Upgrading the Leafs Blue Line Prior to the Expansion Draft
A great deal has been written lately about the Leafs blue line woes and the need for GM Lou Lamoriello to wave his magic wand and parlay some of the organization’s excess forward depth into a top four defender.
As a straight up trade proposal under normal circumstances this idea borders on ludicrous. No team would be willing to part with one of their core pieces for the types of players that are more numerous and considerably easier to acquire, unless of course there are other mitigating factors.
The upcoming expansion draft could be one of those factors. Any team with the luxury of having four or more very good defencemen, is at risk of losing one of them as the newly minted Las Vegas Golden Knights scour the rosters of all existing NHL teams looking to take one player from each franchise.
Where this may pose an opportunity for improving the Leafs blue line is in the fact it would make sense for a team faced with this dilemma to trade for an expansion draft exempt player, picks, or a combination of both. This assumes that whichever team fits this criteria can also fulfill their exposed players obligation.
More from Toronto Maple Leafs
- Maple Leafs Rumours: Half of NHL teams interested in Ilya Mikheyev
- Toronto Maple Leafs: How to address the goaltender position
- Leafs reward Timothy Liljegren with extension after breakout season
- Maple Leafs: Jack Campbell situation becoming increasingly uncertain
- Jason Spezza retires, joins Toronto Maple Leafs front office
The position the Leafs are in now is ideal in terms of how insignificantly this event will impact their existing roster, but they have other concerns to address prior to the June 17th 2017 expansion draft day.
Simply put, with so many expansion draft exempt players currently on the Leafs roster, they do not have enough qualified players to expose. They are fine at defence with Martin Marincin already qualified and presumably Connor Carrick qualifying by season’s end, but they do not have enough qualified forwards. They may be forced to acquire “expansion draft fodder” or apply some Lamoriello wizardry – the latter being a more likely scenario.
The rules for the draft allow each team to either protect seven forwards, three defencemen and one goaltender, as option A, or one goaltender and eight skaters regardless of position as option B. It is likely that the Leafs will choose option A, but a trade for a top four defender could change that.
As of today, the Leafs protected list of skaters would surely include the following players:
- Tyler Bozak
- Nazem Kadri
- Leo Komarov
- Matt Martin
- James van Riemsdyk
- Morgan Rielly
- Nikita Zaitsev
- Jake Gardiner
All other roster players who will be under contract next season are expansion draft exempt. Where the Leafs run into an issue however, is in meeting their obligation to expose at least two forwards as outlined in the expansion draft details item 2. below:
1. One defenceman who is a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.
2. Two forwards who are a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.
3. One goaltender who is under contract in 2017-18 or will be a restricted free agent at the expiration of his current contract immediately prior to 2017-18. If the club elects to make a restricted free agent goaltender available in order to meet this requirement, that goaltender must have received his qualifying offer prior to the submission of the club’s protected list.
Exposing a qualified goaltender is simply a matter of choosing which of a number of possibilities to go with. Qualifying offers extended to either Garret Sparks or Antoine Bibeau would meet that obligation, as would offering a one-year deal to any of Karri Ramo, Jhonas Enroth or Jeff Glass.
As mentioned earlier, exposing a qualified defenceman is not an issue, but meeting the obligation of exposing two qualified forwards is. The Leafs would have to add those players to their roster, or take the less desirable route and sacrifice one or more of the players previously listed.
It is not an insurmountable problem however, as a number of things could be done within the organization, such as extend and qualify Byron Froese (he is 14 NHL games short of qualifying), extend the contracts of any of Peter Holland, Colin Greening, Brooks Laich or Milan Michalek. Or even resurrect Joffrey Lupul – the list of possibilities is rather extensive for the creative mind.
This need to fulfill expansion draft obligations and the potential to trade expansion draft exempt players and/or picks for a top four defenceman could be woven together to improve the Leafs blue line.
Next: Is Garret Sparks’ Time in Toronto Over?
As an example, the Leafs could trade two top prospects from the Marlies and a second round pick for a top four defender that would now needs to be protected from the expansion draft. This would bump Martin from the protected list. With either Marincin or Carrick more likely to be selected by Las Vegas, this seems like a low risk gamble.
What are your thoughts on this? Will there be an opportunity to improve the Leafs blue line created by the expansion draft?