The Toronto Maple Leafs could be in for an extremely active trade deadline and may be poised to make one of the biggest moves in franchise history.
According to ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, Toronto has shown interest in acquiring New York Rangers star winger Artemi Panarin. The 34-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent and, unless something unexpected occurs, is expected to be the most talented player available ahead of the NHL trade deadline on March 6.
Toronto is not alone, unfortunately. Weekes also named roughly a billion other teams who have at least run up Rangers general manager Chris Drury to see what they need to do to get Panarin on their team.
Leafs named among teams interested in trading for Artemi Panarin
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A deal could materialize soon, potentially even before next week’s Olympic roster freeze. At the moment, the Rangers are keeping Panarin out of game action to avoid risking an injury to their most valuable trade asset before completing a move. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan has even suggested that the Russian All-Star may have already played his final game in a Rangers uniform.
Are the Leafs really a contender to get Panarin?
What obviously makes a deal like this complicated and probably unlikely to go down for the Leafs is just how bad they have been. Maybe this is old information and Toronto general manager Brad Treliving checked in on Panarin during the Leafs’ surge a few weeks ago — and now there is no possible way they would run the risk of trying to get the aging skilled winger in Toronto for his big eventual payday.
And even if the Leafs were still so dedicated to this season that they would look at their 24-20-9 record and think they should invest in a roster that sits 10 points out of the playoffs; they don’t really have the assets to pull it off. Unless they’re willing to move a massive piece like Matthew Knies (would be otherworldly stupid to do that), piling together Easton Cowan and Ben Danford to go along with their pathetic collection of draft picks will not compare to the packages that other teams like the Ducks, Sharks, or the Mammoth, could put together.
This is almost certainly not happening, but it is at least nice to see what is probably the last report of the season about the Leafs being interested in a rental as we suffer more through the remainder of this campaign.
