The Toronto Maple Leafs pulled off an early-season trade moving defenceman Timothy Liljegren to the San Jose Sharks. Another trade could be on the way in the coming days and this time around, the Colorado Avalanche make sense as trade partners.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported via 32 Thoughts, that the Avalanche are scrolling the trade market in search for some forward help. The Avs have been hit hard early on this year with injuries and specifically up front. “You will not be surprised to hear Colorado is looking for forwards. Need to get through a miserable stretch where five of their top nine are out,” stated Friedman. The Avalanche are without the likes of Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, Ross Colton, and Jonathan Drouin and have struggled to a 5-6-0 start to the season. Avs’ GM Chris MacFarland is likely feeling some pressure to find a warm body to help alleviate the mounting pressure on Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen carrying the load up front.
This is where the Maple Leafs come into the picture. Leafs’ GM Brad Treliving has a couple of forwards he needs to make decisions on, including Nick Robertson, Pontus Holmberg, and eventually Connor Dewar and Calle Jarnkrok. You could probably throw David Kampf into the mix as well, as he’s been a healthy scratch already this season, however moving his $2.4 million cap hit through the 2026-27 season would be a much more complicated trade.
While the Maple Leafs moved out the disgruntled Liljegren and managed to save $1.75 million against the cap this season, it hasn’t necessarily solved their roster log jam. The team has all 23 of their active roster slots filled at the moment and there’s more help on the way.
Toronto will be welcoming back Dewar and defenceman Jani Hakanpaa in the very near future, as the two were sent down to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies on Friday for a conditioning stint, after starting the season on long term injured reserve (LTIR). Both players can remain with the Marlies for six days, or three games, so it’s inevitable that Treliving is going to need to make some roster adjustments, sooner than later. There’s also Jarnkrok, who remains on the LTIR dealing with a lower-body injury. He’s getting closer to returning to full practice and being available for games, so his $2.1 million cap hit is going to come into the picture eventually.
Avalanche could be open to Robertson or Holmberg
Two players who make a lot of sense for the Avalanche would be Robertson and Holmberg. Both forwards carry an affordable cap hit at $875,000 for Robertson and $800,000 for Holmberg, and are pending restricted free agents at season’s end. This allows for MacFarland to add either, and have some team security heading into next season.
The case for Robertson is the fact he’s already approached Leafs’ management about a trade and voiced his displeasure in his opportunity heading into this season. After he scorched the twine throughout the preseason, leading the Leafs in goal-scoring, Robertson has struggled offensively with just one goal in 10 games. Head coach Craig Berube has done a great job to pump his tires throughout training camp and praise him for his hard work without the puck, but it’s starting to feel like the writing is on the wall here.
Robertson could give the Avs a winger to insert into the top-six for the team being, and someone who can be moved down in the lineup once they’re back to full health. The 23-year-old has shown an elite shot and finishing abilities with 14 goals in 56 games last season, but unfortunately his inconsistent play and his style of play compared to what Berube is looking for from his bottom-six forwards, make him a prime trade candidate. The Avalanche could see Robertson as someone who needs a change of scenery, some promise offensively, and a piece they could work with looking past this season.
Holmberg, on the other hand, isn’t as offensively gifted as Robertson, but he’s more versatile and defensively sound. Holmberg can play either wing position and fill in down the middle of the ice, which could be very appealing to Colorado. Holmberg has recorded one assist in 10 games of action, averaging 12:46 of ice-time, including 2:12 on the penalty kill. Given he has less offensive potential and is three years older than Robertson, Holmberg will cost less to acquire for the Avalanche. Colorado’s penalty kill ranks 26th in the league, adding the defensive-minded Holmberg who has shown to be strong on the PK could be something MacFarland has an appetite for.
At the end of the day, trades in a hard salary cap world are very hard to finalize. The Maple Leafs have a number of roster decisions looming and will eventually have to make a tough decision on at least one of their forwards. The Avalanche are desperate to add up front, making these two teams very logical dance partners. Now we just wait to see what comes out of the conversations once the music stops.
