Joffrey Lupul is next up in our Trade Target series, a closer look players who could be dealt leading up to the March 2nd trade deadline. Written by Peter Harling, who can be found on twitter @pharling.
When the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Joffrey Lupul via trade from Anaheim, there is little doubt he was a cap dump from the Ducks. Lupul was a reclamation project in Toronto, but he has really turned things around and resurrected his NHL career.
With the Ducks he suffered from some pretty serious and career and life threatening injuries. When he finally recovered, he had lost his spot on the Ducks roster and was unable to regain the coaches confidence.
The wakeup call was received loud and clear, and in his first full season with the Leafs he rebounded with 25 goals and 42 assists for 67 points, and was named to the All-Star game. Unfortunately he was only healthy for 66 games. The lockout erased half of the following season as well as injuries limiting Lupul to just 16 games, but he produced 11 goals and seven assists. Last season started very strong with 10 points in 10 games before, yup you guessed it; injuries. To date this season, his offense has struggled. Lupul has nine goals and 10 assists and has only played in 33 games.
When healthy Lupul is a driving force for the Leafs offense, he has scored over 1.0 points per game in two seasons for the Leafs, but count on him missing between 20 and 30 games per season. He is a versatile winger that can play on either side and can set up as well as he can finish. Defense is perhaps not his forte, but it is also not an overwhelming liability either. He has average NHL size at 6’1” and 206 pounds and is a good bet in the shootout.
With the Leafs in teardown mode and building with picks and prospects, look to Lupul as a commodity they try to trade heading into the deadline. Lupul carries a $5.25 million cap hit through the next three seasons and at age 31, is a veteran that they just won’t really need between now and when the youth arrives, so it makes a lot of sense to look for a trade now. With term remaining on his contract, Lupul is not going to be a rental player and expect the Leafs to attempt to leverage that for a higher return.
Trading Lupul may not be easy. His injury history would certainly be one red flag, while his $5.25 cap hit for the next three years until he turns 34 is potentially another. The Leafs have also been saying they are unwilling to retain salary on players they trade away, a wise decision but one that makes consummating trading expensive players challenging. Lupul also has a modified no trade clause in his contract which allows him to select 14 teams in which he may be traded to. As much as Toronto may wish to trade Lupul, there just may not be a fit between now and the March 2nd deadline.
If Lupul is traded, he could easily provide top six scoring depth for a team looking for some extra offensive punch. There has been recent speculation that the Montreal Canadiens and the Leafs are possibly working on a big trade and that Montreal is not necessarily after a rental, rather to make a hockey trade. Montreal GM Marc Bergevin sought offensive help at the deadline last year acquiring winger Thomas Vanek and may still see that as an area of opportunity for this year’s team. Lupul would easily fill any perceived hole on the right wing, and Montreal has some interesting prospects they could trade if they feel they are a legit Stanley Cup contender.
Elliotte Friedman radio hit on Feb. 23rd – Sportnet 960 – mentions the Canadiens, Bruins and Penguins as potential landing spots. Transcribed here.
From Domenic Galamini @MimicoHero – Joffrey Lupul has always been a really interesting case. Consistently high on-ice Sh%, low on-ice Sv%…
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