With the Stanley Cup Final now underway, the rumour mill around the NHL has started to pick up in a big way.
Speaking of which, we spent a good chunk of the Monday edition of Leafs Morning Take addressing some of the names linked to the Maple Leafs over the past few days. First and foremost, though, we dissected Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night. Sergei Bobrovsky was out of this world and the Panthers were timely with their execution as they blanked Edmonton 3-0 to grab the opener. Take a shot every time we’ve mentioned goaltending on the podcast lately. How amazing would it be if the Leafs had that type of playoff performance? Furthermore, we also spent some time previewing Game 2 before transitioning to the salary cap. In case you missed it, it was announced over the weekend that the cap will be going up $4.5-million next season to $88 million. That’s the first significant jump since covid. All in all, this development is excellent news for the Maple Leafs, who’ve seemingly been in cap hell for a decade. Let’s see what they do with the extra money!
Presented by Greta Bar YYZ, we tackled Elliotte Friedman’s reporting from the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast that suggested Toronto could be interested in trading for Flames netminder Jacob Markstrom. To be fair, the Leafs will be linked to every goalie available over the next few weeks, so this didn’t come as much of a shock. Additionally, there’s the whole connection to Brad Treliving, too.
After that, we talked a little about Brett Pesce and Sean Walker, whom The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta linked to the Maple Leafs late last week, too. At this this point, it seems very likely that the Leafs will add at least one top-4 right-handed shooting defender —if not two. That said, there’s no question that there will be bidding wars for all the big names available.
Join us on Tuesday at 11 AM ET as we sift through the latest news and notes surrounding the Maple Leafs.
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