Toronto Maple Leafs Face Key Challenge as Trade Deadline Looms, Putting Brad Treliving in Tough Spot
The Toronto Maple Leafs need to make a move in order to not only add some much needed firepower, but some insurance depth due to their rough injury history.
The talk of the town for over the last couple of months is who Brad Treliving is going to make a trade for in order to bring in some firepower to their team. While not starved for offense, the team does need to add some more consistency overall.
Toronto's Injury History A Sign To Trade For Insurance
But Toronto also has one very crucial factor they need to overcome, and making a couple of trades would make their lives a lot more comfortable.
Speaking on The Real Kyper and Bourne show, co-hosts Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne revealed the Maple Leafs' injury prone roster is a do or die factor when it comes to the trade deadline:
Jake McCabe has missed twice with head injuries, both goalies.
There's a lot of guys that are like you cannot trust these guys to stay healthy Round One so you need to get actual insurance.
Sheldon Keefe never had this many in long stretches, one or two but four? It's really been troublesome to see guys constantly dropping."
Auston Matthews has missed 15 games, McMann has missed eight, Stolarz has been out for over a month, Max Pacioretty has lost 17 games to injury, Joseph Woll has missed time to start the season.
It's been a combination of bad luck and a new system that could be the cause for all these ailments.
Currently Toronto is still without Stolarz, Pacioretty, Knies and John Tavares; who while remained healthy the majority of the year, got injured in a freak accident during practice and is out for the foreseeable future.
So it would be vital for Brad Treliving to not only make a big splash but do their best to move pieces around for cap space.
LTIR, waivers, and asset dumps are all possible ways to free up space, and if the team can cut some dead weight (Ryan Reaves, Conor Timmins) then it'll give Toronto a fighting chance.
The Maple Leafs' injury history is a tough situation to look at given that the team's success is almost negated by the amount of injuries.
Brad Treliving has to make a trade to not only improve the offense, but give themselves players who can withstand the injury bug, at least for this season.
