Kraken abruptly shut down trade talks with Maple Leafs!

The Seattle Kraken have told the Toronto Maple Leafs to stop asking them about potentially acquiring one of their top defensemen. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Kraken have informed the Maple Leafs and general manager Brad Treliving to stop calling about the possibility of acquiring blue liner Adam Larsson before Friday’s deadline.

“Adam Larsson is a guy Toronto has called on a few times, I’ve heard Seattle basically told them like lose our number, stop calling about this guy,” Friedman explained on the 32 Thoughts podcast.

The Leafs are expected to be busy ahead of the deadline in just two days and have been linked to different targets with time soon running out.

But when it comes to Larsson, he is under contract through 2029 with an AAV (average annual value) of $5.25M and he would eat up a lot of the Leafs’ cap space.

Now, perhaps Toronto is calling and asking for the Kraken to some salary retention in the deal, which might not be something general manager Ron Francis looking to move the entire contract.

The Maple Leafs could always get a a third team involved in a trade to get it done, but they would also need to part with some important pieces to make a transaction happen.

It’s been recently reported by Friedman that Toronto could have to part with “Easton Cowan, Ben Danforth, Fraser Minten and their 2026 first-rounder” and that if the Maple Leafs wanted to “do anything significant, they’ll have to decide which of those they’d part with.”

However, the Maple Leafs might now have to shift their attention elsewhere on the market, especially if the Kraken will no longer pick up the phone for them…