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Maple Leafs Linked to Former Power Forward As Search for Top-Six Help Continues

TheToronto Maple Leafshave been on the hunt for some top-six help all season long. Since losing Mitch Marner, the only replacement that was brought in to potentially step into the top two lines was Matias Maccelli. We all know how that’s worked out. Maccelli has spent the past seven games in the press box.

With the team having registered just eight goals in its last four games (of which only one was a victory), urgency is setting in on finding an addition to add some offensive punch up front.

And while names like Nazem Kadri (Calgary), Alex Tuch (Buffalo), Blake Coleman (Calgary), and Brayden Schenn (St. Louis) are being thrown around on the Toronto wish list, we’d suggest that those are mostly a pipe dream. The Leafs just don’t have the assets to compete with other teams in trade talks for those players.

Treliving could focus on a former Maple Leaf as top-six target

But the latest name to be floated could be more realistic. According to insiderDavid Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, a former Maple Leaf, Mason Marchment, is on their radar:

Toronto continues to look for a top-six addition – along with half the league… One target may be Seattle winger Mason Marchment, who Leafs GM Brad Treliving tried to land in June before he was dealt to the Kraken.

Marchment, the 6-foot-5, 212-pound power forward, was originally signed by the Leafs back in 2019 after spending two full seasons with their AHL affiliate, the Marlies. Marchment went undrafted after completing his junior career in the OHL. But he never got much of a shot with the Buds, playing in only four NHL games in the Blue & White. He averaged just over eight minutes of ice time and recorded one assist.

The Leafs then had to watch the one that got away, as Marchment broke out with the Florida Panthers the next season, and then in three straight years with the Dallas Stars. He was coming off two consecutive 20+ goal seasons this past summer when Dallas dealt him to the Seattle Kraken. But when it was known that the Stars had him on the trade block, the Maple Leafs made a failed attempt to bring him back.

Leafs need to take another run at re-acquiring Mason Marchment

As Pagnotta wrote, Treliving should be taking another shot at trading for him, this time from the Kraken. Marchment has not yet had the same impact with Seattle this season that he had in the previous few years. He has just four goals and 13 points through 27 games. But he did come to life in their last game on Friday night with two goals, including this beauty.

Marchment is on an expiring contract, at a $4.5 million cap hit. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

The gritty two-way forward imposes his physical will, particularly in the postseason. He has delivered 217 hits in just 59 playoff games. Last year, he doled out 70 in just 18 playoff contests for Dallas.

You can just see Leafs coach Craig Berube salivating over the possibility of having Marchment in his lineup.