseason and the Maple Leafs can't risk paying him $2.1M to be only a possibility in the lineup where he spot could be taken by Lorentz. Kampf on the other hand may find himself in a better spot under Craig Berube but still is overpaid when the Maple Leafs have internal options to replace him such as Roni Hirvonen or even bringing up Kyle Clifford to take that grittier veteran role if they truly need that.
With the team needing to clear about $3M in cap space, they could move Jani Hakanpaa and Connor Dewar to the LTIR and save some money that way, but would still need to decide on how to get a bit more cap space. There's also the option to move Timothy Liljegren, and since his demotion to essentially an AHL pairing; he could also be up on the block. He's being paid $3M and Toronto has a wealth of defensemen who could take his spot, so there's another candidate for GM Brad Treliving.
With two days until Toronto takes the ice against Montreal to open up the season, GM Brad Treliving and the Maple Leafs still have a few decisions to make regarding their roster, and it could spell the end for one or two veterans in blue and white.
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