The Toronto Maple Leafs have one less goaltender to target after the Vegas Golden Knights traded Logan Thompson to the Washington Capitals. General manager Brad Treliving is looking for a partner to tandem with Joseph Woll and now will have to cross Vegas off the list of potential targets.
The trade for Thompson saw the Capitals send two third-round picks to the Golden Knights, one in 2024 and the other pick in 2025. While the price wasn’t exactly steep, if mid-round picks were what Vegas was after, the Leafs’ hands were tied.
Toronto’s 2024 third-round pick was moved in the Mark Giordano/Seattle trade back in March of 2022, meanwhile, the Leafs’ 2025 third-rounder was already traded this past season to acquire Ilya Lyubushkin from the Anaheim Ducks. Lyubushkin appeared in 19 games down the stretch for the Maple Leafs, recording four assists and is someone the team reportedly has interest in bringing back this summer.
With Vegas having minimal cap space this summer and a need to add at least a forward or two, they were not looking to take on contracts when considering moving Thompson. It’s actually a bit surprising they decided to move Thompson instead of Adin Hill who is due $4.9 million next season. Regardless, unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, the ask for multiple mid-round draft picks wasn’t something that was in their wheelhouse.
Thompson would have been cost-effective for Treliving
The Maple Leafs have big aspirations this summer to re-tool their defensive corps and their crease and Treliving has roughly $19 million to work with in cap space. Adding Thompson for just a $766,667 cap hit next season would have been some savvy work from the Leafs GM. It would have given the Leafs two very capable goaltenders in Thompson and Woll and their combined cap hits for the 2024-25 season would have been just over $1.5 million total.
There’s certainly some risk involved when acquiring Thompson. He’s battled some injury troubles throughout the past few seasons, however is coming off a career-high 47 starts. The southpaw netminder posted a 25-14-5 record in 2023-24, along with a 2.70 goals against average and .908 save percentage. While his NHL career only spans 107 games, Thompson has proven in this sample size that he’s an effective backstop, with a career .912 Sv.%. Surely a bit of risk based on the previous injuries, however considering the cap hit and the acquisition cost, it was a ‘gamble’ the Maple Leafs missed out on in a major way.
Treliving turns his attention to free-agent options
There’s growing speculation the Maple Leafs could have interest in pending unrestricted free-agent goalies Anthony Stolarz from the Florida Panthers and Laurent Brossoit from the Winnipeg Jets. Both netminders have stellar seasons in their backup roles, and very much like Thompson, haven’t necessarily proven themselves to be able to become a #1 starter and run with the crease. It’s becoming quite evident, that whoever the Leafs decide to acquire to pair with Woll, there’s going to be a level of risk involved.
On the trade front, another candidate to consider is Filip Gustavsson of the Minnesota Wild. The Wild have Gustavsson as a prime trade candidate with his $3.5 million cap hit through the 2025-26 season and the Swedish netminder does not have any trade protection. Minnesota is looking for depth on defence and secondary scoring, which is something the Leafs could potentially offer in a trade, so keep an eye on these two teams becoming trade partners as the offseason continues from Vegas.
Nevertheless, the Maple Leafs made a trade on day one of the draft, and another on day two, so it should be entertaining to see what other tricks Treliving has up his sleeve for Monday when free agency opens.
