Leafs Trade Rumors

08 Mar 2026 12:47:37
So my post today will focus on a move that I would make to hopefully get us closer to the SC.

I didn’t give the name of my forward in yesterday’s Robertson trade but some of you no doubt guessed it was Jan Chovan.

It follows my post of yesterday and also speaks to LeafsGM78 idea of Rielly buyout.

I want to emphasize he posted the caveat that Rielly must be willing to waive his no trade clause.

The Leafs Must get Rielly to waive for 2 reasons: a buyout while an okay strategy gets us nothing back for the asset and secondly we will carry a $2m cap hit for 8 years!

So the strategy we Must pursue is a trade and methinks our negotiation base is very weak so we will likely be disappointed by our return.

We Must take the attitude of being happy with a cap savings to reinvest in players that will move us forward plus the strong belief that part of our porous defence will be improved.



Several choices exist to me.

First is of course Vancouver, his hometown and a team that might feel the need for offence from their D corps after losing Hughes. In return be very happy with a 2026 R2 plus Aiden Celebrini, a 22yo 6.1 195lb RD who is a plus skater with good physicality and excellent play reading ability.

My second choice is SJS, who desperately need D help in any form for a 2026 R2 plus Egor Afnasayev, a 25yo 6.4 212lb offensive winger with a great shot good speed but not as quick as I’d like.

If neither of these can be done, see if Calgary will give us a R2 & R4 in 2026.

Thanks for reading.

08 Mar 2026 15:02:57
You are getting nothing back for Rielly! No asset, only another bad contract, if you can trade him at all. It may be better to buy him out.

08 Mar 2026 15:52:32
I would not consider a buyout simply because some team will grab him and we will have to absorb $2m for 8 years!

Find the team that will give us something! That can’t be impossible m4l.

SJS have only 6 current NHL Dmen.

08 Mar 2026 17:43:58
The trick, Randy, is finding a place #1 that will take him. #2, that place also has to be a place he will waive his rights to go to. Also, with Tessa Virtue's career it also has to be a fit. She is an Executive Advisor with Deloitte and has been for 5 years. So that narrows it down. Obviously the largest office would be Toronto and that won't work for trading him. Montreal and Vancouver are huge offices as well, both at over 100,000 Sq feet occupying multi floors in Office Buildings.

Vancouver could be the one destination that would be a good fit for them as a couple. Now it would come down to what, if anything, we could pry from them and if they would take the whole salary. It could be possible that we might have to give him away just for the contract and a 2 or 3rd rounder. If we have to retain $2.5 or $3 to get a prospect we might as well just do the buy out and take on the $1.5 or $2 million. Tricky situation.

08 Mar 2026 18:22:24
Yes, those requirements are necessary to move Rielly.

For me, I don’t buy him out if he won’t waive. I can’t see paying someone $2m for 8 years and watching them play on another team.



I’ll keep him and practice every day and hopefully teach him how to improve his defence. Small things like tying up a player’s stick in front of the net and how to block out someone driving to the net.

08 Mar 2026 21:39:23
Here is first of my offseason moves, part reuild and part retool. I am a firm believer that you still need a somewhat competitive Defense Corp to stabilize a youth movement up front.

Pittsburgh gets: Matthews
Carlo
Nick Robertson
Our 2 3rds from 2026

Toronto gets: Karlsoon
Brunicke
Zonnon
Horcoff
1st for 2026

Then we go hard for Rasmus Andersson as Free Agent and try to get him for $8.5.

By the time the deals are done other the Salary is almost a wash other than if we insert the young guys right away we are a extra $ 3 million roughly. Then we have a few new young bodies on the d-line with some experience and a some good puck movers and experienced Power play d-men that could still create offense even with young bodies up front.



We would still try to move Reilly of course. But our D-corp would be.

OEL with Brunicke
Karlsson with Andersson
McCabe with Danford
Benoit and Stecher at reasonable prices as spare d-men

Horcoff is a huge body Centreman and Bill Zonnon is power forward in the Q that can play wing and Centre. He is really strong.

My first of a few possible Matthews deals. He would like to play with Sid and it gives them another option if they don't sign Malkin.

08 Mar 2026 21:44:03
Or we find a mysterious injury to put Reilly on LTIR and dress Tessa in his place at league minimum. Hey!!!! In her prime she was a faster skater than him anyway lol.

08 Mar 2026 22:24:10
I’ve seen and do like everything about Zonnon.

I’d love to have Horcoff, a huge player with speed, skill and IQ.

Brunicke is also very good prospect.

The 1st is obvious.

Karlsson is to balance salary.

I feel like it’s one piece short.

I’m having real trouble understanding trade values after the TDL, to me there’s little to zero consistency.

08 Mar 2026 23:43:09
Karlsson is not just a Salary Balance but he still puts up good points and has really tightened up his defensive side of the game. Plus if we keep OEL and at Karlsson our chances of wooing Andersson increase. Those 3 guys are one half of the Starting d on the Swedish Olympic team.

I figure that Carlo, Robertson and the 2 3rds are the Karlsson trade off and Zonnon, Horcoff, Brunicke and the 1st are Matthews Trade. The way he has not produced of late that is a good deal. Zonnon and Horcoff were 1sts that have have some development time, Brunicke slipped through but should have been a 1st and without a doubt was our best d man at the WJC and didn't look bad in his NHL audition.

and of course the actual 1st round pick. That is basically 3 1sts and a very early 2nd pick that should have been a 1st. It's a good start. We would still be rebuilding but at least it won't be massice blowouts with that Defense.

Was thinking too RandySears that Seattle with that short bunny hop plane flight to Vancouver for Work purposes for Reilly's wife would also be a attractive option for a trade he might accept. 2 fold actually. It works for her career and by going to Seattle he takes a pay hike with Washington being a tax free state. He would be taking home anywhere from $1.1 to $1.5 million a year extra. We could pry away a prospect or 2 there?

07 Mar 2026 16:18:09
While the Leafs did pick up some assets, a bit underwhelming overall. Thought they got higher value on Roy, but slightly lower value on McMann.

That being said, off-season and draft day is what to look forward to.

Draft day trade

To SEA: D - M. Rielly

To TOR: 2026 1st + 2027 3rd

Looked at both the Carlson and Faulk trades, both went for a 1st and 3rd. So comparable.

Re-sign Stecker

Leafs D for next year

OEL Carlo
McCabe Tanev
Benoit Stecker
Myers

With the 1st draft best available Defenseman, preferably LHD.

07 Mar 2026 16:15:40
Don't ever put Reilly and Carlson in the same conversation. Carlson is in a different league.

07 Mar 2026 16:31:30
Reilly is the worst defenseman on a non playoff team. I would be happy for a 5th round pick and save his cap space. The Leafs cannot win with Reilly playing more than 00.0 minutes.

07 Mar 2026 23:47:49
Rielly comparable to Carlson and Faulk?
Are you sure you’re following the same Leaf team as the rest of us?
Rielly is more comparable to Benoit and Myers than Carlson or Faulk.

08 Mar 2026 03:29:30
I’m not sure we will ever see Tanev again; if true it’s too bad. A true warrior.

We need to make big changes to our D corps; it’s bad, so we will need to change it up significantly.

I see zero need to resign Stecher. He’s been fine, but remember we are not making the playoffs, so why on earth would we keep a 32 yo 5.10 184lb defenceman who has played for 6 different teams!

Yes, he’s paid only $787k, but I’d rather use that amount as part of the increase in salary that behemoth Logan Stanley will demand as a UFA.


And that’s if the Sabres don’t resign him!

07 Mar 2026 15:23:58
I am not trying to defend Tre.
But honestly guys, take a look at the returns for players this year. Weegar didn't even get a 1st in the return. Panarin didn't. There were only about a handful of 1sts handed out and many are conditional.
Like it or not, the returns the Leafs got were on par to the higher end of returns for comparables.

07 Mar 2026 14:35:50
Mr. Positivity. Defend him all you want. He is the reason we’re in this. And it started from getting Maccelli last off season. If you couldn’t get a 1st for Bobby then why not resign him?? Missing that guy is gonna be huge next year. This team is slow and heartless. He built that. Where is the toughness? He promised a change in identity but we didn’t know it was gonna mean softer and slower.

Let’s call this what it is RLF, he is good at making team friendly financial deals for sure. But he is not a hockey mind. He doesn’t know what it takes to make a team well rounded and whole. He is like my wife, if it’s a good enough sale he buys it, doesn’t matter what the product looks like. Berube and Tre need to go as fast as possible. 0% creativity in any of his moves.

07 Mar 2026 15:13:21
Roy did right, got a 1st for him. No excuse why we didn’t for McMann — absolutely ridiculous. Why not sign him at that point and trade him later. Honestly, can’t remember a GM who’s set a team back more in my lifetime and I was born in the 70’s.

07 Mar 2026 16:27:36
@RLF,
I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree.

Roy deal was great (even better than what he paid for Laughton last year).

OEL strategy was perfectly fine. Tre sets a price and sticks to it till the end of TDL day. And this works because OEL has term, so not desperate to trade him.

McMann & Laughton (both UFA's).
Again, perfectly fine to set a price for them. But, you don't wait till end of TDL. He became desperate at that point and took whatever he could get ffs.
He had to set his own deadline way before 3 p.m., especially seeing the way the day was going.

Set a 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. deadline and take your best offer at that time.
McCarron (a pure 4th liner) gets a 2nd. You trying to tell me Laughton couldn't have gotten a 2nd minimum (without condition)?

IMO Tre backed himself into a corner and got what he could at that point.
He traded what he had to trade, which I will give him some credit for (but he definitely lost out on possibly another 2nd or even 3rd for McMann and a definite 2nd with I believe a 4th for Laughton).
Unfortunately, the retention angle for contracts just wasn't out there this year, even though we had ample cap space.

07 Mar 2026 16:32:09
Clarky. I started with "not defending" him, so saying "defend him all you want" and taking your little shots is ridiculous.
I don't care if you blame Tre 100%.
My point was strictly on the returns he got. You say McMann was easily worth a 1st. Then Tre would have taken that offer. Obviously no one was willing to give one.

07 Mar 2026 16:49:28
People might disagree with me and I am sure some will and some won't. Considering Weegar had control over where he would be traded, I think the Flames did extremely well with the trade. Castagna is playing quite well for Cornell and has good size.

Maatta was a good strategic pick up as he has had great career analytics as a true defensefive defenseman and wirth the Flames have Parekh looking to play fulltime with the team I can see Maatta being his partner and Parekh forgets what "Defense" part of Defenceman man means the majority of the time.

Now.... the 3 2nd round picks they got were awesome especially the Rangers 2nd that Utah possessed. If the season ended today that is the number 35 overall pick and the Flames also have the number 34 pick that is like having 2 late first rounders almost. So with the 3 2nd round picks and already having their own along with 2 1st round picks. The Flames now have 8 of the first 66 picks in this years draft. To put into perspective. Right now our first pick is #75 right now.

07 Mar 2026 17:35:10
The problem with the returns are they were all next year. My issue really was Laughton; he’s worth more than a 3rd, plus he hung onto guy in this blueline. Why Kampf got a pick, Jarnkrok couldn’t fetch that. When it comes down to it, Tre should of made the moves at Christmas, not at 255.

07 Mar 2026 23:39:37
Sherwood went for 2 2nds. Foegele who scored over 20 the two previous years went for a 2nd. McMann a 2nd and 4th.
Sherwood hits more and also pk's and having a career year so got a bit more. Foegele having a down year, so he got less. If Sherwood didn't get a 1st we'll before the deadline, why was McMann a guaranteed 1st?
I'm not defending Tre, and I fully expect him and Berube to be fired.


What makes me laugh is all the guys pretending this isn't the kind of team they wanted and when the season went bad, acting like this isn't what they wanted.

07 Mar 2026 01:12:24
Well, that was a disappointing (depressing) trade deadline.
A late 2027 - 1st (Roy)
A 2027 - 2nd (McMann)
A 2026 - 3rd (Laughton)

Hopefully Treliving won’t survive this mess he has created.
Berube isn't a youth/development coach and must be replaced.
I think Leafs fans are in for a long rebuild.
Hopefully MLSE pick the right man for the job this time.

07 Mar 2026 10:31:17
So my buddy and his kid who played in the show said they were watching the scenario over the last few weeks and he was talking to his agent getting his opinion on how things went. Interesting take on it actually.

He said Colorado pretty much had a deal in place with Calgary with Kadri but it was a constant back and forth on what the pieces would be, so in case it fell apart they jumped on Nicolas Roy to ensure they had a hard forechecker and good faceoff guy for the stretch and the playoffs. Then if the Kadri deal came together they were set down the middle even if they had an injury.

The McMann one is the frustrating one. His feedback from his group of sources was the Leafs had 4 to 5 offers of a 1st round pick right after the Calgary, Edmonton games when McMann had a goal in each. Then the next day was Roster Freeze. Apparently Leafs wanted a prospect as well. They decided to hold out, and then McMann went 4 games after the Olympics with no goals and the offers by the third game for a 1st were off the table.

McMann was not dressed for the last 2 games for fear of injury leading to trade deadline, that was one part of the reasoning the other fear was if he had gone another 2 games with no goals he may not have even been in play for a trade at all.

Not as much insight into the Laughton deal but word was they had an early offer of a 2nd and a 3rd but held off and trying for a better deal. They waited too long and got backed into a corner. Hence all we got was a 3rd rounder.

So in essence the only good deal we really got was the Roy one and that was because Colorado really wanted a backup plan for Kadri.

Colorado is going to be a rough team to match up against down the middle. (Like they weren't already lol) Now it's McKinnon, Kadri, Nelson (Could flip those either way as number 2 or number 3 center) Roy as the 4th line center, with either Parker Kelly or Jack Drury drawing in on the 4th line as a winger in case another centre goes down with injury.

07 Mar 2026 14:21:00
You have conveniently also left out the 5th for Roy, the 4th for McMann and that if LA makes the playoffs Laughton pick becomes a 2nd.
I'm not saying this was a great trade deadline by any means.

Honestly, what did we expect for Laughton? Berube played him as a 4th liner. A 2nd or 3rd for a 4th liner is a decent return.

McMann, sure I would have loved a 1st. But there wasn't alot of 1sts handed out in general.
Roy - 2027, Chicago only got one (2027) because they took on Mangi, otherwise they weren't getting one for both Dickinson and Dach.

Wash got a 1st and 3rd for Carlson, one of the best D in the League. Blues got a conditional 1st for Schenn and a 1st for Faulk. Flames got a conditional 1st for Kadri in 28.
That's it. And people think McMann should easily have been a 1st+? So what Carlson got? Not likely.
The 1st and 5th for Roy was a great return based on what other players returns were. Even Panarin, an over point a game player, didn't get a 1st.
Can't only look at what the Leafs got as returns, have to look at the whole picture.

07 Mar 2026 14:42:15
What you mean Panarin didn’t get a 1st? They got Greentree, which is even better then a 1st.

07 Mar 2026 16:10:55
Panarin is over a point per game player. Last year even, that would have been Greentree and a 1st. Weegar easily would have been a 1st+

07 Mar 2026 16:59:34
Didn't conveniently leave them out as that was not the gist of the post. Was just relaying what I was given for background on how the getting greedy and not pulling the trigger took away from the initial offerings. Tre does not read the market that well. It's how he funbled the Huberdeau signing. He was so desperate to show the world Calgary could keep and sign players after losing Tkachuk and Gaudreau.

He offered $2 million more than what Huberdeau's camp was hoping to get. I have yet to hear of a agent that says...." No you guys are offering to much" lol

Anyway deadline is done. Let's move on to our Spring Meetings of the Leaf GM's at large and find a way to fix this mess.

07 Mar 2026 23:19:58
I wasn't referring to you, L1967. It was WB49 who left out the picks. Not sure why you assumed that was for you, as you weren't the original poster.

08 Mar 2026 01:34:02
@ RLF No offense taken. Guess because you posted right after my post.It gets confusing some on some of the more active posts. Thats why I try to tag posters now.

08 Mar 2026 21:19:57
The reason Panarin didn’t get more is because he’s an older forward, had no term and will cost too much to resign.
LAK want him for this year only and paid accordingly.
Weegar got a haul IMO, a serviceable veteran, a prospect and three 2nds!
We got nothing like that.
Treliving at the TDL was categorically overmatched and out-negotiated.
He cannot remain in his current position!

08 Mar 2026 23:47:46
LA actually signed him for 2 more years at $11 Million each year the day they traded for him, Randy.

06 Mar 2026 12:59:42
After last night's game against New York it’s clear we are several players away from a legitimate playoff run. Auston has been good for us but it’s time to let him go to start the rebuild. Auston looks like he wants out. He is the only player that we can trade that can keep this rebuild under 5 years.

So I’m proposing the following:

To St. Louis
Auston Matthews
3rd round pick 2027

To Toronto
Robert Thomas
Logan Mailloux
2026 First Round Pick (Top 5 protected)

Keep Nylander and Knies. Try to resign Laughton. Give the “C” back to Tavares.
Trade Reilly in the offseason for a D prospect and pick.

06 Mar 2026 12:07:20
Trade Nylander before anyone else. If you want a change in identity, that’s where you start.

06 Mar 2026 12:31:00
Trade both Nylander and Mathews!
One to LA, the other to Utah.
Players coming back…
Byfield, Clarke, Guenther, Crouse, Iginla
1st, 2nd plus.
Then flip the picks and one or two players to St Louis for Thomas!
We will be competitive next year!

06 Mar 2026 13:11:56
Matthews alone gets more.