Things are eerily quiet on the Leafs front ahead of Round 1 of the NHL Draft here in Vegas.
Jay Rosehill was back in the mix for the Friday edition of Leafs Morning Take. We kicked off the show by getting Rosey’s thoughts on the latest in Leafs Nation. Over the next few days, we’re expecting all hell to break loose. After that, we dished on the NHL Awards, which I had a chance to attend at Fountain Blue hotel. The experience was electric. Furthermore, I’m looking forward to checking out Sphere. There’s no doubt that there’s a variety of teams looking to make a statement. It’s Sin City after all.
Presented by Greta Bar YYZ, we touched on Toronto’s ongoing free agent defenceman pursuit. The two most prominent names lately have been Nikita Zadorov and Chris Tanev, who’ve been linked to the Leafs for months now. At this point, there’s no question Brad Treliving has done a lot of heavy lifting behind the scenes here. After that, we hit on the rumoured Juuse Saros extension in Nashville. According to multiple reports, the Preds netminder is expected to ink a brand new eight-year extension on July 1. It looks like another potential goalie target will shortly be off the table for the Maple Leafs. It’s going to be Laurent Brossoit, isn’t it? Rosey and I disagree on the crease. I think they need a bona fide stud; Rosey is cool with it being someone like Brossoit to pair with Woll. We’ll see how everything shakes out.
Last but not least, obviously we talked some Mitch Marner, too. On the latest 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliott Friedman suggested that the Leafs are preparing an offer. Now, that’s fascinating. What would that look like? Any way you slice it, the next week will be a lot of fun to cover.
At the midway point of the show, I said goodbye to Rosey before welcoming in The Nation Network’s Irfaan Gaffer. Irf covers the Canucks as well as the rest of the NHL through his work with the Fourth Period. We hit on all the hot button topics in Toronto. We started with Nikita Zadorov before transitioning to some Chris Tanev talk. Irf’s tight with the Tanev camp. He said all’s quiet with free agency just around the corner. Additionally, we got Irf’s take on the Marner situation and what the Leafs could look to do over the next few days.
Once again, thanks again to Circa and Stadium Swim for hosting us this week. Our next show will come Monday as we recap the first day of free agency for the Maple Leafs.
You can subscribe to TheLeafsNation (TLN) YouTube page HERE. Additionally, check us out in podcast form wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to leave us a 5-star review!