TSN suggests Maple Leafs are “afraid” to make big trade!

With the offseason officially underway for the Toronto Maple Leafs, general manager Kyle Dubas not only will be focused on fine tuning his team so that they can enjoy another successful regular season, but finally break through the metaphorical prison they seem to be locked in of not being able to advance past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

Shortly after their disappointing loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning last month, team president Brendan Shanahan declared that both Dubas and head coach Sheldon Keefe were safe, meaning that he trusts that the pair will eventually able to get the team over the hump. But is Dubas hesitant to make a major move? 

Fans of the Maple Leafs everywhere watched Sunday night as former Toronto forward Nazem Kadri, who was jettisoned by the Leafs in 2019 after being deemed a liability in the postseason by management, throw shade at his former team by telling everyone who didn't believe in him to "kiss my ass", a clear shot at the Leafs brass who gave up on him. 

Earlier today on TSN's "OverDrive", hosts Jeff O'Neill, Bryan Hayes, and Jamie McLennan were were joined earlier today by TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston, where they discussed the possibility of "scar tissue" lingering with the Leafs in how the Kadri trade didn't work as they'd hoped. 

"Do you think the Nazem Kadri story would leave scar tissue to the point where Dubas and company would be afraid to make a move?" asked Hayes.

Possibly, that's probably the move that we can point to that, at least in my view, was the biggest misstep they made," Johnston said. "I understand how they got to that conclusion in the sense that they felt that they couldn't trust him in those big games after what happened in those two series vs. Boston, but at the end of the day, he was a cost-control player. He was already delivering better value on his deal in real time, but was also a good bet to keep doing that for the next future seasons from when they traded him." 

"I think there is a cautionary element there," he continued. "They identified (Kadri) as someone that they had to move, and they wanted to get a defenseman to fill a hole at the time in return. It didn't work well, and I believe the rumored trade with Calgary that Kadri turned down before he went to Colorado wouldn't have served them any better, either. It's a lesson in what not to do with maybe the approach of how that trade went down." 

Kadri certainly got the last laugh on the Leafs, and it very well could be affecting how they do future business deals.