2017 Trade Deadline - The Aftermath

The third Trade Deadline day in the multi-year rebuild of the Toronto Maple Leafs has passed, and what, if anything, has changed?

In a previous article on this site (here), a plan was put forth on how the Leafs could have approached the March 1, 2017 Trade Deadline with an eye to managing and maximizing their assets. In summary, that plan was to create a list of all the players who would be Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA’s) at the end of the 2016/2017 season and evaluate whether it made sense or was even feasible to try and trade any of those players.

This list ended up being comprised of the following players:

1. Andrew Campbell
2. Colin Greening
3. Matt Hunwick
4. Brooks Laich
5. Curtis McElhinney
6. Milan Michalek
7. Roman Polak
8. Ben Smith

Looking at the above list, it was determined that the Leafs probably might be able to trade two players from that list:

1. Roman Polak
2. Matt Hunwick

The interesting aspect of these two names is that they comprise the 3rd pairing for the Leafs and trading them would have required either bringing back similar D-men in a trade or slotting in current players in the Leafs’ organization to fill those spots.

Therefore, it was not much of a surprise that the Leafs chose not to trade either Roman Polak or Matt Hunwick, instead opting to become “buyers” and bring in depth players to try and stabilize the current roster and make it more “battle-hardened” for the stretch drive towards the playoffs. 

These were the players added to the Leafs’ roster shortly before or on Trade Deadline day:

1. Brian Boyle - 4th line Centre
2. Eric Fehr - 4th line Centre/Right Wing

As well, the Leafs also acquired the following players, prospects, and/or draft picks:

1. Steve Olesky – assigned to the AHL Marlies
2. 2017 4th round draft pick – from Pittsburgh

Leaving the Leafs system, were the following players and draft pick:

1. Byron Froese – from the AHL Marlies
2. Frank Corrado – from the AHL Marlies
3. 2017 2nd round draft pick

As can be seen, no players were moved off the Leafs’ NHL roster. It seemed that management decided to give the current group that got them to the trade deadline in the hunt for a playoff spot an opportunity to fight for the remainder of the season for that playoff spot.

The proto-typical 4th line centre (Brian Boyle) was brought in to help solidify the 4th line and a player (Eric Fehr) was added in case of injury or for playoff depth.

A 2017 2nd round draft pick was traded away but was replaced by a 4th round draft pick – not exactly a wash but at least the number of picks in the upcoming draft wasn’t diminished.

So, after all of this rather underwhelming activity what exactly did the Leafs accomplish? 

The Leafs were able to improve their current NHL roster without sacrificing another player from that roster and added depth in case of injury or for the playoffs.

Not the kind of Trade Deadline a lot of Leafs fans were looking for, but no damage, short or long-term, was done to the organization and the current Leafs roster was given a slightly better chance to compete for the playoffs.

This last aspect should not be under estimated as it gives Leafs’ management an opportunity to evaluate the current Leafs’ roster to see who among that group would warrant staying with the Leafs longer term and who it would be best to move on from this coming off-season or at the next Trade Deadline.