Is there a trade that makes sense for the Leafs and reeling Senators?
If the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to upgrade their roster in the next few months, there’s a team not too far down the 401 they could probably consider a trading partner.
While the Ottawa Senators came into the season with high expectations of ending their six-year playoff drought, it’s safe to say the season hasn’t exactly gone as their fans would have hoped.
Some pundits and fans alike predicted this would be the year the roles in the Battle of Ontario finally flipped.
Of course, that hasn’t happened: Ottawa sits dead last in the Eastern Conference with just 22 points through 27 games, some 16 points back of Toronto.
On Monday, Ottawa made their second clean-house move of the year, firing head coach DJ Smith a little over a month after parting ways with general manager Pierre Dorion.
On paper, the Senators haven’t been horrendous from a straight goal differential standpoint — they’ve been outscored by just a 93-91 margin on the year.
But the results have been ugly. Ottawa is currently on a five-game losing streak, capped off last night by blowing a 3-0 lead in Tempe to the Arizona Coyotes en route to an embarrassing 4-3 loss.
And barring a miracle turnaround this year, it seems like Ottawa will be sellers come trade deadline time.
“We know these things start with the coach, but if things don’t get better, players are next,” Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said yesterday, as per TSN 1200. “We want to keep this group together and win together.”
While the idea of trading to a direct rival might be taboo to some, the Leafs and Senators have had no trouble making deals over the years.
In 2016, Toronto sent captain Dion Phaneuf to Ottawa as part of an eight-player trade. A few years later, in a six-player trade in 2019, Toronto’s key return piece was Cody Ceci in exchange for Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Brown. More recently, the two teams were involved in a deal in July 2022 that sent goaltender Matt Murray to Toronto.
The biggest name up front Toronto could reasonably target this year is 32-year-old forward Vladimir Tarasenko, who signed a one-year, $5 million contract with Ottawa this past offseason. In 25 games, he’s put up six goals and 13 assists while averaging 16:21 of ice time.
Tarasenko did sign a no-trade clause this year, but he’s far more likely to waive that if Ottawa remains out of the playoff race. And given Tarasenko’s cap hit, Toronto may need Ottawa to retain a portion of the deal over the rest of the year to make such a trade go through.
On the backend, the Leafs could take a look at 25-year-old Jakob Chychrun, who the Senators acquired this past March from Arizona. While Chychrun was a hot commodity on the trade market before coming to the Senators, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility he’ll be on the move once again.
With Chychrun possibly hitting free agency in 2025, the Senators will have a decision to make about how to handle his future, with seven players on their roster already locked up through 2027 or later.
As the NHL holiday roster freeze officially kicks in today through December 28, no moves will be happening just quite yet. But if the Senators keep trending in the wrong direction, don’t be surprised to see Toronto hitting up their phone lines soon.
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