{"id":462279,"date":"2025-02-07T18:30:59","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T23:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=462279"},"modified":"2025-02-07T18:30:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T23:30:59","slug":"nhl-rumours-toronto-maple-leafs-front-runners-for-st-louis-blues-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/02\/07\/nhl-rumours-toronto-maple-leafs-front-runners-for-st-louis-blues-captain\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Toronto Maple Leafs Front-Runners For St. Louis Blues Captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of NHL Rumours<\/a>. The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> continue their search for a middle-six centre<\/a>. Dylan Cozens<\/a> was recently a name that popped up<\/a>, but Brayden Schenn<\/a> is the latest to draw Toronto’s interest. Leafs’ general manager Brad Treliving<\/a> has been in on almost every player up for trade. Negotiations and trade talks will only intensify as we get closer to the March 7 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Some of those names include Scott Laughton<\/a>, Brock Nelson<\/a>, Yanni Gourde<\/a>, Ryan O’Reilly<\/a> and more. Many of the players that Treliving has kicked tires at have plenty of playoff experience, and even some Stanley Cup winners. St. Louis Blues<\/a> centre Schenn certainly suits the team’s type.<\/p>\n

Toronto is a Top Contender to Land Schenn<\/h2>\n

Schenn is the newest name on Toronto’s list as a potential add before the trade deadline. According to Darren Dreger on Insider Trading<\/em><\/a>, Toronto’s a top contender in a race to add Schenn to their roster. It’s believed the Blues could move their captain as the team falls out of the playoff race in the Western Conference. They’re sixth in the Central Division<\/a> and eight points behind the Vancouver Canucks<\/a>, who hold onto the last wild-card spot.<\/p>\n

Dreger added that Blues general manager Doug Armstrong is known to be aggressive and there have been signs in the past. In the offseason, he handed offer sheets to two players<\/a> on the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> defenceman Philip Broberg<\/a> and centre Dylan Holloway<\/a>. In addition, when the Boston Bruins<\/a> fired head coach<\/a> Jim Montgomery<\/a>, Armstrong began to work the phones. He fired Blues coach Drew Bannister<\/a> and hired Montgomery<\/a> five days after he was let go. With the history of Armstrong’s bold decisions, trading his captain shouldn’t be out of the question.<\/p>\n

Schenn is a highly respected and coveted hockey player in the NHL. As mentioned, he is a former Stanley Cup champion with the Blues. They defeated the Bruins in 2018-19 to hoist the Cup and Schenn was a big piece to that team. Furthermore, Schenn played 26 games and scored five goals and 12 points in those playoffs.\u00a0 This season, the 33-year-old has scored 11 goals and 30 points in 55 games. The veteran has the fifth most points on the team as the second-line centre.<\/p>\n

How Would a Trade Work?<\/h3>\n

Dreger admitted that if Armstrong and Treliving were willing to agree on a trade, it would be “mammoth.” Firstly, Schenn earns $6.5 million<\/a> per season and has three more remaining years on his contract after this campaign. Furthermore, this is the last season he has a no-trade clause on his contract. Next year, the clause becomes a 15-team no-trade list.<\/p>\n

Disregarding his clauses, it’s still a tough deal to crack for Toronto. Treliving would likely need Armstrong to retain the cap on Schenn’s contract. According to Puckpedia, the Maple Leafs have $2.2 million<\/a> in salary cap space. Therefore, the Leafs would have to send back a player or two to make the money work. Max Domi<\/a> and Nicholas Robertson<\/a> are likely the most tradeable assets on Toronto’s regular roster. The Blues could be interested in Robertson given his age and upside. Players such as Robert Thomas<\/a>, Jordan Kyrou<\/a>, Jake Neighbours<\/a> and Holloway are similar in age. Robertson would fall into that clique which might pull Armstrong.<\/p>\n

Other assets the Leafs could throw at St. Louis are draft picks. This year, Toronto doesn’t have a first-round pick but has one next year. Other picks they own for this season are a second, third, and picks from the fifth to seventh round.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Brett Holmes-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to another edition of NHL Rumours. The Toronto Maple Leafs continue their search for a middle-six centre. Dylan Cozens was recently a name that popped up, but Brayden Schenn is the latest to draw Toronto’s interest. Leafs’ general manager Brad Treliving has been in on almost every player up for trade. Negotiations and trade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5141,"featured_media":462287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4547,4548,4321],"tags":[1594,505,2801,3877,3885,39,5868,6127],"class_list":["post-462279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-brad-treliving","tag-brayden-schenn","tag-doug-armstrong","tag-nhl-rumours","tag-nhl-trade-rumours","tag-st-louis-blues","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-analysis","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-rumours"],"modified_by":"Andre Leal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462289,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462279\/revisions\/462289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}