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The Leafs have acquired Jake McCabe, Sam Lafferty, a conditional 5th round pick in 2024 and a conditional 5th round pick in 2025 from Chicago in exchange for a conditional 2025 1st round pick, 2026 2nd round pick, Joey Anderson and Pavel Gogolev
The Toronto Maple Leafs started their five-game Western road swing on the right foot with a 5-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on Sunday. The Leafs fell behind early on a Vince Dunn goal and bounced back quickly with three first-period tallies and additional goals in the second and third periods.
Auston Matthews tallied twice to snap out of a four-game goalless slump since returning from a knee injury, Mark Giordano, John Tavares, and Timothy Liljegren scored, and Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves for his 22nd win of the season.
“I was a little concerned coming into the game, frankly, just with the travel, time change, and disruption of sleep. You are a little unsure about how it is going to affect the group.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “It looked like it maybe was a factor early. Once we did get through the fog, I thought our guys settled in really well. We had a tremendous first 15 minutes in that first period. It was a different fashion than what it was in Buffalo, but in essence, we won the game in that sequence.”
With the victory, Toronto moved four points ahead of Tampa Bay in the race for second place in the Atlantic Division, as the Lightning lost 7-3 to Pittsburgh. After the game, GM Julien Brisebois pulled off another coup in acquiring forward Tanner Jeannot for a package of draft picks and defenseman Cal Foote.
Jeannot is having an off-year after scoring a career-high 24 goals last season, but the 6’2”, 208 lb. is a crasher and banger (130 PIMs last season, 85 in 56 games this year) and only adds to the group of physical forwards (Nick Paul, Patrick Maroon, Ross Colton, Corey Perry) that populate the Lightning’s bottom six.
The Leafs made their big move earlier this month with the acquisition of Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari, and according to numerous reports are interested in adding a defenseman before 3 pm Friday, but it would appear that GM Kyle Dubas must address the sizable “physicality gap” between Toronto and their first round opponent.
Adding to the consistent rumors of the Leafs having an interest in Vancouver defenseman Luke Schenn, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Florida Panthers may be shopping veteran blueliner Radko Gudas. The 32-year-old righty is a hitting machine and strikes fear in anyone trying to go to the front of the net, something that Toronto needs desperately, but his availability will depend on where Panthers GM Bill Zito sees his team after others in the race for the Eastern Conference wildcard spots make up their games in hand this week.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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