Maple Leafs are in Serious Talks to Acquire a Young Defenseman from Arizona (And it's NOT Jakob Chychrun!)

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Aaron Itovitch
November 21, 2022 (4:08 PM)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a defensive crisis. With Morgan Rielly seriously underperforming, and both TJ Brodie and Jake Muzzin out with injury, Kyle Dubas is desperate to make a move.

While the Leafs have been reported to be interested in several veteran defenders, a new target has been confirmed.

While the Arizona Coyotes have the defensive trade jewel of Jakob Chychrun on the black, Dubas has set his sights on young blueliner Connor Timmins to done white and blue.

Elliotte Friedman expressed this interest on the most recent episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast.

I had a couple people reach out to me and say they think Toronto is one of the team's that is interested

Timmins wouldn't be cheap, as he has a lot of potential as a defenseman, but he would certainly be less expensive than Chychrun to acquire. His cap hit is equally an easily palatable $850,000 for this season.

Timmins is a hometown boy, and equally played for the OHL's Sault Ste-Marie Greyhounds, which Kyle Dubas notably has a strong preferential bias towards.

Timmins equally logged big minutes in junior alongside current Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin, and they could potentially rekindle their chemistry at the NHL level.

This could be a real option for the Leafs, as he would be under team control next season as an RFA, and could grow into an important piece of their core moving forward.

Source: Hockey Feed