The Toronto Maple Leafs have made one move, and several more could happen today
NHL Media: David Pagnotta, when asked about how deep the Toronto Maple Leafs selling could go, and what is their strategy? Tank as much as they can?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Corey Schneider: “They’ve already begun the sell-off with Nicolas Roy being traded. But how, A) How deep is this sell-off going to go?
And B) What is their strategy here? Because they don’t own their first-round pick. It’s going to Boston, unless it’s in the top five. So are they going to try to race to the bottom to get into the top five, hopefully, and keep that pick? Because the last thing you want to do is give a division rival a top-10 pick, potentially.
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Pagnotta: “Yeah, it’s not exactly ideal, Schneid’s, they don’t really want that. But what they are doing, and it looks like they want to sell off as many assets as they can and collect as many pieces as they can as part of it.
And they’re also getting into some interesting conversations about some of their other players. We’ll dive into that in a quick second. But in addition to that, and trying to stockpile some picks and potentially prospects.
They want to retool for next season. So they understand where they are this year. It hasn’t worked out by any stretch. So let’s go out there and let’s see if we can get another first-round pick or a couple seconds for Bobby McMahon, can we get a second-round pick, plus for Scott Laughton. Can we get a first-round pick and more assets for Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Troy Stecher is in the mix. Steven Lorentz has generated interest.
There are other players as well that, that are in play for this team. Brandon Carlo. Let’s see where else, Matias Maccelli, Max Domi, they’re listing on a variety of guys.
The interesting, the two interesting names that are, that have popped up over the course of this week have been Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly. And two different scenarios. Knies and his new, brand new contract. Morgan Rielly has the full no-trade capability, similar to Parayko has with St Louis. But there are some names that are popping up and some teams curious if they could pry, at least Knies out of Toronto.
Now, I think if Toronto is going to consider this seriously, it’s going to have to be a blockbuster-esque type of move for them to even consider having those discussions or entertaining them. But there are some teams curious about Knies availability.
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At the same time, as I mentioned, Morgan Rielly’s name has popped up. My gut says this is probably something more geared towards the summer, with respect to Knies, excuse me, with respect to Rielly. But there are some conversations out there. I would go back to Anaheim, another team looking for D, and I wouldn’t be surprised about San Jose either. There’s been some interest there.
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