Jonathan Drouin: Toronto Maple Leafs Would be a Great Fit
Jonathan Drouin: Maple Leafs an Excellent Fit
Jonathan Drouin is hoping to leave the Tampa Bay Lightning in the near future but his new home remains up in the air. With several teams showing significant interest, the optimal trading partner seems to be any team willing to part with a top-four defenseman, a high-end prospect or a combination of the two.
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Mile High Sticking
The St. Louis Blues, Anaheim Ducks, Nashville Predators, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild are the big players in the Jonathan Drouin sweepstakes but no real progress has been made with anyone.
What about the Toronto Maple Leafs?
While the Maple Leafs have stayed out of the limelight during the Drouin saga, the potential of landing the Quebec-native could be huge for the franchise. As it stands, the Maple Leafs continue to battle for wins in the Eastern Conference but are still in last place of the Atlantic Division.
They have zero chance at the Stanley Cup and are likely battling the Columbus Blue Jackets for the Auston Matthews draft pick. They have been complimented for their compete level but that is fundamentally based on the lack of expectations when the season started. Much of the attention is on the Maple Leafs’ coaching staff and front office with Mike Babcock and Brendan Shanahan trying to turn things around.
When you consider the Maple Leafs roster, they have significant pieces to offer playoff-contending teams. Even though cap space and salaries will be a key concern, players like Tyler Bozak, Joffrey Lupul, P.A. Parenteau, Michael Grabner, Dion Phaneuf and Roman Polak could be great trading pieces. If the price is right, the Maple Leafs should be willing to throw Leo Komorov or Nazem Kadri in the mix as well. Both players are having strong seasons and could be a solid piece for a contending team.
The Maple Leafs may have to retain some salary on some of their bad contracts but eating a Matt Carle or Jason Garrison contract could help their cause. They have around 5 million to play with while the Lightning are closer to the 2 million mark. The Lightning would need to rid themselves of significant salary to take on most of the Maple Leafs’ contracts but the players available should be enough to get the ball rolling.
For the Maple Leafs, the idea of adding Jonathan Drouin to their already impressive prospect group should be enough to throw everything that the Lightning. William Nylander and Mitchell Marner lead the charge in what should be a very interesting couple of years in Toronto. While there is very little faith in the current team, the addition of such high-end talent to the prospect pool has kept Leafs Nation at bay, for now at least.
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Adding Drouin to that mix of prospects gives the Maple Leafs one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL. All three players have experience playing center and could provide some help in that regard as well. They are offensively gifted and have all the makings of top line players.
Even if some of their young prospects do not live up to the expectations, the chance to truly build something from the ground up increases drastically.
All three players have been regarded as elite playmakers and have the potential to not only be great individually but help their teammates as well.
The jury is still out transitioning to the NHL with the same level of production but you could not hope for better eggs in your basket. To have three players of this caliber will undoubtedly improve the Maple Leafs’ chances of long-term success.
Next: Potential Destinations for Jonathan Drouin
The most interesting part of acquiring Drouin is he should be the most NHL-ready forward of all three prospects. Nylander is currently playing in the AHL while Marner is tearing up the OHL with the London Knights, and both players are likely to stay put given their chance at consistent top-line and powerplay opportunities.
Even the thought of having Drouin, Nylander and Marner throw on the Blue and White should have every Maple Leafs fan drooling.