Kyle Dubas and his trade assets
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: The offseason means Kyle Dubas talking about what he needs to do to improve the Toronto Maple Leafs. Included in that was his thought process on the Kasperi Kapanen trade.
Now, what does he do with that 15th overall pick? Lots of questions abound. What may be more significant is the 11 picks that Toronto has in the draft.
“We have picks, and a lot of them are later on,” Dubas said. “Our organization has felt that we have to… really, really try to hone our focus on making sure we make the most of those picks because they’re going to be imperative to the future progress of our program.”
Again, it is great to have options but now it will be what Dubas does with them. What this does give the general manager is a flexibility to trade up or down depending on the situations that may arise next week. With hitting on Nick Robertson, Dubas has the luxury of moving that top pick. Time will tell as to what he does.
Braden Schneider and Dylan Holloway could be targets for the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager. Either way, expect a lot of fireworks in the next ten days.
Kyle Dubas and the Toronto Maple Leafs trade tiers?
James Mirtle of The Athletic: A condensed time period leading up to free agency expects to lead to some unexpected moves. The most likely asset from the top tier involves the 15th overall pick. Mirtle ascertains that this has a 50% chance or a coin flip of happening. That is followed by a 10% chance with the 2021 first round pick. Every other scenario involves single digits which makes them almost not worth mentioning.
Frederik Andersen is another potential trade option. Yes, even with signings there is still enough of a market on Andersen. Kyle Dubas and Toronto can always circle back and find a younger goaltender or one with more long-term potential. Then, there are the tertiary tiers with Andreas Johansson being a possible trade casualty. After all, Toronto has to free up cap space somewhere and Johansson has been a target for some time.