Rumour: Reporter Reveals Massive trade incoming for the Toronto Maple Leafs

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Pat Quinn
October 28, 2023 (8:47)

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Apparently the rumours are swirling that the Toronto Maple Leafs are talking to the San Jose Sharks about a forward or two. Mark Pye of Hattrick HQ explains how the Maple Leafs are likely targeting Alexander Barabonov and/or Anthony Duclair.

This Western Conference team will be selling, and the Toronto Maple Leafs need to call on these two players. The Leafs have also reportedly been trying to acquire this right handed defenseman. We'll get into this later on in the episode. But before we start, I just want to say to the thousands of you that are watching that aren't subscribed, if you're enjoying this daily Leafs and NHL content, make sure to go down and hit that subscribe button.

Join the hat trick HQ community, because we'll be doing this all season. But we'll hop straight into the first topic, which is the Leafs need to call on Alexander Barabonov. Alexander Barabonov is on the San Jose Sharks. Barabonov, you might know this name, as he did play with the Leafs from 2020 to 2021.

In those 13 games, he did only put up one assist. He was traded by Kyle Dubas to the San Jose Sharks just to get him more playing time. He wasn't getting into the lineup. Since he joined the Sharks in nine games, he put up seven points. The following season, he did put up 39 points in 70 games.

Last season, he did put up 47 points in 68 games on a Sharks team that wasn't really great offensively, and just this season, he has zero points. The Sharks are looking abysmal at the moment. Just in six games, they're five and one with only eight goals. Barabonov is a guy which we don't really know much as Leafs fans.

We did see him a tiny bit with the team. This was when he first broke into the league. But since joining the Sharks, you've seen that 47 points last season is great for a team whose only really offensive talent they had last season was a guy like Hertl, a guy like Couture, and maybe a guy like Erik Karlsson.

But overall, this guy is 29 years old. He's a versatile winger that can play within your lineup. He's a guy that could play in your middle six. He might be able to slop into your top six, and he can play both both the left and right wing.

So he's a guy that, if you wanted to add maybe a bit more grittiness, he doesn't lay hits, but grittiness in the point of he'll get into the corners, he'll still go to the front of the net, and he still adds offensive firepower. So if you wanted to slot him in with a guy like Tavares and Nylander to add a little bit more speed, grittiness, and offensive production, I think he'd be a perfect fit.

So far this season, we've seen Tavares and Nylander look outstanding. They haven't really been able to find the perfect left wing for this duo. So maybe a guy like Bear Bonoff could come in. His cap hit is just $2.5 million, so if the Sharks were ready and willing to retain 50%, you could get this guy in on $1.25 which would be a steal of a contract.

This is the last year of his deal. He's a guy looking for a new contract. So this might be purely a rental depending on how the season goes. If we don't bring back a guy like Tyler Bertuzzi or a guy like Max Domi, Barabonov could be a guy that could fill in, be a longtime middle six for the Leafs and just add this firepower and chemistry if he could build it with Tavares and that the Leafs are looking for.

Also going back to the Sharks, the second guy I did want to talk about was

Anthony Duclair. Anthony Duclair is a name that I'm sure Leafs fans don't like hearing after last year in the playoffs. He did play with the Florida Panthers in 20 playoff games. Last year, he did put up eleven points. During the regular season, he did just play 20 games where he put up nine points.

He was coming off an injury. But if you look back at the previous years in 20, 19, 20, he did put up 23 goals with Ottawa Senators for 40 points. And just two seasons ago, in 74 games, he did put up 31 goals, 27 assists and 58 points. This is a guy the Leafs could add and he would be outstanding on this.

We talk about the Tavares and Nylander line with Barabanov, but Duclair would bring almost a different aspect to this game. Duclair is a former 30 goal scorer. He did put up 20 goals as well with Ottawa Senators. And this is a guy I think if you put him in a line with Tavares and Nylander, it's without a doubt that he could score as 2025 or maybe even 30 goals.

He's a super fast guy. He can play both left and right wing. That's the nice thing about him and Barabanov is where you're not really restricted or forcing a guy to play on the opposite side. So you bring this guy in, he adds a lot of speed, grittiness, goal scoring.

He can still set people up. And I think it would be a perfect combination of adding speed where Tavares hasn't been the fastest player throughout his career with age, obviously, he's slowing down a tiny bit, and then you look at a guy like Nylander who's still fast, he can set people up and has a great shot.

So you give Tavares this playmaking ability to set up two guys that you know can score 40 goals. For Nylander last year and just two seasons ago, Duclair scored 30. So I think this would be a perfect fit. It's a guy that you could even slot up onto your top line if you wanted to add more speed to Marners and Matthews line just to get that line a bit more faster.

Where they have a guy like Calle Jarnkrok, they've tried Tyler Bertuzzi, Matthew Knies is a guy that can fit here it's almost this line where you can fit anyone you want. This line's going to produce, and I think a guy like Duclair would be perfect on it. When you look at the forwards on the Leafs, as I said, the Matthews and Mariner line, you have a guy like Calle Jarnkrok.

When you look at the second line Bertuzzi John Tavares and William Nylander. And the third line David Kampf, Max Domi, and Matthew Knies. So when you look at these guys like Barabonov and a guy like Anthony Duclair, you could really juggle this. If you wanted to get both or one player, you could slide a guy like Duclair into the second line, or a guy like Barabonov, you can drop Tyler Bertuzzi down, slide David Kampf to the center in the fourth line, and even slide a guy like Max Domi into that third line center.

Or if you wanted to take the route of maybe putting Lender into the third line center, you could also try this as well. These are two guys, like I said, I think fit perfectly in this line. You have a guy like Anthony Duclair making 3 million, so it'd be roughly 1.5 if they wanted to retain half, and a guy like Barabonov, who at 2.5 half her team would be 1.25.

So you could fit these guys under the cap. You'd probably have to move a player out. I'm not sure if that's a player like Max Domi or Tyler Bertuzzi. The last real guy I can remember that the Leafs did acquire in free agency and actively moved was Daniel Winnick.

This was during a rebuilding years. So I'm not sure if the Leafs wanted to move on from a guy like Domi or Bertuzzi to help benefit another team just to make space. So these are guys that I think the Leafs will and should look at come trade deadline. And I think they're guys that could honestly just help benefit lines.

They could help them get better and just make the Leafs middle six and secondary scoring just look so much better than they currently do. Now, the big thing everyone does talk about, and that is the defenseman the Leafs have been actively looking at a right handed defenseman. I know there's been a lot of talk that fans aren't happy with how the defense looked so far.

We have a guy like Klingberg who in my opinion, will come around in his own, but he hasn't looked great defensively. A guy like Jake McCabe that has struggled a tiny bit throughout the season, and a guy like TJ Brodie that looks like he might be slowing down a tiny bit.

In my opinion, the Leafs defense does look good, but Brad Turliving has been actively looking at a defenseman. This defenseman is Vincent Desharnais. Vincent Desharnais is currently on the

Edmonton Oilers story. And this article did come out before Trellivan and the Leafs moved Sam Lafferty to the canucks. They did hold trade discussions with the Edmonton Oilers about Desharnais. The 27 year old right hander shot defenseman is six foot six and plays with edge. Two things Treliving absolutely loves So far, in four appearances this season, Desharnais hasn't recorded a point and has seen some significant time killing penalties.

The Oilers blue liner is a late bloomer, a former 7th round pick who only played 40 games in his career. This is something that Treliving did like. He obviously reached out to the Oilers and is a guy that he's seen a lot when he was with Calgary. The Oilers did play the Flames a lot, and this is a guy that I think would fit perfectly with a guy like Morgan Rielly.

When you look at Desharnais, as I said, he only does have 40 games. He is six foot, 6230 pounds. He's a guy that's physical. He's playing on the penalty kill right now in Edmonton. But the big problem with Edmonton right now is the slump they're on. Currently, the Oilers are one four and one.

They haven't looked great so far this season. They've had some defensive woes. They haven't really had a lot of offense going, and the goalies have struggled a tiny bit. This might be a situation where Ottawa wants to maybe look at a little change up and not a significant one, where you look at a move on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or any main player like this.

This would be a depth change that would kind of shake the roster up in a tiny way. You might be able to acquire a forward, a defenseman, maybe a prospect or pick to use for a bigger package. But overall, Desharnais is an interesting situation. We've seen last season when Luke Shem was acquired and Leafs did start playing him with Morgan Rielly.

That Rielly kind of feeds off these guys that are big, physical, can kind of let Rielly play his game of stepping up more. He could leave the defensive end a little early, and you have these guys that can stay back. They can clear the net. They can break up these two-on-ones if Rielly is cut out of position, and we've seen it work, as I said.

So if you look at the Leafs lines, you currently have Morgan Rielly, TJ. Brodie, jake McCabe, timothy lilljgren, mark giordano and john klingberg. When you look at this, as I said, I think Desharnais would fit perfect in that top line with Morgan Rielly. You could run a mix of Morgan Rielly and a guy like Desharnais.

You could slide TJ. Brodie back to his natural position, which is lefty. You could keep Timothy Liljegren and then maybe give Mark Giordano to a healthy scratch here and there. Drop jake McCabe down. Let him run with John Klingberg. The nice thing about Desharnais is his cap hits only 762,000.

This is a guy you could bring in for maybe some with maybe a prospect, depending on the situation. But it kind of gets weird in the log jam of you still have Connor Timmins that will be back from injury soon enough. You'd have to work out this cap space.

But in the situation of bringing this guy in as a 7th D, maybe even playing him as your 60 and giving Giordano a couple of rest games from here and there, I think it would be perfect for the Leafs team. You get a big, strong, physical defenseman, he can go on to your penalty kill.

He can still play a lot of five on five. It's a bit of a weird situation of him only having 40 career games, but when you look at this in a vacuum, he looks like a good player. He's a big player. He can clear the net. This is things that Leafs fans want to see from a defenseman that we haven't seen from our core that we have currently right now.

So I think this is a guy that they definitely need to call on. It's a guy that we've seen Treliving. He loves guys like this. He likes the big, physical, strong defensemen. He knows this guy from when he was playing up north in Canada. So this is the big thing.

I think he's a guy that the Leafs will be actively trying to acquire. I think if a deal is going to be done, it should be done sooner rather than later. With the Oilers probably in a situation where they might be scared and wanting to make this early season move just to shake things up.

Conor McDavid being out, the team not working, you need to make a trade like this. So this situation, like I said, it could be a Benoit and a pick. It could just be a pick for a guy like this. But I think this is the thing the Leafs do need to keep hammering down on.

And Desharnais would be a perfect acquisition for him. But saying that, we'll get into everyone's favorite topic, which is Comment of the Day. The comment of the day today comes from TJ. Rich. He says Samsonov is an elite class goaltender and he will bounce back at some point.

Woll is showing incredible skill. I look forward to this combo owning the league. I think Samsonov is just off to a rough start. Goalies are really into the mental thing of they need everything to go right if things start going wrong. Sometimes goalies falter a bit. I think Samsonov will get his footing.

We seen it was confirmed that Joseph Woll is starting tonight. If you're watching this today against Dallas, I think Joseph Woll will end up stealing the crease. But the problem with this well, not the problem with this, I should say, is if you have two goalies, if they both find their footing, wall looks incredible and Samsonov gets back to last season's form, you have two elite goalies.

You can run them as one A, one B, and it just helps stack this Leafs team of getting them more wins, pushing for the playoffs, getting the President's trophy, and just contending and winning the Stanley Cup. So I don't think it's a bad thing having two of these guys that can push you in games help you win games.

It's just a matter of when Samsonov gets his footing and how Joseph Wool continues his streak. But anyways, if you have any comments about any of this, what's your thoughts on Anthony Duclair, a guy like Barabonov? And are your thoughts on a guy like Desharnais and asking about Is from the Oilers?

Leave that down in the comments, make sure to like, subscribe, and we'll see you next time.

The Maple Leafs will need to work on lots of cap magic to get a trade like this to work, even with San Jose retaining. It will also be interesting to see how the lines would shake out should this come to fruition.

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