These “Branches” posts I’ve been writing often look back at trades from many years ago and try to find the beginning and end of a trade tree. Let’s try something a little different this week.

Let’s call this a trade “sapling” because the trade may not be fully-grown yet. This all began with a Brian Burke-era Leafs deal between Toronto and Nashville a little over five years ago.

On July 3, 2011, the Leafs completed a trade with the Nashville Predators. The Leafs acquired Cody Franson and Matthew Lombardi while the Predators acquired defender Brett Lebda and prospect Robert Slaney. There was also a conditional 2013 fourth-rounder involved that would go to either the Leafs or Predators depending on the amount of games Lombardi played but we’ll get to that later.

The Predators wanted to offload Lombardi’s $3.5 million salary and the Leafs were willing to take it if Nashville sweetened the deal. Young up-and-coming defender Cody Franson was that sweetener. That’s a pretty mighty haul for the Leafs considering Lebda was a 2010 summer signing and Slaney was signed as a free agent while playing on the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

Now it starts to get hairy.

The conditional 2013 fourth-round pick in this trade went to Nashville because Lombardi played more than 60 games.

Nashville flipped this pick, 112th overall in 2013, to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for a 2013 seventh-rounder and a 2014 fourth-rounder. The 2013 fourth-rounder the Blues got turned into Zach Pochiro, who has played most of the past two seasons in the ECHL. Fun aside: Pochiro was just dealt to Edmonton in the Nail Yakupov deal. The 2013 seventh-rounder the Predators got was Janne Juvonen, a goaltending prospect currently developing in Finland.

The 2014 fourth-rounder the Predators got: Viktor Arvidsson, who is already making an impact on the Predators’ NHL roster with 76 games and counting under his belt.

Now for the Leafs.

Toronto traded Matthew Lombardi to the Arizona Coyotes for a conditional fourth-rounder in 2014. This player turned out to be J.J. Piccinich, a very under-the-radar Leafs prospect. Piccinich scored 30 goals and 66 points in 66 games with the OHL’s London Knights last season and already has 20 points in 16 OHL games so far this season. Big asterisk: The Leafs don’t have him signed to a contract yet.

Fast forward to February 2015.

The Leafs stink. The tank has begun and the Shanaplan has been implemented. Everyone must go.

Hey, Nashville! You going to the playoffs? Yeah? Hey cool! Want Cody Franson back?

The Predators traded a 2015 first-round pick, forward prospect Brendan Leipsic, and veteran Olli Jokinen to Toronto in exchange for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli. Speaking of Santorelli, there’s another free agent signing the Leafs managed to convert into more assets.

It gets even more complicated.

The Leafs went into the 2015 draft with a plan: Get as many draft picks as humanly possible.

Toronto used their own first-rounder to draft Mitch Marner fourth overall. Now what should they do with this Nashville first-rounder they have sitting 24th overall?

The Leafs flipped Nashville’s first to Philadelphia in exchange for the 29th pick in 2015 that the Flyers had previously acquired from Tampa Bay, along with the 61st pick in 2015, a second-rounder that the Flyers had previously acquired from Chicago.

This move already has some Leafs fans tugging their collars because the Flyers used this pick to select Travis Konecny, who’s already making a dent in the NHL for them.

It doesn’t stop there.

The Leafs traded down yet again, sending the 29th overall pick in 2015 to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for the 34th overall pick and 68th overall pick that year. If you can believe it, the 34th pick was actually the Leafs’ own second-rounder that they had originally given to the LA Kings for Jonathan Bernier, while the 68th pick was actually Philadelphia’s, originally given to the Blue Jackets in exchange for Steve Mason.

Hold on, we’re almost done.

The Leafs managed to flip Olli Jokinen to the St. Louis Blues for Joakim Lindstrom and a 2016 sixth-round pick. The Leafs used that pick to select Nicolas Mattinen from – surprise, surprise – the London Knights.

After all that, here’s a super sophisticated graphic to show what the Leafs managed to turn Brett Lebda and Robert Slaney into:

On one hand, you could certainly argue that this is a massive haul. Even if you ignore the initial trade, that only wipes the 2014 fourth-rounder used to draft J.J. Piccinich off the board. The Leafs managed to turn Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli into Brendan Leipsic, two 2015 second-rounders (Travis Dermott and Jeremy Bracco), a 2015 third-rounder (Martins Dzierkals), and a 2016 sixth-rounder (Nicolas Mattinen).

• Brendan Leipsic is the AHL’s leading scorer and won AHL Player of the Month for October.
• Jeremy Bracco is seventh in OHL scoring.
• Martins Dzierkals is 12th in QMJHL scoring.
• J.J. Piccinich is tied for 28th in OHL scoring.
• Travis Dermott has five assists in eight games as an AHL rookie.
• Nicolas Mattinen has just one assist through 16 OHL games this season.

An optimist would say that, for the most part, those are some very encouraging prospects.

A pessimist would say they’re all just magic beans and Brendan Leipsic is the only one of the bunch who has even played in an NHL game yet.

One minor detail left: The Predators traded Robert Slaney to the Montreal Canadiens in a package that helped Nashville acquire Hal Gill in 2012.

The point of this wasn’t to show that the Leafs “won” their trades with the Predators, either. The two teams clearly had different goals. The Leafs wanted to trade players for picks and the Predators were gearing up for a playoff run. Were Franson or Santorelli particularly strong for Nashville during their 2015 playoff run? No, but you don’t get eliminated in six games in Round 1 because of one defender and a depth forward. If you’re going to pick on that you can’t ignore the fact Nashville managed to turn a cap dump and a conditional fourth-rounder into Viktor Arvidsson.

It’s funny how things turn out. Franson scored twice for the Leafs in Game 7 against Boston. He even had the series-winning goal until deep into the third period. He might even still be a Leaf if that game ended with a different result.

Now it’s time to watch this trade tree grow. It looks promising for the Leafs right now but I could wear out this keyboard with prospects who once looked great only to fizzle out.

You never know, though. Maybe it’s a new era.