On Sunday afternoon, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced the trade that sent defenseman Cody Franson and forward Mike Santorelli to the Nashville Predators. In return, they received veteran Olli Jokinen, prospect Brendan Leipsic and the Predators 1st-round selection in 2015.
In other words, they’ve mailed it in this season.
With one win in the month of February and two in 2015, it was no surprise that Dave Nonis and Brendan Shanahan were looking to begin a rebuild.
This is no slight at the players coming over to Toronto. It’s just not what they need to turn the season around, and you know what? That’s okay. Toronto has just about reached the point of no return and trading anything of significant value to the Leafs future, just to save the season, would be a mistake. Less we forget, Franson turned down a multi-year, $4.6 million offer from Toronto, which means he would likely test the free agency market once the year was done. Mike Santorelli was looking for a multi-year deal starting at $3 million per season, which may be too rich for Toronto management. In other words, the Leafs sent two unrestricted free agents, who were more than likely walking in July, packing.
Olli Jokinen, at the age of 36, is in the last years of his career, if he doesn’t already plan on hanging up the skates after this year. His best years are certainly behind him and his chance at winning a Stanley Cup, which looked promising as a member of the Predators, have now been slashed with this deal. In Toronto, Jokinen is a seat filler until season’s end. Or, could he be part of a bigger picture. He won’t net a return of any value, but a low-end draft pick could be a possibility.
The bigger picture asset in this return is Brendan Leipsic. After trading both Carter Ashton and David Broll to the Tampa Bay Lightning for essentially nothing, it was time to start adding players to their prospect pool and the 5’10” centerman was a great way of kicking things off. The 20-year-old is projected to be, at best, a top-6 winger and at worst, a third liner that has some offensive upside. Leipsic is a robust player that hits everything that moves, plays with an edge and is a good finisher. In four seasons with the Portland Winterhawks, Brendan put up 132 goals and 170 assists in 261 games, averaging to well over a point per game. In 47 games with the AHL Milwaukee Admirals, his first season, Leipsic has 35 points (7 goals, 28 assists).
The last time the Maple Leafs had two 1st-round selections, they picked right winger Tyler Biggs (22nd) and defenceman Stuart Percy (25th) in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. Currently, they are holding on to the 5th overall pick in the 2015 draft and Nashville’s pick, which currently sits as the 30th pick, could be anywhere between the 22nd and 30th spot, pending a deep playoff run. The Leafs could end up with two of the 30 best prospects in a deep draft, or they could package the Predators 1st for something else. They have options now, which is an underrated commodity in the NHL.
The most important thing fans of the Maple Leafs is that this trade, and perhaps more to come in the not-so-distant future, was made to better the team in a couple of years from now. When you have pieces like Nazem Kadri, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly and few more highly-touted prospects, you are on the right path. The best thing to do now is to relieve yourselves of a few bad contracts, draft smarter and start from scratch.
From this point forward, it’s the beginning of a new era in Toronto. The Brendan Shanahan era.
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