Maple Leafs failed to pull off key trade and now it’s too late

The Maple Leafs missed out on veteran forward Lars Eller, who would have been a perfect fit in Toronto. On Tuesday evening, the Pittsburgh Penguins traded Eller to the Washington Capitals in return for a third-round pick in 2025 and a fifth-round pick in 2027. It has been reported that the Maple Leafs had targeted Eller as their top candidate for a trade in order to get center help. While there are some other options on the market, looking at Eller, it’s easy to tell that the 16-year veteran who is a Stanley Cup winner with over 400 points and 1000 NHL games would have been ideal. Especially when you find out the fairly cheap cost he was for the Capitals.

With Eller out of the picture, the Maple Leafs will have to consider other options as they have previously been linked to the Seattle Kraken and forward Yanni Gourde.

Gourde was mentioned by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli who recently spoke about the possibility of a trade coming to Seattle, seeing how the Kraken may have too many forwards and could be forced to move one out.

Since the start of the 2024-24 season, Toronto has been struggling to draw some offense from the bottom six and Gourde might be the perfect solution for the Maple Leafs, especially since the Kraken seeks help on its blue line. Gourde is set to become a free agent in the summer of 2025, but there’d be hope if he brings the much-needed offense to the Leafs of a deal coming in Toronto. On top of that, he is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, having won the prestigious championships in back to back season with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021. More of what Toronto needs in the dressing room.
The only issue would be his cap hit at $5.7 million that would have the Maple Leafs asking for salary retention and could mess up the deal.

If not, if the Boston Bruins are willing to speak with the Leafs, rumour has it that Trent Frederic is available. He is a big man and is younger than Gourde, but has been off to a slow start in Boston. He however has a lot of potential the Maple Leafs could exploit. Frederic comes cheaper than Gourde with his $2.3M cap hit, which wouldn’t be an issue for Toronto especially if the Leafs can move money around through other trades, LTIR and waiver assignments.

Some have mentioned Montreal Canadiens’ Christian Dvorak as a possible option, but I’m not sure it would be the first seeing the rivalry and its history.

One thing is sure is that the Maple Leafs were too late on Eller and lost out a great option for a boost up front. And something needs to be done with Toronto failing to generate any offense in last night's 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators.