When Dale Tallon is open for business it seems foolish not to at least do a little window shopping. Also they have Mark Pysyk, who makes glorious sense for a Leafs team that can certainly use a right shot in their top four. We’ll get to much more on him in a bit, but for now we’ll explore what Florida could possibly want from Toronto…

Dale Tallon has done everything short of renting billboard space to advertise that he will be going after Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin. Cool. Let him do that. Both are very good players, but they are certainly priced out of Toronto. Instead let’s focus on the role Toronto can play in helping Tallon achieve his goal, and part of that is letting Florida dump some salary, as well as helping Florida round out their roster that would make the Panthers an enticing place to spend the next seven or eight seasons.

Additionally Florida is going to be open to the usual picks and prospects that lottery bound team should covet, but perhaps we can apply a Russian twist on this, and with Russian pivoting to Russians, this could be an opportunity to clear out Mark Hunter’s collection of strange Russian draft picks. Additionally, maybe this is a team that has interest in Igor Ozhiganov and/or Nikita Zaitsev.

Let’s dream big, it’s Dale Tallon country!

Part of what Florida is likely looking for is takers for James Reimer and Jamie McGinn. Both likely cost too much to not be playing for a budget team.

Finally, the Panthers could use some lower cost forwards capable of scoring, Brown being the most appealing sell for the Leafs, and a couple more solid defensemen that particularly pricey.

The Panthers are honestly a pretty decent team when it comes to rentals, and the idea of adding from a team that will be desperate to shed salary and accumulate what it can should create a bit of a buyers market when it comes to Florida. Riley Sheahan isn’t anything particularly special, but if Toronto wants to upgrade their fourth line, he’s an option. If they wanted to upgrade their center depth with someone more talented, Derrick Brassard is also there, but the cost is going to be significantly higher as he will be one of the more easily movable players.

The rest of the collection of Panthers is pretty underwhelming but I will go through the trouble of mentioning Troy Brouwer and Jamie McGinn. Troy Brouwer is the kind of addition that the “proven winner”, and “heavy hockey” crowd has to be pumped for. I also can’t imagine he’s going to cost a ton. If he’s riding shotgun on the fourth line to appease a coach seeking veteran leadership, I can make peace with that, as long as the price paid for him is something along the lines of Gabriel Gagne.

McGinn hasn’t played at all this year, and it’s a crap shoot that he’s even capable of being in the NHL anymore. You certainly aren’t going to pay a rental price for him, but he’s an expiring contract that Florida may pay someone to take away. At the same time if he is in any kind of playing shape at all, he’s a 13th forward option that might be of interest to Babcock, while probably making Dubas throw up in his mouth.

It’s hard to ignore that the Panthers might be entertaining trading Jonathan Huberdeau, and while he might not have been the player the Leafs would have been considering bringing in at the deadline, he probably needs to be considered now. Huberdeau is a cost controlled winger (who could play center) and would represent a talent upgrade. That talent upgrade would have to come at the cost of some pieces likely starting with Kapanen, Johnsson, or Kadri and moving out from there. There is also the possibility that you pay the price in futures to Huberdeau, have a stacked lineup heading into the playoffs, and shed what you need to over the summer. Huberdeau is interesting.

Back in reality, we’ll focus on Mark Pysyk, a right shooting defenseman with a very manageable cap hit of $2,733,333/yr through next season. Pysyk hasn’t had his best season, much like anyone who is on the 2018-19 Panthers, but is likely to be a lot more comforting next to a stronger partner like Travis Dermott.

Beyond that, the biggest want from the Leafs is to see if the Panthers are a dumping ground for…

Florida has long been target #1 on the Zaitsev dumping ground for a few reasons…

We’ll largely focus on #3 here, since the rest of pretty well established, but a deal that includes Reimer (who would be bought out), McGinn (who’s contract expires) and Mark Pysyk (who is good) would clear up over $1.5M in cap space for the Panthers next season, and additionally free them from the remained of what McGinn is owed this season, which I’m sure makes them happy too.

Potentially the return on this would be Zaitsev and Sparks, giving them a replacement (upgrade) for Reimer and a replacement for Pysyk.

I could also imagine the Leafs picking up Chris Wideman in this process, as nothing about the Panthers organization leads me to believe they are happy to have a $1M cap hit sitting in the minors.

Maybe this is all just a wonderful dream of mine, but I want to believe it makes sense.

Oh please, oh please, oh please let something be done here. I really like Mark Pysyk, and I really want to believe this is how the Zaitsev end game plays out. Heck, for some of you there will even be the pleasant experience of a couple more months of James Reimer in a Leafs jersey, although I don’t know how that could be seen as a positive.

Anyway, as I may have mentioned earlier, it’s Dale Tallon, we can probably dream even bigger than I tried to with acquiring Huberdeau. The sky is the limit and Tallon hates skill that doesn’t have a Blackhawks cup ring.