TRADE!!! Ben Harpur shipped off to the Preds

Having just watched an injured Tyson Barrie head to the dressing room already felt like too much to handle on trade deadline weekend, but now we also have the trading of favourite Marlies whipping boy Ben Harpur to deal with…

So let’s start with what the Leafs gave up. A player they didn’t want to give icetime to in the AHL, a restricted free agent with arbitration rights who was going to be allowed to walk, and frankly, amazingly enough the worst defenseman in a trade involving Nikita Zaitsev and Cody Ceci. The Leafs lost nothing.

As for what the Leafs added, well…Miikka Salomaki has as many I’s in his name than he does games in the NHL over the past two years, so this is definitely an AHL deal. He a 26 year old winger from Finland, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. His 15 AHL points don’t inspire a lot of confidence that he’ll be back next year or see NHL time this year.

This is probably a deal about making good on Ben Harpur’s desire to be traded from the Leafs, so perhaps we can expect similar deals for players like Timashov and Bracco who made similar requests of the Leafs.