With Chris Tanev sidelined by an upper-body injury and listed as week-to-week, the Maple Leafs are clearly in the market for help on the back end. Elliotte Friedman said on Thursday’s episode of 32 Thoughts that Toronto wants to wait out this week before making a fuller assessment, but a move could still come before the Leafs hit their second back-to-back of the season next Monday and Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks and Columbus Blue Jackets.
That has opened the door to plenty of speculation, and there are a few names that make sense as possible fits for John Chayka if Toronto decides to act.
Braden Schneider is one option that checks several boxes. The Rangers’ 2020 first-round pick, taken 19th overall, is in a contract year and could appeal to a Toronto team with older defenders already carrying a heavy load. Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe and Morgan Rielly are all 32 or older, so a younger blue-liner with runway to grow would fit the picture.
Schneider, 25, is not going to drive offense, but he brings size, edge and a straight-up punishing style. At 6-foot-4, he has the kind of frame Toronto lacks in spots, and the numbers back up the physical package: 330 hits since the start of the 2024-25 season, which is 11th among defensemen, and 298 blocked shots, good for top-22 among blueliners.
His underlying results have also been encouraging. MoneyPuck has Schneider sitting second among Rangers defensemen in on-ice goal differential this season at plus-2.
That’s a notable step forward from last year, when he was minus-25 on a struggling New York team. Before that, he posted minus-3 in 2024-25 and minus-7 in 2023-24.
A deal could theoretically center on Anthony Stolarz, especially with New York missing both its starting and backup goaltenders, but that sort of return would come at a cost. Schneider is a right-shot defenseman who could slide in without much fuss, yet Toronto would have to decide whether parting with a once-reliable netminder is too steep a price.
If the Leafs want to swing bigger, Erik Karlsson sits near the top of the board. The 36-year-old is in the final season of his eight-year contract and would seem to be chasing one more crack at winning while also building toward his next deal.
Rumors tying him to Toronto have lingered for a while, and Friedman noted that Chayka likes to take big swings. Landing a near point-per-game defenseman would certainly qualify.
Karlsson’s game is different from Schneider’s. He won’t pile up the same hits or blocked shots, but he gives Toronto something few defensemen can: offense from the blue line and enough stick work to create turnovers. He has 81 takeaways since the start of 2024-25, tied for 11th among defensemen.
The obstacles are obvious. Karlsson has a no-move clause, so he would have to agree to come.
Then there’s the money. Toronto has $4.925 million in cap space, while Karlsson carries a $10 million hit this season.
That means the Leafs would need creativity, whether by moving out a current defenseman like Tanev, asking Pittsburgh to retain salary, or bringing in a third team to help balance the deal.
The payoff would be huge if Toronto could pull it off. Karlsson would give the Leafs a dynamic offensive presence and another power-play quarterback, which could make an already top-10 offense even harder to handle.
Rasmus Ristolainen is the third name in the mix, and he comes with a more manageable financial path. Philadelphia’s season has gone sideways fast, with nine straight losses to open the year, and the 31-year-old defenseman is in a contract year.
Ristolainen is on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, though he is expected back within the next few games. His $5.1 million cap hit fits Toronto far better than Karlsson’s number, and his style would look familiar to the Leafs. At 6-foot-4, he’s a physical right-shot defender who brings a similar build to Schneider and a similar edge to Tanev, but with a bit more offense.
He can chip in around 20 points in a season, and earlier in his career he was a regular 30-to-40-point producer before injuries changed his arc. For a Leafs team trying to steady its blue line right now, that kind of blend of toughness and usable offense makes him a realistic target.
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Toronto does not sound ready to make a dramatic move, but the discussion around Rielly is clearly shifting from concern to decision-making. The Leafs would like a version of him that looks closer to the player they expected, yet the path to getting there may involve uncomfortable lineup adjustments or, eventually, a bigger reset. For a team that has leaned on him for so long, even the possibility of a reduced role says plenty about where things stand. [Read more 🡒]