Report: Teams asking Leafs about van Riemsdyk, trade price “very high”

With only a month and a half to the trade deadline, it’s funny that we haven’t heard much about the Leafs and who they might be targeting or shopping. I guess now we’re living in a Lamoriello world, so information like this will be hard to come by from now on.

The main source of Toronto trade talks we’re likely to get is indirectly via sources from other teams throughout the league, as is the case this morning when there have been rumblings the team has received some interest in their best offensive weapon, James van Riemsdyk.

From Elliott Friedman (via Sportsnet.ca):

Unlike a lot of the forwards the Leafs will potentially be moving next month, van Riemsdyk is no rental and he’s still young, on a great contract to boot. There’s zero urgency in making a trade with him involved unless the return blows the doors off.

We’ve talked a little about the Blues and how they’ve been reportedly shopping Kevin Shattenkirk, and that’s likely the type of return you’d need to see in order for the Leafs to move on from ‘JVR’.

Friedman doesn’t drop names just for the sake of it, so there’s definitely some substance to this. It’ll be interesting to see if this rumour heats up a bit as we get closer to the end of February.