Quick Shifts: Maple Leafs under new pressure to trade for defenceman

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Kid was more recognizable than Play for fade-related reasons.

1. Morgan Rielly says he is happy with the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defence corps as is because what else is he going to say and because he’s not wrong.

Despite a rash of blueline injuries — shot-block king Mark Giordano is the only Leafs defender with perfect attendance — Toronto ranks fifth overall in goals allowed per game (2.64).

Captain John Tavares will tell you that, defensively, this is the best group he’s seen since he signed home. That’s partly personnel, partly buy-in and maturity.

“We like our personnel a lot, and we want to push each other to be better,” Rielly says. “We want to be better. We want to improve.”

At this stage, the easiest way to do so would be recruiting help from the outside.

With official word this week that Jake Muzzin will not participate in the postseason, one can’t help but ponder all the Muzzin-like elements missing from Toronto’s back end.

“It is difficult to replace exactly what he does. There’s not a lot of defencemen that are as versatile in what they bring,” says Sheldon Keefe.

The Leafs coach begins a list: offence, competitiveness, physicality, size, penalty killing, experience, perspective, poise….

“Not a lot of guys like that,” Keefe says.

He’s correct.

There’s even fewer of them available for trade. And the Oilers, Jets, Jackets and Blues are also hunting for D.

And the closest facsimile, Dmitry Orlov, was just snatched up by the rival Boston Bruins — already tops in the NHL in goals allowed at 2.11 per game.

The rich got richer. The Atlantic arms race is hotter than a pistol, and Tampa’s Julien BriseBois must be cooking up something for March 3, right?

“We’re getting close now,” Rielly says. “Teams within your division, you’re watching. We keep an eye on it, but we don’t worry about it too much. That’s out of our control as players,” Rielly says.

“Come trade deadline day, you’re glued to the TV. You want to see what’s going on. You want to see what other teams in your division are doing. Who knows?”

We do know that, considering Toronto’s hefty opponents, a third pairing of Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren is concerning. And that the Leafs are one injury away from throwing the promising but inexperienced Conor Timmins to the wolves.

Kyle Dubas must add to his defence. He has six days to do so.

Expensive as he was, Orlov would’ve been fantastic.

So… where does the GM turn now?

Columbus still hasn’t had its price for Vladislav Gavrikov met, and Boston was the front-runner. He’d be a fine upgrade.

Jake McCabe is still an option. Scott Mayfield likely is not, with the Islanders firmly in the wild-card mix.

Jakub Chychrun and John Klingberg are certainly intriguing but expensive. Luke Schenn will be less so. Nick Jensen has entered the chat.

No doubt, Dubas is exploring all options. But at this point, the one option not worth exploring is standing pat on the back end.

“It’s an exciting time,” Tavares says. “You’re in the final third of the season here. It’s the playoff push, and you see how teams feel heading towards that time of year.”

How does Toronto really feel about its defence? We’re about to find out.

2. If you were wondering why Dubas surrendered the better of his third-round picks in the Ryan O’Reilly trade (Ottawa’s), that’s because Toronto’s own 2023 third-round pick was frozen until Friday evening.

As a condition of the 2022 Nick Ritchie–Ilya Lyubushkin trade, the Arizona Coyotes had the choice of using either Toronto’s 2023 third-rounder or Toronto’s 2025 second-rounder.

Because the Coyotes opted for the second-rounder, Dubas is now free to deal his 2023 third.

Should he do that, however, Toronto won’t pick until the fifth round this spring.

3. Here is Keefe on his early impressions of O’Reilly off the ice:

“He’s a very fun and easygoing guy. Doesn’t take himself or anything else too seriously. Yet his game and his routine, his craft he takes extremely seriously and works very hard at it.

“That’s a rare balance. You see a lot of guys that are very serious and at times maybe need to loosen up and have a little fun. I think he’s got that good balance and great level of confidence that comes with the type of career he’s had and accomplishments he’s had.”

4. When advertising goes right…

5. Even when Craig Berube got fired from the Philadelphia Flyers bench midway through the 2014-15 campaign, his team wasn’t losing this often.

His GM is in sell mode, and some of his best players have already walked out the door. The 2019 champs are reeling, and the coach is feeling it.

Seldom to we see a coach publicly reference his players’ paycheques the way we did Thursday. Seldom do we see a star player fire back publicly at his coach’s criticism the way Robert Thomas did Friday.

Was it a mistake for Berube to air out his young stars (albeit not by name) from the podium? Probably.

Everyone is reeling here.

The Blues were a 109-point threat in 2022 and arguably gave the Cup-winning Avalanche its toughest test.

They never found their stride this season. Everyone outside of Doug Armstrong seems in shock.

“I don’t want to say too much,” says former captain O’Reilly, who prefers to keep his mind in Toronto. “Obviously, it was disappointing. We couldn’t seem to find momentum. It was a challenge right from the get-go.

“A lot of that comes on myself being a leader there. I’m supposed to drive the bus and didn’t. That’s why it probably dismantled the way it did. A lot of good pieces there.”

Adds Noel Acciari, another important role player: “We wanted to win, and just something wasn't clicking there. But, yeah, every guy on that roster wanted to win. We were down on ourselves at times, and we were up at times. But that’s how it goes.”

For what it’s worth, Berube is under contract for two more seasons past this one at a $3.5-million salary, per CapFreindly.com.

O’Reilly says he learned a ton from Berube over his Midwest tenure. The coach taught O’Reilly to trust himself.

“Chief’s an amazing coach. I love the way he had his pulse on the game,” O’Reilly says.

“He was honest. He told you what you needed to hear, and he told it in the right way. He was very respectful. You wanted to give him everything you got, just the way he is and the person he is.”

From the outside, the respect between the old coach and new leaders needs attention.

6. Keep an eye on the Capitals and Blues, who will be looking to reclaim their 2018 and 2019 glory as soon as possible. Somewhat surprise sellers with more to shed, they have the assets and the motivation to rebuild on the fly here.

Armstrong is now equipped with three first-rounders in June, plus two third-rounders. In the 2024 draft, he holds and extra second-rounder and an extra fourth. And that’s before renting out Ivan Barbashev, one of the better wingers still on the market.

Armstrong doesn’t shy from dealing. Not a chance he simply drafts all those bonus picks to his roster. He’ll shake things up significantly either by Friday or on the draft floor in Nashville. The Timo Meier possibility is intriguing.

As for Washington, Lars Eller and Marcus Johansson should be available up front, and the only defenceman under contract beyond July is the injured John Carlson.

Righty Nick Jensen should carry value, and lefty Erik Gustafsson has the cap hit ($800,000) and production (35 points in 59 games) to entice buyers.

Brian MacLellan cannot commit to a full rebuild as long as Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are in the fold, so he is positioning himself to be a significant player come summer.

7. Anyone else up for a redraft of the CBA? This is just silly…

8. Former powerhouses in St. Louis and Washington have waved the white flag.

Is Pittsburgh next?

Not only did GM Ron Hextall double-down on his aging stars (Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Jeff Carter) in 2022, he extended inconsistent winger Kasperi Kapanen to a two-year, $6.4-million contract.

Midway through the first year of that deal, Kapanen has been healthy scratched multiple times and rendered untradable. He was placed on waivers Friday and was scooped up by St. Louis Saturday.

“When a team doesn’t live up to expectations, change is inevitable — that's part of it,” coach Mike Sullivan told reporters.

“Kappy is a really talented player. To a certain extent, it’s on all of us because we didn't find a way to maximize his potential.”

Kapanen originally was drafted in the first round by Pittsburgh. He was traded to Toronto as part of the Phil Kessel blockbuster and returned to the Penguins for a first-rounder.

Despite being given ample opportunity to thrive offensively, Kapanen has never scored more than 11 goals in any season for Pittsburgh. He has seven goals, 20 points, and a minus-8 rating through 43 games this year.

Kapanen will turn 27 this summer. You never want to discount an athlete’s resurgence.

But perhaps, scary as it is to think, we already witnessed his best hockey.

That would be in 2018-19, when he scored 20 goals for the Maple Leafs — plus that beautiful go-ahead shorthanded goal in Game 7 at TD Garden:

9. Only six teams have a worse goals-per-game rate than the Minnesota Wild’s 2.81, and all of them are diving headfirst into the Connor Bedard sweepstakes: Montreal (2.71), Arizona (2.67), Philadelphia (2.67), Columbus (2.50), Chicago (.249), and Anaheim (2.47).

In a 3-2 league, the well-coached and highly disciplined Wild struggle nightly to get to three. Bill Guerin never adequately replaced Kevin Fiala’s offensive punch, and options are scarce on the rental market.

Tyler Bertuzzi is off the market. Bo Horvat, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Ryan O’Reilly are spoken for. And Timo Meier’s salary outlook takes him out of the picture.

Through their past 16 games, Minnesota hit the four-goal mark once. It scored two or fewer 11 times(!) over that span — and is still in playoff position.

The Wild could use a Patrick Kane more than anybody but may have to settle for, say, a James van Riemsdyk.

10. You can blame Wild management for building a roster that has lasted past Round 1 seven years running. But you can’t accuse owner Craig Leipold of being cheap.

Not only is Leipold still paying the freight for Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, he’s given Guerin the greenlight to play banker.

As a third party brokering two significant trades, Guerin snatched up Toronto’s fourth-round pick in 2025 and Boston’s fifth-round pick in 2023. All those assets cost him were some of Leipold’s cash.

Guerin is appreciative. Surely, more than a couple rival GMs are jealous.

As a bonus, potential difference-makers O’Reilly and Acciari were traded out of the Central Division.

Teams are only permitted to retain salary on three players. You gotta wonder if Leipold has one more in him before Minnesota’s cap space dries up in 2023-24.

11. Big fan of the New York Rangers’ aggressiveness.

Chris Drury locates his targets and makes his moves.

The general manager has already upgraded in three positions and hasn’t ruled out Kane at a bargain quite yet.

Drury got the jump on both the front-line forward and bottom-line forward markets this month.

The return of Tyler Motte via Ottawa brings familiarity and dependability to a fourth line in need of an identity.

In addition to his checking and penalty-kill work, Motte scored two big playoff goals for New York last spring.

12. Bravo, Jully Black.

The Canadian singer not only killed her rendition of our national anthem at NBA All-Star Weekend, but she boldly flipped the opening lyric to: O Canada, our home ON native land…

Little thing, huge thing.