Maple Leafs trade Bobby McMann in deadline deal as return details emerge

In a last-minute deal, the Toronto Maple Leafs traded winger Bobby McMann to the Seattle Kraken. Elliotte Friedman was first on the news:

The return according to Frank Seravalli is a 2027 2nd-round pick as well as a 2026 4th-round pick and it also reunites him with former assistant coach Lane Lambert, who heads the Kraken currently.

McMann, 29, was slated to be dealt for a while now and was held out of the lineup for Wednesday against the New Jersey Devils for precautionary reasons. He has 32 points in 60 games (19 goals, 13 assists) while adding 135 hits and a big reason as to why he was such a hot commodity was due to his $1.35-million cap hit.

NHL Insider Frank Seravalli noted that a McMann deal was progressing, and just awaiting a finalization between Toronto and Colorado, however that clearly fell through.

Seravalli did note that this was just a preliminary discussion and nothing concrete in way of a deal had been made public.

The talk surrounding McMann heated up on deadline day as David Pagnotta noted that barring some miraculous change in philosophy, he's going to be heading somewhere else:

Especially since Kiefer Sherwood signed his massive extension (with McMann a near identical player) Toronto can't afford to keep him around right now and prioritizing a return is crucial.

Toronto getting something for essentially one and a half seasons of McMann is a steal. This is a player signed out of the NCAA, trudged through the ECHL, AHL and finally made it to the NHL level where he's shown to be a 20-goal scorer with breakneck speed and physicality.

This is why you go after and develop players because this is exactly what McMann was for if things went south -- a homegrown talent whose growth brought value on the way out.

But there is a bit of a talking point here and that's the fact Toronto walked into the day with several suitors and came away with an okay package, but not the one anyone was anticipating. A fourth seems like Brad Treliving gave up on fighting for anything better and just took what he could.

For contrast, Justin Faulk's price was a first and third round pick; the fact Treliving couldn't budge one of Seattle's five first-rounders is quite the impressive feat.

Plus there's always a chance McMann re-signs with the team this summer though with the potential to have a massive pay raise, he would likely need to take a discount if he wants to come back.

It does leave the Maple Leafs with a glaring hole in their top-six and with the departure of Nic Roy and the likely trade of Scott Laughton -- that's basically a line of guys they need to replace.

More details to come.

Also read on Hockey Patrol :
Why the Carlo-Mrtka trade failed: Inside the Maple Leafs' deadline