Bracco, Timashov, and Harpur on the trading block

Last night on Hockey Night in Canada, Elliotte Friedman reported on the Headlines segment that Leafs players Jeremy Bracco, Dmytro Timashov, and Ben Harpur are all being shopped.

For me, Bracco comes as no surprise. In now his fifth season since he was drafted late in the second round, Bracco has still yet to develop his game to the NHL level. Despite being second in the AHL in scoring last season, Bracco couldn’t crack the Leafs roster this season, and at 22, he’s starting to reach that age where we figure out what he is. Bracco is one of the best passers in the Leafs organization, but he just hasn’t rounded out his game enough to be NHL ready.

However, he’s still young enough for another team to take a shot at him, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Leafs to see what they can get out of him, especially since it seems like he won’t fit on the Leafs depth charts.

Harpur also isn’t much of a surprise. He was more of a throw in to the Zaitsev-Ceci deal, and while there was some concern that Babcock was going to give him ice time, Harpur was sent down to the minors. It was clear he was just meant to even out the contracts of that trade, so it looks like Dubas is trying to see if someone wants to give up a pick for a depth defenseman.

Timashov is a bit more surprising, as he came out of nowhere this season to make the Leafs, and has been a solid fourth line option for the team.

But even with that in mind, the emergence of other depth players like Pierre Engvall have left no space for Timashov when all the injured forwards get back, and he requires waivers, so once again, it’s not a bad idea for the Leafs to see what they can get for him.