Toronto Maple Leafs trade deadline preview: Who should be on Dubas’ wish list

There will be many eyes glued to television screens and Twitter ahead of the NHL trade deadline, to see if Kyle Dubas will get a deal done for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There is a lot of anticipation with Monday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, but whether general manager Kyle Dubas does anything for the Toronto Maple Leafs is going to be hard to predict.

It has become tough to gauge where Leafs management is focusing their efforts as there haven’t been many concrete targets; just a potential link to the Carolina Hurricanes. At the same time, the Leafs don’t seem too interested in adding a rental; rather they want a player with term, but they also need to figure out how to make the salary work.

Over the past couple of weeks and months, we have been looking at potential targets the Leafs could have traded for with most of the attention on whether the team acquires a right-handed shot defenceman.

This is the Leafs’ biggest need as the team prepares for a potential first-round playoff series against the Boston Bruins. Trading for Jake Muzzin was a big addition for the Leafs but Mike Babcock doesn’t seem inclined to play him on the right side and as a result we have seen a return of Ron Hainsey to the top pairing

There has been a debate about whether the team needs to add toughness, but one player won’t address that instead. The Leafs should consider adding depth to the bottom six considering how the fourth line hasn’t played well over the past couple of games.

Brandon Montour and Nick Jensen were probably players the Leafs considered, but either didn’t want to pay the price or weren’t ready to make the deal for either one.

Here is a list of potential candidates the Leafs could consider trading for, what they bring and what assets the team would have to give up.