Insider Believes Maple Leafs Targeting Centre Via Trade

The Toronto Maple Leafs hope to have more success in their 2024-25 campaign than last season, where they were eliminated in round one of the playoffs. As their fanbase continued to worry about their postseason consistency, the team had a massive offseason signing Chris Tanev, Anthony Stolarz, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson in hopes of bolstering their depth on the blue line and between the pipes, and they have all played well giving fans a reason to be excited as the postseason inches closer. With the team looking stronger this season, it seems as though they aren’t quite finished making acquisitions, as a recent report indicates they may be targeting a centre via trade.

In a recent 32 Thoughts column, insider Elliotte Friedman shed some light on a potential move the Maple Leafs are eyeing, mentioning that the team could be considering moving former captain John Tavares to the wing and bringing in a new centre. While he doesn’t directly mention any specific targets for the team if they’re truly trying to add someone up the middle, they will still likely have to move some money out if they want to make an acquisition. Realistically, there are plenty of affordable options at centre around the league from rebuilding teams that will sell at the 2025 Trade Deadline, but the team may be willing to move some pieces around to make a deal work.

According to PuckPedia, the Maple Leafs have just over $2.2 million in cap space with David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok on long-term injured reserve (LTIR), and could still fit exactly $2,246,563 at the trade deadline. They might be able to convince a team to retain salary in hopes of taking on a stronger player with a higher cap hit, but it will be tough with their lack of draft capital. The team doesn’t have their first-round pick in 2025, their second-round pick in 2026, and no fourth-round picks until 2027. While a trade could be difficult, there are still some realistic targets around the league that are pretty enticing adds.

Maple Leafs Could Have Several Different New Options at Centre

There are plenty of rebuilding teams around the NHL that have enticing options up the middle, the most interesting being the Nashville Predators. The Preds, who have been shockingly bad to start their 2024-25 campaign, could look to make some changes in hopes of finding the playoffs again next season. One option that makes perfect sense is a reunion with veteran centre Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly, who is 33 years old, has scored seven goals and added 10 assists for 17 points through 28 games this season. He has 1101 NHL games under his belt scoring 289 goals and adding 499 assists for 788 points. He had a short stint with the Maple Leafs in the 2022-23 season where he scored four goals and added seven assists for 11 points through 13 games.

The main issue with O’Reilly is his cap hit which comes in at $4.5 million, and he is extended through the 2026-27 season. While the Maple Leafs could make it work with the Predators retaining 50% of his cap hit in a trade, the Preds won’t likely be willing to do that. If the Maple Leafs could get Ryan Reaves’ $1.35 million cap hit off the books and trade one more player, this deal could come to fruition. However, there might be too many moving parts for this deal to be possible at all.

Another option could be Philadelphia Flyers’ Morgan Frost, who only has a $2.1 million cap hit and has seemingly fallen out of order with head coach John Tortorella. Frost, who is 25 years old, has scored four goals and added eight assists for 12 points through 27 games this season. Throughout his career, he has scored 43 goals and added 79 assists for 122 points through 256 games. If the Maple Leafs continued to utilize the LTIR, they could bring in Frost without having to move money out, the only issue is the potentially high asking price for a young player with a high upside.

There will be other options available heading toward the 2025 Trade Deadline. Calgary Flames’ Nazem Kadri is an interesting possibility but his cap hit could cause issues, Ottawa Senators’ Josh Norris could be enticing but the asking price may scare away any team looking to acquire him, as well as Brock Nelson, Yanni Gourde, Scott Laughton, and Mikael Granlund being solid options to consider. It seems like the Maple Leafs want to make a move, and time will tell if they decide to pull the trigger on something before or at the trade deadline on March 7th, 2025.

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