According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, the Toronto Maple Leafs are now expected to widen their scope when it comes to the March 6 Trade Deadline. Friedman reported this last night as part of his Saturday Headlines during the second intermission of the Maple Leafs versus Ottawa Senators game on Hockey Night in Canada.
This comes as the Maple Leafs have lost three straight games and have looked awful since the NHL returned from the Olympic break. It’s not just that those three losses put them further behind in the playoff race. It’s how they lost. It was in very embarrassing fashion, game after game. The players look disinterested and like they are blocking out the coaches’ message. So now it appears that they are preparing to have more of a fire sale at the deadline than most of us expected.
Maple Leafs Expand Tradable List
It should be an interesting next few days for the Maple Leafs. They are going to look to expand who is available on the trade market. As of right now, we know they are shopping their unrestricted free agents (UFAs), but now it’s going to be more than that. Including players that carry term on their contracts, and some of them are going to be very tradable deals.
Here’s what Friedman had to say on his segment on Saturday night.
“A lot of the talk was about the UFAs, and what they could do, but the word around the Maple Leafs now is that they’re widening their scope of what they’d consider. I don’t think it is anything like Matthews or Nylander — I don’t think we’re talking about anything like that — but the word around the league is that they’re widening their ideas of what they may consider. They are talking a bit more about players with term,”
If they decide to expand their list, that is going to include players like Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nicolas Roy, and Simon Benoit. Depending on how far they want to go, it could also include names like Max Domi, Morgan Rielly, and Anthony Stolarz.
Related: 2 Takeaways From the Maple Leafs’ 5-2 Loss to the Senators
The biggest question is, do they want general manager Brad Treliving running the front office as they enter a very quick retool? Or do they prefer him selling the UFA assets and a few contracts with term that can recoup assets? And then finish the retool in the summer with a new GM? Well, history has shown that Treliving doesn’t have the best track record with retools. Look at his time with the Calgary Flames after Matthew Tkachuk was traded. Remember anything? It’s very, very similar to what happened with the Maple Leafs after Mitch Marner was dealt. He failed to find an adequate replacement, and it hurt the Maple Leafs this season.
So as they look to expand who could be on their trade block, the question now becomes how far does it truly go, and who is heading the retool after the 2025-26 season?
