Maple Leafs have a potential Chris Tanev successor on the Columbus Blue Jackets

The Maple Leafs can once again look to the Blue Jackets for help, but this time on the blue line as Dante Fabbro would make the ideal replacement for Chris Tanev.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs needed a playoff performer who could provide leadership and grit a few years ago, they acquired Nick Foligno from Columbus though that deal unfortunately didn't work out. This year, they needed scoring and offensive help for Auston Matthews and decided to send Matthew Knies to Ohio for Kirill Marchenko - a deal that Toronto has so far clearly won.

Well, they could certainly look at them a third time and get some help on their blue line. They may need it too as Chris Tanev is a constant question mark even when healthy, and the team has had to use depth options since even their depth has gone down with injuries.

Toronto once again heads to Ohio for lineup help

Their solution comes in the form of a player who is just about to make his season debut as well: Dante Fabbro.

Fabbro, 28, has been on the IR since the preseason after suffering a broken hand during Columbus' first preseason game against the Red Wings. For the 2025-26 season, Fabbro had 5 goals and 11 points while also adding 120 blocks and 65 hits in only 16:34 TOI.

He's your stay-at-home, shutdown type of defender who likes to put his body on the line and has keen defensive awareness, much like Tanev. He's also much younger and faster than Tanev is, which allows him to cover at least a bit more ice.

While he's smaller than Tanev, he's a bit stouter and he is really difficult to move off the puck once he has it. If Toronto wants a replacement for Tanev going forward (maybe not this year but next) then Fabbro makes sense and he basically costs exactly the same amount with just as much term.

Fabbro at least gives Toronto insurance

Despite having dealt with injuries himself, Fabbro has been fairly durable and certainly hasn't missed nearly the amount of time Tanev has in his career. Right now, Toronto needs someone to help settle things in their own zone, and Fabbro helps immensely.

He can slide in beside Morgan Rielly on the second pair, giving him a right-handed shutdown partner which allows Troy Stecher to move to the third pair alongside Oliver Ekman-Larsson, which gives him his left-handed side back.

Here's how the defensive pairings would look if Fabbro were to replace Tanev:

McCabe - Raddysh
Rielly - Fabbro
Ekman-Larsson - Stecher

Toronto's extra defenders would be Nick Blankenburg, Marshall Rifai, and Tanev. Giving him fewer games and using him more as a stop-gap option against tough teams is going to be key to keeping him on the ice. You can't keep riding him for 20+ minutes without a risk of injury.

So switch gears, and let him play every few games when you need to add some extra defensive help. Stecher is the ultimate team player and if he's asked to take a night off it's very likely he'd have no issues.

At this point you have to preserve as much of Chris Tanev as you can before you potentially lose him for good. That means replacing his role on the blue line and the solution is Dante Fabbro.

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Maple Leafs get a huge boost on the blue line ahead of Calgary game