Maple Leafs Expected to Make Another Blue Line Trade as 10 NHL Defensemen Crowd Roster
Photo credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
The Toronto Maple Leafs appear poised to make a potential trade on defense following the acquisition of Henry Thrun from the San Jose Sharks.
Since acquiring the 24-year-old Thrun from the Sharks earlier this past week, the Leafs now look to potentially be ready to move on from their current defensive group to fit in Thrun.
Toronto now has multiple available defenseman on their roster, with many of them currently apart of their NHL lineup and likely to fight for a roster spot.
Along with Thrun, the top players on the Leafs defensive core remain, including Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev, Jake McCabe, Brandon Carlo, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Toronto Maple Leafs poised to make defenseman trade with Thrun deal
On depth, Toronto has added Thrun to go alongside Simon Benoit and Philippe
Myers in battling for that sixth defensive spot.
Myers in battling for that sixth defensive spot.
On the outside looking in are veterans in Dakota Mermis and Matt Benning, and rookies Topi Niemela and William Villeneuve, both men who are looking for a chance to show what they can contribute.
Likely, the Toronto Maple Leafs defensive structure still has some restructuring to do, and with that likely comes in their asset management a transaction in the works.
With the acquisition of Henry Thrun, changes are likely to not end there, and will probably shift even more the direction the Leafs take on defense.
How Toronto will decide who's in or who's out
The most direct move the Leafs could make in impacting their defense is a trade involving Morgan Rielly, although that scenario would take a lot of work and would result in a replacement needed, where Toronto is needing to subtract more than replace.
With their eight leading defensemen, assuming no deals happen means the sixth and final spot will be fought between Thrun, Benoit, & Myers.
The Leafs have Rielly, McCabe, and Ekman-Larsson as their lefties, with Carlo & Tanev as their RHD's.
This is a favorable scenario for the right-handed Benoit to fill a clear gap in the third spot on the right side, but Ekman-Larsson has shown he can play on that side if needed.
That means if one of Thrun or Myers outperform Benoit, it could have OEL switched to his off side for one of Thrun/Myers.
One thing is for certain and that is the fact the Toronto Maple Leafs have multiple NHL caliber roster players and not enough spots for all of them, and changes are still going to be made before the season starts.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 12 | 4029 ANSWERS Maple Leafs Expected to Make Another Blue Line Trade as 10 NHL Defensemen Crowd Roster Who deserves the Leafs final defenseman roster spot? | ||
| Henry Thrun | 482 | 12 % |
| Simon Benoit | 3033 | 75.3 % |
| Philippe Myers | 223 | 5.5 % |
| Other | 291 | 7.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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