Today marks the two week mark until the trade deadline. I’m celebrating the occasion by going to the Oilers and Rangers game to see Vladimir Tarasenko in a Rangers jersey and possibly seeing Jesse Puljujarvi wear an Oilers jersey for the last time. We all celebrate trade deadlines in our own little ways.
In the spirit of it being the two week mark and logic dictating that things will have to pick up at some point, I’ve reached out to the TLN crew for their trade deadline predictions on ten players that could possibly be on the move around the league and four Leafs could possibly be on the move as well.
So of all the potential trade targets it seems like most TLNers are leaning towards Jake McCabe as a deadline addition. We’ve all given up on the Jakob Chychrun chatter and don’t seem to buy into the Patrick Kane stuff. We’ve got very optimistic contributors believing in Kyle Dubas’ ability to land Timo Meier, and Ivan Barbashev was also picked twice for the Leafs. Ryan O’Reilly is the only other player with a Leafs prediction.
The main theme when it comes to the Leafs players are that we don’t see them going anywhere. Other than Alex Kerfoot, which I think I’ve been wrong too many times before in predicting his departure that I see him as staying put now. I’m not sure why we’ve got a couple of predictions of Holl returning to the team that drafted him and discarded him in the ECHL, but I guess it’s entirely possible.
Some additional rapid fire questions
In addition to guessing where everyone goes, we had some other quick questions for the TLN crew regarding the trade deadline…
“Guess the return for Jakob Chychrun”
Michael Mazzei: A first, a top prospect, and a roster player
Jon Steitzer: 1st, Grade A prospect, conditional 2nd based on how far team goes in the playoffs, another 2nd for taking salary back
Colin Hunter: LA 2023 1st, PIT 2023 3rd, Alex Turcotte, Helge Grans
Dylan Murphy: Gabe Vilardi, 1st round pick, 2nd round pick
Nick Barden: 1st, 2nd, and a prospect.
Bennett Jull: 1st, top prospect, good young player, 2nd round pick or solid prospect.
“Guess the return for Timo Meier”
Michael Mazzei: Multiple firsts, a top prospect, and b-tier prospect
Jon Steitzer: 1st, Conditional 3rd that becomes a 1st if he re-signs, Grade B prospect
Colin Hunter: NJD 2023 1st, Alexander Holtz, 2024 NJD 4th
Dylan Murphy: 2 firsts, Kerfoot, plus a non-Knies prospect
Nick Barden: Matthew Knies, a 2nd, Kerfoot, and a prospect (Niemela or Hirvonen)
Bennett Jull: 1st, top prospect, 2nd round pick or solid prospect.
“Who should be an off the radar target for the Leafs?”
Michael Mazzei: Keegan Kolesar
Jon Steitzer: Jonathan Drouin
Colin Hunter: Adam Henrique
Dylan Murphy: Dmitri Kulilov as an added depth piece
Nick Barden: Carson Soucy
Bennett Jull: Sam Lafferty
“Give me your spiciest deadline prediction”
Michael Mazzei: Dylan Larkin gets traded to the Leafs
Jon Steitzer: Steve Yzerman is always good for making a hockey trade, I wouldn’t rule out the Red Wings doing something like trading Andrew Copp for yet another goaltender.
Colin Hunter: San Jose sets their sights too high for a return in a Karlsson trade and fail to move him by the deadline.
Dylan Murphy: It’s a quieter deadline than anticipated
Nick Barden: Matthew Knies, after everyone interviewed him about stepping into the Leafs lineup right away, is traded and none of those questions mattered in the first place.
Bennett Jull: Patrick Kane stays with the Blackhawks.
Some of you need to work on your spice.
Finally when it came to how Leafs fans will be feeling coming out of the deadline we had two writers leaning towards being happy with the outcome, three leaning towards unhappy or angry, and one that acknowledged it is impossible to get all Leafs fans to go in the same direction as our survey also demonstrates. It’s also not a coincidence that two people had the Leafs landing Timo Meier and two people saying Leafs fans will be happy. This is another ringing endorsement for going big to win the hearts and minds of Leafs Nation.
Let us know your predictions in the comments.
