Artemi Panarin wasn’t going to be coming to the Toronto Maple Leafs, no matter what the most delusional of Leaf fans thought. But his move to the Los Angeles Kings along with a two-year extension could actually be very good news for the Leafs. Or bad. Depends on how the team decides to proceed.
A three-game win streak out West to close out the pre-Olympic section of the schedule leaves the Buds within six points of a Wild Card spot. Not out of the question, you say? It sounds like, per TSN’s Chris Johnston and others, the Leafs will still proceed with their plans of being sellers at the trade deadline.
With Panarin off the board—both as a rental for contenders, and as an unrestricted free agent come July—Toronto’s own pending UFA Bobby McMann just picked up some solid trade value.
No, we’re not comparing McMann to Panarin as a player. But with the new LA Kings’ star off the market, McMann is arguably the best available ‘rental’ out there from a goal-scoring standpoint at the deadline.
As noted by many around the sport, the Buffalo Sabres are almost certain to keep pending UFA Alex Tuch as an ‘own rental’. That could leave McMann, with 19 goals and a $1.35M cap hit, in big demand.
Granted, there are several other trade candidates with much greater offensive value than McMann, but they all come with term and hefty price tags and cap hits. Names like Steven Stamkos, Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Vincent Trochek come to mind.
En route to his second straight 20-goal season, a trade of the sizeable, speedy McMann could help the Leafs re-stock the cupboard of a very barren asset list of prospects and draft picks.
Could the Leafs re-sign Bobby McMann rather than trade him?
But could the front office get a little too giddy on this three-game win streak over the break, and decide to sit tight on McMann and other potential trade assets?
On Leafs Morning Take on Thursday, former Leaf Jay Rosehill called that option “gross.”
His stock is as high as it’s going to get, and I think his play is as high as it’s going to get. You have to make decisions when decisions need to be made. And with where this team is at, and what they have for assets and where Bobby McMann lies right now in his career and his contract, I think you have to get something for this guy. I think that goes without saying.
If you don’t look at moving Bobby McMann, I think this team’s just ready to be status quo, where they sit right now. Which is just gross to most fans if you ask me.
In fact, TSN insider Mike Johnson said on TSN Radio that Toronto must either sign or trade McMann and their other valuable pending UFA Scott Laughton. Anyting less would be “negligent.”
He even went another step further. Johnson wants the Leafs to do a little wink-wink deal with either or both. “What I would do… Say, ‘We love you… we can give you five years at $5 million (or whatever is palatable)… But what we’re going to do, is we’re going to trade you for a first-rounder, and then we’re gonna be waiting for you on July 1st, and hopefully you come back here. And the team you come back to will be better off for you having gone on a playoff run somewhere else.'”
Johnson says a framework like that is not against any rules, so why not try it? “That seems to make a lot of sense to me.”
How could Panarin signing be a bad thing for Leafs?
If the Leafs go the ‘Lets try to sign McMann to an extension now’ route, then the Panarin trade will undoubtedly work against them. McMann’s camp can rightfully point to his value on July 1 going up, with yet another big UFA off the market. His price tag is soaring by the day.
One way or another, Leafs GM Brad Treliving has some big decisions to make. He’ll no doubt spend his two-week Olympic break considering those options.
