Maple Leafs’ Trade Deadline Departures Are Thriving in New Homes

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Players moved in the frenzy of activity heading up to the NHL trade deadline have now had nearly a month to settle in with their new club. Peter Baracchini recently broke down the early contributions of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ deadline acquisitions, praising how quickly Brandon Carlo has adapted to his new surroundings while acknowledging the longer transition period that Scott Laughton has required.

While the Maple Leafs’ additions have solidified themselves for what the team hopes is a deep playoff run, trades are mostly evaluated based on incoming value – both short- and long-term – relative to the acquisition cost. It’s great to bring in helpful, productive supporting assets, but not at the expense of trading away young talent who are expected to develop into stars.

While Carlo and Laughton have time to prove their worth in the postseason and beyond (both players are signed past this season), the cost of bringing them into the fold was steep. While it’s too soon to assess these deals, the players and prospects that went the other way have hit the ground running for their new teams – and that’s not including the value of the two first-round picks that were traded away.

Here’s a look at those players who departed the organization at the deadline:

Fraser Minten

As one of the Maple Leafs organization’s two blue chip prospects alongside Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten was always going to be a risky trade asset. Amidst plenty of pressure to go all-in at the deadline, it was clear that any major move would likely require the 2022 second-round pick to go the other way (especially if the club was determined to hold onto Cowan). That he went to the rival Boston Bruins stings that much more, but that was the cost of adding a playoff-proven shutdown defender with term in Carlo.

Well, the early returns appear to be just what Maple Leafs fans feared. Although Minten hasn’t made his way up to the big club, the 20-year-old has been a force for the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Providence Bruins. He has three goals and four assists in nine games, including a natural hat trick in just his third game in Providence. He has also developed some easy early chemistry with fellow Bruins prospects Fabian Lysell and Matthew Poitras.

Minten’s early success has not gone unnoticed in Boston. Soon after the trade, THW’s Tommy Bennett identified the Vancouver native as the team’s next building block, while fellow Bruins writer Hannah Garfield suggested the club see what he can do at the NHL level as the season winds down. As Minten continues to develop with their Atlantic Division rivals, the Maple Leafs will have a front row seat to see what he can become.

Conor Timmins & Connor Dewar

To remain cap-compliant following the acquisitions of Laughton and Carlo, the Maple Leafs needed to shed some salary. As a result, depth pieces Conor Timmins and Connor Dewar were shipped off to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a 2025 fifth-round pick.

Neither player was likely to see much action in Toronto moving forward. Timmins had performed well in a depth role across 51 games but was set to lose ice time to Carlo had he remained in the fold. Meanwhile, Dewar averaged a sparse 9:58 over 31 games as a depth forward. In Pittsburgh, however, opportunities have been plentiful, and both players have taken advantage.

Timmins has slotted in on the Penguins’ second defensive pairing, joining Erik Karlsson. Armed with a Norris Trophy-winning defensive partner and a 90-second uptick in average ice time, the 26-year-old has produced, tallying a goal and four assists in 10 games. To put those numbers in context, he managed just two goals and six assists over his 51 games in Toronto this season.

Also far outpacing his Maple Leafs output is Dewar. The 25-year-old has been bumped up into the top-six, manning the left wing on a line with Rickard Rakell and Ville Koivunen. That lofty position has helped Dewar pot three goals in his first 10 games. That’s already a stark improvement on the one goal he scored over 48 games (across two seasons) as a Maple Leaf. Both players are poised to become restricted free agents this summer, but are making the right impressions to keep playing in Pittsburgh past this season (from ‘‘Trade pick-ups Conor Timmins, Connor Dewar look to convince Penguins they’re keepers”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 03/10/25).

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Nikita Grebenkin

The first year of Nikita Grebenkin’s North American hockey journey has been an experience. The 21-year-old signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Maple Leafs last April and hit the ground running by recording 14 points in his first 13 games with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. That earned him a call-up to the NHL club, where he earned instant cult hero status thanks to his “Rock’em, Sock’em” style of play and penchant for fun soundbytes. Then, not four months later, he was traded.

Nikita Grebenkin Toronto Maple Leafs
Nikita Grebenkin, formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs (Photo by Chris Tanouye/Getty Images)

In spite of his fan-friendly style, there were legitimate questions over whether Grebenkin could be a top-tier NHL player. Furthermore, he simply wasn’t going to offer a win-now organization the immediate support that Laughton could. So, the hard-hitting Russian appropriately wound up in Philadelphia, where he is now seeing action with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. While still demonstrating his signature physicality, he’s also been productive, with three goals and five points in six games. It’s unknown how that productivity will transfer to the NHL and the Flyers, but Grebenkin’s style promises to be a hit (no pun intended) in a tough, blue-collar city like Philadelphia.

This isn’t meant to be a negative take on what is a pretty positive time for the Maple Leafs. As Toronto inches towards its first division title in a quarter century and builds momentum that they hope will carry into the postseason, the last thing on fans’ minds is departed prospects and depth players who wouldn’t likely have a role on the present roster, anyway. But by sacrificing Minten, Grebenkin and even Timmins and Dewar to bolster the current group, the club faces even more pressure to win.

If the Maple Leafs manage to go the distance, then any trade cost will prove worthwhile, and it won’t matter what the outgoing players do with the rest of their careers. If they fall short, however, then the present and future success of these players serve as another bitter reminder of what was lost over this string of playoff futility.

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