With the calendar flipping to 2026, more news and rumours starts to swirl about potential movement of players who are on the trade market as the deadline approaches.
Given the tumultuous season for the Toronto Maple Leafs– as they’ve been underachieving with their less than mediocre play– they continue to find themselves in the market to make significant upgrades. They still have yet to find another top-six forward to replace Mitch Marner and have circled back on other names like Rasmus Andersson.
While it’s great to see general manager Brad Treliving be active and in play on these names, there’s one critical area that continues to make any type of moves difficult to make. That’s their lack of assets and draft capital which puts Treliving in a really tough spot to make any major improvements.
Lack of Assets Hinder Maple Leafs
While it’s great that the Maple Leafs continue to be linked to names like Andersson and others, it’s not likely to materialize based on the fact that the team has little to no assets to make some big upgrades.
As we saw with the Quinn Hughes trade where the Minnesota Wild gave up a package of top defensive prospect Zeev Buium, a middle-six player in Liam Ohgren and a strong second centre option in Marco Rossi. No one was truly going to match that package, especially the Maple Leafs as it would’ve taken a miracle to acquire Hughes in a trade. Their best package wouldn’t have been enough.
This is where other teams have shined as they kept their prospect cupboard full while the Maple Leafs have already gone through their stockpile with other moves in the past. Giving up Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan and Ben Danford in a major move would be a step back and their only first-round pick is in 2028. While Rasmus Andersson is an ideal pick-up and the price wouldn’t be as high as the Hughes trade, it’s still a big price to pay for one of the top right-shot defenders on the market that would at least cost half of that.
Acquiring Mason Marchment would’ve be a little more feasible, but he was recently dealt to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Seeing as the Maple Leafs didn’t have the draft picks necessary, would giving up a second and fourth-round pick be worth it for a player that has 13 points in 29 games this season and really hasn’t had any significant impact offensively with a 42% expected goals percentage? Given how the Maple Leafs need more depth scoring, he hasn’t provided that this season compared to what he did with the Dallas Stars where he had back-to-back 22 goal seasons.
No matter who the Maple Leafs are rumoured to be in on, the assets they have will never be enough to win a bidding war with the other teams. The only chance they have is if the price for Andersson isn’t as high as Hughes’ and he also agrees to a trade and possible extension if the Maple Leafs plan to extend him.
Related: Maple Leafs Reportedly Exploring Trade Market
The Maple Leafs are in a dire need of assistance both up front and on the backend. However, is it really the right move to make deals at this time given the current mindset, attitude and play of the team?
Team Hasn’t Shown Management That They’re Buyers
It has been a rough transitional period with new faces on the team. Three months in, the Maple Leafs continue to be a team that doesn’t play with purpose consistently, no identity and continue to have disappointing results with their on-ice play even when they win. Treliving has already accepted responsibility as he’s the one who brought them in, but he shouldn’t be making improvements to reward his team.
As their recent shutout loss to the Washington Capitals show, they have been disinterested and have lacked any sort of emotion all season long. Head coach Craig Berube was clearly frustrated with his post-game comments. If they constantly play with this mindset where they instantly give up mid-game and not show any fight, compete or urgency, then why would management reward them for their play while they continue to be outside of the playoffs and hopes of a deep run are dwindling?
Why should Treliving empty his asset cabinet for a team that has yet to take control and win games consistently? What incentive does he have to make moves where the team’s standards are mediocre at best? Will any major move actually salvage the season or is it just to give the fanbase some sort of hope when things continue to go south and the playoffs be a pipe dream? Will a move actually jolt the team or will they continue to play this way after the changes?
A lot of questions need to be answered and if this team really wants to prove it to management, they need to show it on the ice now because they haven’t had an ounce of passion in doing so.
The Maple Leafs haven’t been nearly consistent with their play in order to show management that they deserve to be buyers at the deadline. When the passion isn’t there or the ability to compete in a game, that instantly should be a sign to Treliving that this group doesn’t have what it takes. He has more work to do in order to find the right players with the mindset to win because some on this team don’t.
Related: 2 Takeaways From the Maple Leafs’ 4-0 Loss Against the Capitals
Now is not the time to improve the team midseason for a championship run. This team doesn’t have it. Bringing in other players right now seems like a lost cause.
Treliving has some tough decisions to make. To waste assets and to make moves to improve this team for a playoff run where they’re not even playing desperate enough to win shouldn’t be one of them.
He hasn’t been shown any reason to do so and the team hasn’t convinced him otherwise.
Statistics from Hockey Stats.
