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The Toronto Maple Leafs are entering the consequential weeks of the offseason when most of the moves are made. In the next three or four weeks, decisions will be made on players on their roster who have expiring contracts, those on other clubs with term left on their deals they would have to trade for, and players who are heading to the open market on July 1.
In the trade market, a few of the options would potentially be a part of a Mitch Marner deal, since the teams acquiring him would need to clear cap space to accommodate his salary for 2024-25 and the future, while the others have a connection either to new head coach Craig Berube or GM Brad Treliving.
1) Seth Jones – The 29-year-old blueliner is entering year three of an eight-year contract extension with the Hawks after being traded from Columbus. There may be a glimmer of hope now in Chicago that they have Connor Bedard, but it will be years until they become a contender. Jones has a $9.5 million cap hit and a no-movement clause, but he would provide that top-pairing right-handed defenseman the Leafs have been looking for.
2) Shea Theodore – The 2023 Cup winner is 28 and had 42 points last season, but is entering the final year of his contract, and with Vegas trading for and signing Noah Hanifin to an eight-year deal, it is widely thought that the Golden Knights will move Theodore out while they can get something in return for him. His $5.2 million cap hit makes up about 50% of Marner’s salary, so a Vegas-Toronto trade would have to be a bigger deal.
— HockeyProspect.com (@ScoutingService) June 13, 2024
3) Mario Ferraro – The 25-year-old GTA native’s name was mentioned frequently in trade chatter before the deadline in connection to the Leafs, and could be someone that Toronto could acquire in a player swap (let me float the name of Timothy Liljegren out there). Not a big scorer (he posted his career-high 21 points last season), Ferraro offers cost-certainty at $3.25 million for the next two seasons.
4) Colton Parayko – The big righty played under Berube and at his best in 2019 when the Blues won the Cup. The 31-year-old has six more years remaining at $6.5 million, and there has been some talk that GM Doug Armstrong would have interest in getting out of this deal a year or two sooner rather than later, but it is unknown how the Leafs could accommodate the cap hit without clearing a big salary like Marner or John Tavares.
5) Erik Gudbranson – The 32-year-old veteran righty was signed by Treliving to a one-year deal in Calgary in 2021, before getting a big four-year, $16 million contract in Columbus. New Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell is said to be wanting to clear up some cap space and Gudbranson’s $4 million AAV for the next two seasons could be a starting point.
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