Teams are trying to trade defencemen to the Leafs, Jake Muzzin is in the early stages of extension talks

As McKenzie mentions, it’ll be players like Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson, and Alexander Kerfoot who would be names other teams will be asking about in return for a young defenceman with a similar price-tag. Given Toronto’s cap situation, it’ll be incredibly hard to execute a deal for a worthwhile defenceman without giving up anybody currently on the roster.

But if the deal helps the team beyond this year, is it worth pulling the trigger? For example, if New Jersey were to retain half of P.K. Subban’s $9 million cap hit, making him a $4.5 million defenceman for the rest of this year and next, would it be worthwhile to send one of Kapanen or Johnsson the other way? What about Adam Larsson or Darnell Nurse in Edmonton? The Oilers badly need help up front, could there be a hockey deal to be made?

Moving along, McKenzie also notes that the Leafs and Muzzin are in the early stages of talks on a new contract. Muzzin is one of three Leafs defencemen who will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Given how poorly things have gone for Tyson Barrie, I can’t imagine he’s back again, and I doubt there’s an appetite to keep the Cody Ceci experiment going beyond this year. Muzzin is certainly the one of the three who makes the most sense to stick around long-term given how good he’s been since being acquired around this time a year ago.