The Leafs found themselves quite the gem in forward Matthew Knies, who has surpassed all of his draft-day expectations. The young Leaf made his NHL debut this past season and will look to secure a larger role on the team come October.
That is, of course, if he's still on the team.
Knies to the Canucks?
A trade proposal on CapFriendly envisions a scenario where the Leafs trade budding star Matthew Knies along with a third-round pick to Vancouver in exchange for Elias Pettersson.
While Leafs fans wouldn't be quick to move Knies, this chance to add a star like Pettersson to this roster would be hard to pass up. The young Swede has already proven he can score high point totals at the NHL level, and can more than hold his own in the corner.
No Money
The ultimate downfall of this trade proposal is the Leafs (lack of) cap space. The team is already over the NHL's salary cap and will need to make some major moves before the season starts in order to be cap compliant.
Adding a cap hit north of $7 million with Pettersson would only make their current situation worse, and would likely force them to move out one of their other high cap hit players.
While it's possible for the Leafs to move one of John Tavares, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, or Mitch Marner, we doubt they would go through all of this trouble just to replace one star with another.
While fans can dream, this trade is almost certainly not going to happen.
As Seen on CapFriendly
Who would you get rid of first for Pettersson?
Also read on Hockey Patrol :
Maple Leafs reporter addresses rumours of Mitch Marner's trade list