Official: 4 Toronto Maple Leafs That Will be Gone by the NHL Trade Deadline
Which Leafs players may no longer be with the team when the trade deadline approaches?
As we hit the halfway mark of the 2023-24 NHL season, the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves right in the thick of things for the playoff race while hanging on for dear life at the same time.
Currently third in the Atlantic Division with a 21-13-8 record, the Toronto Maple Leafs have somehow survived the onslaught of injuries earlier on in the season, in particular to their back end and goaltending.
Powered by William Nylander’s career year along with the rest of the core four of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares, the Leafs are currently fifth in the league in goals for, as they have played a huge role in many of the team’s victories throughout the season.
But as well as the season has been going for the Leafs, they are currently mired in a four-game losing streak, showing that there are still some aspects of their game that needs improvement. With just a little less than seven weeks away from the NHL trade deadline, the Leafs will be looking to add the right pieces to address their needs by bolstering their roster for the stretch run.
In doing so, there will also be some current Leafs that will unfortunately be gone by the trade deadline as a result of the upgrades being made to the roster. Here, we take a look at four Leafs players that will likely no longer be with the team for the Stanley Cup playoff run.
Signed during the 2023 offseason to help toughen up the lineup, Ryan Reaves has been quite the disappointment so far for the Leafs this season.
Averaging just a little over seven minutes of ice time per game, Reaves has only one goal to show for in 21 games played.
But more importantly, he has been on the ice for 13 goals against compared to just 2 goals for, along with a 42.86 CF% at 5v5 despite his limited playing time, proving that he was quite a liability when deployed. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Prior to his current lower-body injury that has put him out since mid-December, Reaves was already used sparingly with the call-up of Bobby McMann.
Now with the solid play of recent call-up Pontus Holmberg, there may no longer be a spot for Reaves in the everyday lineup upon his return as he will need to show his value to garner any sort of playing time once again.
More significantly, the Leafs have attempted in the past to utilize toughness in their lineup when the playoff season commenced. But each time as the playoffs progressed, they chose to remove the toughness and reverted to more scoring and defensive options in the end instead.
A prime example of this took place last season with tough guy Wayne Simmonds when he was removed from the lineup following two ineffective games where he racked up 14 PIMs of unnecessary penalties.
As a result, if they truly learned from the past, they could forgo that option earlier this time and acquire the right complementary piece(s) at the deadline instead to take its place.
Conor Timmins
Subsequent to being procured from the Arizona Coyotes last season by the Leafs in return for Curtis Douglas, defenseman Conor Timmins established a remarkable connection with his new group by enrolling 10 focuses in his initial 12 games.
All the more critically, he gave major areas of strength for a gave shot choice on the blue line that the Leafs fundamentally needed with a stacked left-given shot back end.
Be that as it may, as the Leafs got more solid, alongside a few major acquisitions at the exchange cutoff time Luke Schenn, Jake McCabe, and Erik Gustafsson, Timmins was gradually extracted from the pivot in the everyday setup.
Eventually, he ended up as the group’s extra defenseman and saw his time fundamentally up in the stall. He would complete the 2022-23 season with 2 objectives, 12 helps for 14 places in 25 absolute games played.
During the 2023-24 preseason, Timmins seemed to have the high ground in handling a spot on the Leafs program for Premiere night with his heavenly play in instructional course. Nonetheless, a not well coordinated injury put him good and gone for almost two months for the rest of November.
From that point forward, Timmins has just got into 14 games up to this point and has set up 6 focuses all the while. With the Leafs blueline all mended up, alongside the more grounded protective choice of Simon Benoit being sent on a more regular basis, Timmins has seen restricted played time by and by this season.
How much longer he can persevere through this is not yet clear, yet in the event that overhauling the ongoing safeguard is what’s on the table by the exchange cutoff time, Timmins’ experience with the Leafs could end pretty soon.
Ilya Samsonov
In the wake of driving the Leafs past the primary round of the Stanley Cup end of the season games without precedent for more than twenty years last season, goalie Ilya Samsonov was anticipating one more solid season with the Leafs subsequent to being granted a one-year, $3.55 million arrangement through mediation.
During his preseason play, he made some mistakes, but many people thought he was just working out the kinks before the regular season.
Be that as it may, what we saw during instructional course tragically was a gauge of what was to come for his 2023-24 NHL season. Samsonov has persevered in his most terrible at any point season in the association such a long ways by posting a 5-3-6 record with an ostentatious 3.88 GAA and .863 save rate, positioning him second endlessly rearward in the association separately among goalies with something like 10 games played.
He was even postponed and downgraded to the AHL to get his game in the groove again at one moment, and still can’t seem to recover his heavenly structure from last season.
With third-string goalie Martin Jones holding the stronghold meanwhile yet starting to show a few breaks in his game, the ongoing situation isn’t a recipe for outcome over the long haul. As a consequence of this, the Leafs will need to address their goaltending problem as soon as possible so that it does not become too late.
To continue to send Samsonov in his present status could mean doom for both Samsonov and the Leafs.
Yet again he ought to be given a tranquil climate where he can rediscover his game and recapture the certainty to turn into areas of strength for a level goaltender. That can be achieved by either exchanging him to a non-fighting group or have him invest more energy in the AHL away from the afflictions of playing before the extraordinary climate of the Leafs. Anything that winds up working, we simply hope everything turns out great for Samsonov in rejuvenating his once-encouraging vocation.
T.J. Brodie
This might come as the unforeseen treat on this rundown to say protective robust T.J. Brodie will be gone by the exchange cutoff time.
All things considered, Brodie has been unshakable since joining the Leafs by means of free organization back in 2020 on a four-year, $20 million arrangement.
Besides the fact that he positions wells on the ice, he is wonderful in separating odd-man surges and hostile cycles, alongside giving top notch shot-hindering.
Brodie has seriously lost a step in his game this season, whether he is getting slower or Father Time is beginning to catch up to him. What’s more, with the speedy activity in the game these days, that could mean something bad for somebody whose principal strength is being perfectly positioned brilliantly while shielding.
Looking somewhat more intently at his details at 5v5, Brodie has offered the puck multiple times contrasted with only 9 action items in 41 games played, denoting the most noteworthy giveaway-important point proportion of his vocation. Additionally, he has seen his CF% decline beneath half down to 49%, and without precedent for more than five seasons, his normal objectives rate and scoring chances rate likewise fell underneath half to 49%. ( All details from hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick.com)
With the Leafs hoping to redesign at the exchange cutoff time or preceding it, they will likewise have to adjust the books appropriately to get things going as they are tight straight up to the cap space.
Subsequently, with Brodie’s yearly AAV of $5 million and his step by step declining abilities and capacities, he is the ideal exchange trap at the cutoff time to assist the Leafs with handling the essential unaccounted for parts to take them to a higher level.
