Toronto Maple Leafs trade deadline preview: Who should be on Dubas’ wish list
Chris Kreider
This only makes sense for the Leafs, if the New York Rangers are motivated in moving him. They already traded Mats Zuccarello, but still have Kevin Hayes and Adam McQuaid as their priorities.
Jeff Gorton needs to decide how long he expects the Rangers to be in a rebuild for. If it’s beyond next season, there’s no reason to keep Kreider when he becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2019-20 season. They should try to get the assets now rather than wait until the off-season.
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Kreider would bring a lot of elements the Leafs could use and would be a better option over Micheal Ferland and Simmonds. He is on pace for 30 goals, has size and speed which would be a nice complement beside Auston Matthews or Nazem Kadri. He also brings a physical presence that would make fans happy as well.
He has a reasonable cap hit at $4.625 million next season, so if a player like Johnsson is going to New York then it would make sense. However, the Leafs would probably need to include conditional picks and prospects to make the deal work, but Dubas has to decide how much he’s willing to invest.
In a way, since Dubas already made the move to bring in Muzzin and trading for Kreider makes sense, there is some assurance in having him around next season over a rental player.
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Who should the Toronto Maple Leafs try to get ahead of the deadline? Do you think they shouldn’t try to trade for anyone? Let us know in the comments below.