Maple Leafs Lack of Patience Cost Them Star Left Winger

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had trouble finding a consistent left-winger all sesaon long.

Outside of Michael Bunting, the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t had much luck finding left-wingers to play in their top-six. Players like Alex Kerfoot, Calle Jarnkrok, Nick Robertson, Pontus Holmberg, Matthew Knies, and Tyler Bertuzzi have all spent time auditioning for a role with the Leafs superstars.

The Leafs drafted a useful left winger in the third round of the 2013 NHL draft yet exchanged him away without knowing the sort of player he’d transform into.

That player is Carter Verhaeghe, a star left-winger with the Florida Jaguars. For the people who don’t recollect, Verhaeghe, alongside Taylor Beck, Matt Finn, Tom Nilsson, and Christopher Gibson, were exchanged to the New York Islanders for Michael Grabner in September 2015.

The move was made to reduce the number of contracts the Leafs had at the time, when Lou Lamoriello was the team’s general manager. The Leafs were at the association furthest reaches of 50 agreements, so he exchanged five possibilities for one dynamic player. It didn’t appear to be a terrible arrangement at that point, yet the Leafs might have profited from having Verhaeghe the previous several seasons and this season.

Verhaeghe enlisted 42 objectives and 31 helps for 73 places in 81 games last season. He has 23 objectives and 21 helps for 44 places in 45 games this season. Verhaeghe has 221 points in 299 games over five seasons, 116 goals and 105 assists. Some might contend that assuming he had stayed with the Leafs, he probably won’t have formed into a similar player. Notwithstanding, assuming the ability is there, which it obviously is, I figure the Leafs would have seen it.
(Details from hockey-reference.com)

The 28-year-old Verhaeghe is in the second year of a three-year bargain worth $12.5 million. His yearly compensation cap hit is $4.166 million, which is less expensive than what the Leafs are paying Tyler Bertuzzi ($5.5 million).

Clearly, things occur for an explanation, and exchanges are a piece of the business, yet the way in which decent could it be to have Verhaeghe on the Leafs at the present time? He can be portrayed as the person who moved away. Had the Leafs shown a touch more persistence in 2015, they might have kept this best six remaining winger in their association.