With the Calgary Flames holding a surplus of defenders, the Maple Leafs could target Zach Whitecloud to add one final shutdown piece on the blueline.
Calgary enters camp with a crowded blue line built around Kevin Bahl, Simon Nemec, Jacob Middleton, Zayne Parekh and Zach Whitecloud, with several other defenders competing for limited NHL minutes.
With that, there may be a chance the Flames decide to trade one of their pieces and the Toronto Maple Leafs should target Zach Whitecloud if he should become available.
Stabilizing the bottom-four behind Chris Tanev is a critical need for the Maple Leafs
Whitecloud, 29, is a shutdown stay-at-home defender who would add both top-tier shot blocking and physicality. He's averaged 81.6 hits and 81.5 blocks for his career, and is coming off three consecutive seasons with 100+ in both categories.
He's also a right-handed shot which would help balance out the defensive pairings a bit, and he would be a great complement to one of Toronto's puck-moving defenders.
Whitecloud would give Toronto another proven right-shot defensive option behind Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe, which becomes more valuable if the Leafs want to manage Tanev's workload or protect themselves against injury.
Whitecloud could line up beside Oliver Ekman-Larsson and give him a steady, sure-footed defender who can help him focus more on offence and continuing his above average production since coming into Toronto. Plus, if Chris Tanev does go down at all this season then Whitecloud can step up beside Jake McCabe - and still offer a similar level of defensive help.
He also comes with a Stanley Cup winning pedigree, which adds yet another winner to the lineup that includes Ekman-Larsson, Nick Paul, Steven Lorentz, Anthony Stolarz, and Sergei Bobrovsky.
Heavy net-front defence is a huge part of Jim Hiller's system
Whitecloud's value would come less from fitting one specific Hiller system and more from giving Toronto another dependable defender who can handle defensive-zone work, penalty-killing minutes and physical matchups.
He doesn't mind sacrificing his body, he fights hard for pucks, is a great penalty killer who knows how to properly clear the zone, and his huge frame can cause the opposition to take an extra second to think how to approach shooting around him.
If there were concerns about keeping Tanev healthy and perhaps thoughts of giving him less responsibility, then Whitecloud can take the bulk of the heavy PK minutes alongside McCabe and it doesn't lessen Toronto's defensive ability.
With the Maple Leafs needing to make sure that they have enough insurance on the backend, trading for Whitecloud would offer them a reliable and steady piece that is an improvement over their other depth pieces, and provide the team the right fit, but Toronto would need to clear $2.75M in cap space first - then pay him his $2.75M cap hit for the next two seasons.
If Toronto can make the cap work, Whitecloud would give Hiller something the current blue line lacks in abundance: proven right-shot defensive insurance. He would not replace Tanev's impact outright, but he could keep one injury from forcing the Leafs to dramatically reshuffle their defensive pairs.
Do you think Zach Whitecloud makes sense as a trade target for the Maple Leafs?
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