Dakota Joshua Trade Could Signal the End for Two Maple Leafs Veterans

With the recent trade acquisition of Dakota Joshua from the Vancouver Canucks, the Toronto Maple Leafs face a roster crunch as the team now has 14 forwards under contract and fighting for lineup spots, with Nick Robertson currently unsigned as an RFA making it 15 potential roster options.

The signing of Joshua ensures that there will be further moves with the Toronto Maple Leafs depth chart at forward, making it likely that Robertson, who has struggled to find a place on the Leafs roster consistenly, may be moved on from.

The move also means a player, or players, may find themselves out of the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup, and shipped off to make up room with not enough spots for everyone.

With it evident that there are moves that need to be made,, there are some very obvious candidates for a move to get them to their necessary roster size.

Two likely candidates to be moved on from with the acquisition of Dakota Joshua are David Kämpf and Calle Järnkrok.

With the Leafs having just under $3M in cap space, they'll want to move a sizable contract out while cutting their roster size, making Kämpf ($2.4M) and Järnkrok ($2.1M) potential departures for the team.

Another cost-saving measure would be Max Domi who is currently making $3.75M until 2028, but with a lack of a surefire top-six forward alongside the core-three + Knies, it may be safer to keep Domi unless the Leafs are acquiring a top-six forward in return.

The Toronto Maple Leafs don't need to move out Scott Laughton and Bobby McMann, who are on reasonable deals, leaving Kämpf, Domi, & Järnkrok as potential options to either trade or waive, along with Nick Robertson, although moving Robertson would likely mean one of the forwards still is not apart of the main roster.

There is still less than two months for the Toronto Maple Leafs to sort out their roster issues, but evidently acquiring Dakota Joshua indicates that nothing is done for Toronto's roster makeup and there are still in the rear window some tough roster decisions in the near future lying ahead.