Maple Leafs GM eyeing trade to improve blue line

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving wants to make a trade to improve his team’s blue line. In a recent appearance in front of Toronto media, he spoke about a number of topics, including the defense.

“It was an area that we wanted to see if we could strengthen regardless,” Treliving said. John Klingberg was placed on LTIR by the team, which frees up some cap room if the team decides to make a trade soon. However, if Klingberg comes back at any point before the playoffs, they will have to make an additional move to free up cap space. He is currently in New York seeing a specialist to decide if surgery is necessary for his hip injury.

The Maple Leafs currently sit in fifth place in the Atlantic Division with a 10-6-3 record. While those numbers don’t suggest much cause for concern, the underlying stats show the team has been too inconsistent this season. The Maple Leafs rank sixth in their division in goal differential at +1.

The team has been rumored to be in trade talks with the Calgary Flames and we could see a deal involving the two teams sooner or later. The Flames have been struggling this year and have a number of pending unrestricted free agents on their back end, all of whom are not guaranteed to re-sign with the Flames in the offseason. The Maple Leafs could be interested in making a trade for any of Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, or Nikita Zadorov. In any potential trade, the Maple Leafs will need to be cap-compliant afterward so the Flames will likely retain some money on the outgoing defenseman.

The Maple Leafs are also trying to sign William Nylander to a long-term contract extension. He could earn somewhere in the $10 million neighborhood. That’s something the team will have to keep in mind if they trade for a pending UFA defenseman.