The Leafs simply can’t hold a lead right now. With 5 losses to their name this season, it’s shocking to see this stat…
Locking things down in their own end has been a major issue, which should come as no surprise when you consider the fact that two of the three most used defenders on the team so far are Darren Raddysh and Morgan Rielly, who aren’t exactly known for their defensive prowess. Who is the fourth highest defender in terms of TOI/GP you ask? Why, that would be Troy Stecher, who is ideally your 6th or 7th defender. As it stands, Jake McCabe is the only defender on the Leafs that can play top 4 minutes and actually defend at a high level.
This is why it makes sense to hear that the team is looking for a player that can defend first, while also having solid skating ability. The only question now is, who is this mystery player?
Zach Whitecloud
Whitecloud is on a terrible Calgary Flames team, but that’s why we know that he’ll be available, it’s simply a question of when. At 6’2″ 220lbs, the bruiser doesn’t exactly have top end speed, but he ranks in the 93rd percentile in 18-20mph speed bursts, which simply means that he won’t have any trouble with keeping up to the pace that this group wants to play at. He can log heavy PK minutes, likes to hit and is a willing shot blocker as well. In a nutshell, Whitecloud is everything the Leafs want on their blueline right now and you get all of that on a team friendly $2.75M caphit that extends into next season. With Chris Tanev on the shelf at the moment and a questionable future, Whitecloud is the ideal replacement for their 2nd pair needs. When (if?) Tanev returns he can simply slide to the 3rd pair, which would allow Whitecloud to shoulder some of the burden and, hopefully, extend his career for as long as possible.
The Chicago Blackhawks Option
The Hawks are off to a bad start this year, but they also just welcomed back their Captain, Connor Bedard. He came off the IR two games ago and those two games ended up being in the Win column. If they can string some of those W’s together then this paragraph can be ignored. However, if they regress then maybe the Leafs could pluck one of their young defenders off the roster. They have Bowen Byram locked into a new, big money deal, while Artyom Levshunov continues to develop into a top pair defender. Those two aren’t going anywhere. However, they still have Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser, Kevin Korchinski, Sam Rinzel and Ethan Del Mastro on the roster and all are under 25 years of age. If we’re sticking with the theme of players that can skate well and defend, then Sam Rinzel, Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser fit fairly well. If we ask ourselves which one is the most likely to be moved by the time the deadline comes around? Don’t be surprised if you heave the name Kaiser bandied around.
Vince Dunn
It’s early in the season and Seattle has had a strong start out of the gate. There’s really no reason to believe that Dunn will be available. However, he’s in the final year of his contract and star players have been spurning the Kraken as of late. Could the Mississauga native believe that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence (border)? Dunn is an all situations defender that would cost a loot to trade for, but if you could land him and Whitecloud, the teams top 4 would be fantastic.
Ryker Evans
We can’t discuss Dunn without including Evans, who is RFA at the end of this season and is getting a lot of minutes with the Kraken right now. Could this be a one or the other move from Seattle? They need more punch up front. Maybe moving a young top 4 RD is how you get it. With that said, I’m not sold on the idea that the Leafs would have the capital to make this trade work. If anything, I believe the mergence of Evans would make the availability of Dunn more likely, especially if the veteran defender and the team aren’t seeing eye to eye on the numbers for his new contract.
Simon Edvinsson
If the Leafs had what the Wings want I believe this deal would be done. Edvinsson is a big man that’s young enough to be in the long term plays alongside Gavin McKenna and Easton Cowan. His skating is well above average and while there are still some wrinkles to smoothen out, he’s well on his way to developing into a top pair, shut down defender. Simply put, it sounds like the Wings want a young centre back in this deal, or the one they’ll eventually make with their former captain, Dylan Larkin and they want that player to be able to help now. The Leafs don’t have that piece.
Travis Sanheim
The availability of Sanheim will depend on Sanheim, as he has a full NTC at the moment. That converts to a partial NTC this summer, in which he can list 12 teams that he can’t be traded to. The Flyers have failed to register a win in their first 9 games of the season and the future there looks fairly bleak. Maybe a coaching change gives the roster a kick in the pants, but if not is possible that Sanheim tries to get ahead of things and asks for a trade? At the moment he’d have full control over where he goes, which won’t be the case for long. Like Edvinsson and Dunn, this is a player that would cost quite a bit to trade for, which makes me question the teams ability to land them. However, he fits whats they’re looking for to the letter.
Simply put, if the Leafs don’t start racking up some wins this discussion is moot. In no way should they be spending assets to improve a roster that can’t make the playoffs. However, if they are solidly in a playoff spot over the next few months, then we should all expect to hear more about their efforts to improve the blueline, as it’s easily their biggest weakness.
In my opinion the team needs two top-4 defenders added to the group. Morgan Rielly and Chris Tanev, for completely different reasons, should be shuffled down the lineup, which would leave only Darren Raddysh and Jake McCabe as clear top-4 players. Ideally Morgan Rielly is out of the lineup and on a different roster altogether, but that may be asking for the impossible at this point, considering his price tag and level of play.
For my money, Zach Whitecloud appears to be an ideal fit. His contract is solid and the cost to acquire is likely within the Leafs’ wheelhouse. If they add more after that it’s anybody’s guess as to what they can swing, but they’ll most likely have to be creative.