The Toronto Maple Leafs remain in stasis.
We know that eventually the Toronto Maple Leafs have to make roster moves to get cap compliant and to sign Rasmus Sandin.
But we do not know when that will be, as the team appears to be in absolutely no hurry to make decisions.
Logically, trading Jake Muzzin seems like the best option the Leafs have – they are deepest at Muzzin’s position, he makes enough money to sign Sandin with some left over.
The problem: will Muzzin waive his no-trade clause? Will another team trade for him fairly, or will the Leafs have to pay to dump his salary?
Despite age and injuries, Muzzin is still really good, and a top-four defenseman rare enough that I don’t think the Leafs would have to pay to move him. The Senators, Red Wings and Jets all need defense, want to make the playoffs, and could use Muzzin.
So while we wait for the Leafs to make a decision, here is what the rest of the NHL is doing.
Toronto Maple Leafs and News from Around the NHL
Carey Price looks like he’ll miss the upcoming season as well. That’s rough. Price only got in five games this year, and it’s unclear when or if he will be able to resume his career. The last time he was healthy and playing well, he took a horrible team to the Stanley Cup Finals, so if that’s how he goes out, few have done better, but you’d really like to see him get back, even if just to see his cap hit screw the Canadiens!
The World Junior Tournament is apparently having it’s Gold Medal game tonight, and I have to say, this was completely off my radar. Canada is going to play Finland. Without the Christmas background, it just doesn’t seem like the real World Juniors.
Two Leafs – Topi Niemela and Roni Hiroven – will be in on the action, so there is that.
Kyle Turris retired! He was never a Leaf so I don’t really have any thoughts on this, but if I’m mentioning it then it’s a slow news day for the NHL.
Hopefully after the World Juniors conclude there will be something more interesting to report on than Kyle Turris or Nashville getting to host the next draft and awards show.
there is going to be a ton of NHL news very soon, and you don’t need to be a member of the Psychic Alliance to know that (though I am). The fact is, according to Cap Friendly, there are 14 NHL teams over the salary cap right now.
That’s almost half the league, so there are going to be some really interesting things going down, even after you account for the fact that a lot of those teams are just waiting to be able to move players to the LTIR.