The Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking to buy at the 2024 Trade Deadline. They haven’t quite lived up to expectations and find themselves fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive as after a big win over the St. Louis Blues, they sit fourth in the Atlantic Division with 62 points and hold the first Eastern Conference wild-card spot. As a team with high hopes heading into the postseason, it isn’t a surprise that they have recently been linked to several players on rebuilding teams. They will surely be looking to bolster their lineup before the March 8 deadline date, but there are a couple of names they should look to avoid acquiring.
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Noah Hanifin and Matt Dumba are both pending unrestricted free agents (UFAs) who are playing for teams that are on the playoff bubble. Hanifin plays for the Calgary Flames — who recently decided to move on from superstar forward Elias Lindholm and trade him to the Vancouver Canucks — which proved they were willing to sell assets for the right price. Dumba plays for the Arizona Coyotes who have found unexpected success this season, but have fallen back out of a playoff spot. With a 23-24-4 record, they are eight points out of a wild-card spot and seem to be slipping out of a postseason berth yet again.
While the Maple Leafs will surely be looking to upgrade their blue line before the deadline, there is no reason for them to go after either Dumba or Hanifin, but for different reasons. Dumba has a decent contract but isn’t the best defensive player, while the asking price from the Flames for Hanifin is expected to be extremely high, especially if the Lindholm trade is any indication of what they’ll be looking for.
Matt Dumba
Dumba is a 29-year-old right-shot defender from Regina, Saskatchewan who stands 6-feet, weighs 181 pounds, and was drafted in the first round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild 7th overall. In his junior career, Dumba played in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Red Deer Rebels and Portland Winterhawks. In his draft year, Dumba scored 20 goals and added 37 assists for 57 points through 69 games. He would return the following season where he scored 16 goals and added 26 assists for 42 points through 62 games, even earning three games in the American Hockey League (AHL) where he had no points, but gave him his first taste of professional hockey. He was traded to the Winterhawks in the 2013-14 season and finished his season with them.
Over parts of five seasons in the WHL, Dumba scored 59 goals and added 92 assists for 151 points through 225 games which comes out to a 0.67 points-per-game average. He established himself quickly as a solid offensive-minded defenceman but wasn’t able to find a strong defensive game at the NHL level. Through 645 games in the NHL as of writing this article, Dumba has scored 82 goals and added 160 assists for 242 points which comes out to a 0.38 points-per-game average.
In the above player card, we see Dumba does not have a great impact on the defensive side of the game. Between 2020 and 2023, he wasn’t able to find any type of solid defensive game and became a liability with the Wild before they opted to let him walk as a UFA. He might be better off in a third-pairing role with less ice time, but throughout his career he has proven that he isn’t the most ideal option. If he was available for under $1 million and the Maple Leafs were interested, this would be a different story. However, he currently has a $3.9 million cap hit with the Coyotes, and should be avoided at all costs.
Dumba doesn’t provide more than the Maple Leafs’ current defensive lineup. They will surely be looking to upgrade defensively — especially with the risk of injuries in the postseason — but Dumba is not someone they should be willing to spend assets on to bring in, even if the Coyotes were willing to retain 50% of his contract for the remainder of the season.
Noah Hanifin
Hanifin is a much stronger defenceman, but there is a different reason he should be avoided. He is a 27-year-old, left-shot defender from Boston, Massachusetts who stands 6-foot-3, and weighs in at 216 pounds. He was drafted in the first round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes 5th overall after a strong showing in the NCAA with Boston College where he scored five goals and added 18 assists for 23 points through 37 games. In his rookie season with the Hurricanes, Hanifin scored four goals and added 18 assists for 22 points through 79 games and immediately made an impact at both ends of the ice.
Hanifin has a $4.95 million cap hit which expires at the conclusion of this season, which is a very affordable contract for plenty of teams. If the Lindholm deal is any indication of what the Flames are looking for in return for their pending free agents, the Maple Leafs have to avoid it and look elsewhere. There is no guarantee Hanifin would sign an extension with the Maple Leafs, so for them to give up three or more assets — which they got from the Canucks for Lindholm — for a potential rental asset makes zero sense.
Hopefully, the Maple Leafs make the right moves and bring in some affordable upgrades. There will be plenty of players available before the deadline, so the Maple Leafs will need to get active in the trade market sooner rather than later if they want any chance of outbidding other teams for certain players. If they play it right and make the right moves, they could make a push for their first Stanley Cup since 1967.
