Prior to Friday, Toronto Maple Leafs’ captain Auston Matthews came out and stated that he would love to see a boost to the Maple Leafs lineup heading into the home stretch of the season.
Now that the NHL Trade Deadline has passed, Matthews says he’s happy with the deadline the team had and the acquisitions that general manager Brad Treliving made to finalize their group ahead of another tough playoff run.
Subtle compared to others in the tough Atlantic Division, the Maple Leafs brought in two players to bump up their depth and special teams — something that many noted the team would be after heading into Friday.
Maple Leafs Acquire Depth in Laughton, Carlo
Leading up to the deadline, the Maple Leafs were rumoured to be one of the teams included in the Scott Laughton sweepstakes. Born in Oakville, just outside of Toronto, it seemed fitting that the Maple Leafs would acquire another local kid.
With Laughton, the Maple Leafs did have to give up a conditional first-round pick and prospect Nikita Grebyonkin, but for a team that needs to take advantage of where they sit in the standings, the acquisition of the 20th overall pick in 2012 made sense.
He will likely slot in as the team’s third line centre and offers some offensive production while being an extremely capable defensive-minded player. He kills penalties and that alone can grab some minutes back from players like Matthews and Mitch Marner who can then focus on providing that elite-level offence come playoff time.
As for Brandon Carlo, the 28-year-old not only comes over with term on his contract, but he brings size and physicality that the Maple Leafs will love to see in the playoffs — especially going up against teams within their division like the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
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Carlo’s size also makes him a tough defender to go around as his reach is much like that of former teammate Zdeno Chara. Much like Laughton, Carlo offers the team more protection in their own end and a physical presence that will make opposing players think twice about dumping it into his corner — oh, and let’s not forget that it will also give more room for Morgan Rielly to start playing more of his game as well.
Matthews Happy With the Laughton, Carlo Acquisitions
Every year the Maple Leafs have made a move or two that has looked good on paper, but that hasn’t panned out for the team. The Ryan O’Reilly move and the Nick Foligno trade come to mind when we discuss that.
But with term on both of these contracts as well as salary retention, this may be one of the better trade deadlines the Maple Leafs and their fans have seen in recent memory. More importantly, it’s one that leaves the Maple Leafs’ captain happy knowing what his group looks like heading into playoffs.
“Two good players,” Matthews said of the newly acquired Maple Leafs. “I actually know both of them decently well, so it’s exciting for them to come join the team. I think they’ll definitely give us, like I said the other day, an extra boost. They’re good players and we’ll go from there.”
Matthews did a camp in Florida a number of years ago with Laughton and had the chance to fly back to Toronto with the former Philadelphia Flyers forward. He noted that he had a chance to get to know Laughton during that time and connect with the new Maple Leafs centre.
As for Carlo, Matthews played with him in the World Junior Championship. He confirmed that Carlo is an ‘awesome, awesome guy’ who’s hard to play against and notes that he’s happy to have him on his side of the ice now.
“I’m happy with what we did today,” he said regarding the acquisitions. “I think our group, in general, we’v got a lot of good pieces and got a lot of good parts and I’m happy with the way we’ve obviously been playing this year. A little slide lately, we just have to clean stuff up. I think we have a lot of confidence in this group. Add a couple of really good players and bringing them into the fold and just continue to build chemistry.”
Can the Maple Leafs Compete in the Atlantic?
The Atlantic Division was already one of the strongest in the NHL. This deadline shifted Seth Jones and Brad Marchand to the Panthers among others. It saw the Tampa Bay Lightning re-acquire Yanni Gourde and add Oliver Bjorkstrand.
With the Maple Leafs acquiring Carlo and Laughton, the question now is whether or not they can compete in Atlantic Division and go on a deep playoff run. Ultimately, the Maple Leafs added depth as much as the other two teams atop the division. Sure, Matthew Tkachuk’s future this season is up in the air and that could change a lot, but the Maple Leafs added where they needed to add — similar to the other clubs.
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Of the three, the Maple Leafs might have one of the deeper backends. Up front, there are certainly some question marks as to who can step up. But, Matthews noted in his media availability that they have confidence in the team they were before the deadline.
While they lost roster players in Conor TImmins and Connor Dewar, the Maple Leafs actually added without much subtraction to their roster. Matthews is obviously happy with the changes and likely feels as though they can compete come playoff time. While only playing the games will determine a successful deadline or not, it’s safe to say that Treliving made the moves that his team needed to compete in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
