The Toronto Maple Leafs may not be finished yet.
Chris Johnston said on TSN that Toronto still views itself as a team with pieces it can move for immediate help, and the blue line is one spot worth watching. Johnston pointed to “the first-round pick of the Colorado Avalanche and some young prospects” as part of what the Leafs could deal, adding, “I think they’ll be looking to upgrade even in these early days of the season.
One area to keep an eye on is their defence. They did have to include Emil Andrae in a reworked version of that Knies-Marchenko trade. So they do have perhaps an opening there for another addition at some point here in the future.”
Montreal, meanwhile, kept chasing Kirill Marchenko before he ended up elsewhere.
Pierre LeBrun said on TSN that once it was reported Marchenko wanted out of Columbus, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes made him a priority. LeBrun said Marchenko shares an agent with Ivan Demidov, and Hughes wanted to bring the two together. But Montreal never had the kind of asset Columbus wanted.
“I think the Canadians thought they actually could sign him to a contract that was going to pay him less than what Toronto is paying him now, $12.5 million. But it never aligned because the Habs didn’t have the thing that Columbus needed: a player in his prime on a great contract like Knies.
Not for a lack of trying, the Canadians tried to involve a third team with other ideas, trying to go get a player to appease Columbus, but they just couldn’t do it. So what now for Montreal? They tried to trade for Knies at the deadline; they tried to trade for Marchenko.”
LeBrun also said the Canadiens will keep hunting for a big name, and if Connor McDavid ever wants out of Edmonton, Montreal will be in the mix.
In Detroit, Dylan Larkin’s expanded trade list didn’t change much.
Johnston said the new list hasn’t led to fresh trade talks for the Red Wings. He added that Detroit has been trying to catch up all summer after removing Steve Yzerman in mid-July, and that interim GM Shawn Horcoff is still working on a deal with Simon Edvinsson, who was a top-pairing defenseman for the team last season.
Edvinsson had been in camp on a PTO, but because he didn’t get a new contract done once the season started, he’s away while talks continue. Johnston said, “I think they’d like a long-term deal on the Edvinsson side of things.”
The Red Wings do have plenty of salary cap space, but so far they haven’t been eager to spend it.
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Green said Sanderson was not ready to join the group after leaving a recent preseason game early, and the Senators will keep assessing him before they head out. For Ottawa, the timing matters as much as the injury itself, because any uncertainty around one of its top defenders can ripple through the lineup this close to opening night. [Read more 🡒]