Toronto Maple Leafs should not trade James van Riemsdyk
It might be tempting for the Toronto Maple Leafs to trade James van Riemsdyk with just a year left on his deal, but keeping him is the right move.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are finally out of a long and painful rebuilding process. Once they committed to a full rebuild and got the right people in charge, it didn’t take them long to build a contender. Usually, rebuilding teams look to trade players with a year left on their contract. This would make Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk an obvious candidate. However, the Maple Leafs are not a rebuilding team anymore.
Toronto is all in to win a Stanley Cup at some point during the next two seasons. And they should be. While Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner ensure the Leafs will be contenders long-term, the next two years might be their best opportunity to win. Why? Because the next two years will be the last time the trio are on cheap entry level contracts.
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Ergo, trading van Riemsdyk doesn’t make too much sense. But there are some more reasons as to why trading the wing makes little sense for Toronto. First of all, van Riemsdyk, even with the kids coming up, is still one of Toronto’s top wings. He led all the Leafs wings and finished second on the team with 62 points last season. JVR’s 29 goals were good for third on the team, trailing only Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri.
Even with Patrick Marleau on the team, he’s still at worst the team’s second best left wing. If William Nylander switches to center, that would make JVR the team’s best left wing. However, the biggest reason to hang onto van Riemsdyk is simple. Toronto likely wouldn’t get anything back that would help them more next year than having him. Also, the Leafs, while they have a number of skilled prospects, don’t have an immediate replacement for JVR. Kerby Rychel has the potential to be something special, but he has minimal NHL success (12 points in 37 games) to his name.
The only situation where trading JVR makes sense is if he helps them get a top pairing defenseman. On paper, that’s the only thing the Leafs lack in their quest to win a Stanley Cup. But top pairing defensemen are rarely on the market.
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Lastly, even if the Maple Leafs hang on to van Riemsdyk for a year and wind up losing him for nothing in free agency, they have enough depth that it won’t be a problem. Toronto is a win now team and it’s hard to see how the team could improve themselves if they trade JVR for anything less than a top pairing defenseman.