The Vancouver Canucks are open for business on their veteran players, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Friedman stated Monday that a memo has been sent out to the rest of the league amid the Canucks’ disappointing start to the season. While they are unwilling to sell Quinn Hughes or Filip Hronek, anyone who is a pending unrestricted free agent or carries a bit of term with minimal trade protection is fair game.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will certainly be keeping tabs on who the Canucks are willing to part with in an effort to get their own season back on track. Having conducted business with Vancouver multiple times over the past few seasons helps give them an edge over other potential teams with serious interest. Of the players that would be available, the Leafs should be most interested in forward Kiefer Sherwood.

Sherwood checks all of the boxes of a type of player that Brad Treliving and Craig Berube value having in a forward. He has a high motor, is relentless on the forecheck, and is more than eager to lay the body, as evidenced by him setting the NHL record in hits last season with 462. He can chip in offensively as a depth piece, though he can also hold his own defensively, which makes him a valuable asset in all situations and someone whose game translates perfectly to playoff-style hockey.

Above all else, he is the kind of guy who will do whatever it takes to get the win and drag his teammates into the fight. When there is a scrum, Sherwood is usually right in the middle of it causing a ruckus. His ability to get in the face of his opponents during play and frustrate them enough to get suckered into a penalty has helped him slot in the upper half of the league in penalties drawn. Combine that with his cap hit for this season coming in at a reasonable $1.5 million, and it’s exactly the kind of addition that could breathe life into a Leafs team that desperately needs it.

Of course, Toronto won’t be the only team kicking tires on Sherwood as he is reportedly gaining plenty of traction in trade talks right now. The Athletic’s Thomas Drance reported that the Canucks’ minimum asking price is a second-round pick, which the Leafs don’t currently possess this year but do have for 2027 and 2028. If they are willing to look past that, they will then need to be comfortable with giving Sherwood a massive payday at year’s end since he will likely seek a long-term deal north of $5 million a season.

Despite there likely being a highly competitive market for his services, that shouldn’t scare off the Leafs from trying to win the Sherwood sweepstakes.

It is clear that the goal for this season is to compete for a Stanley Cup, and the options at their disposal are not doing enough to put the team in a position to achieve that because of the overall poor defensive play. Sherwood can add to the potent offence, even though he is operating at an unsustainable 28.6 shooting percentage, but he will do a lot to improve the Leafs’ defensive game because he is sound in his own end and can help put out the fire. Getting more players like him to improve the defensive play while adding some snarl will go a long way in making them a better team overall.

While the Leafs could simply give up a future second-round pick to acquire, there could also be other ways to get a deal done. One option could be making a package with Calle Jarnkrok as the centrepiece, so that the Canucks get back a player who provides similar value in terms of versatility and someone they could ship off closer to the deadline.

If Vancouver instead prefers getting younger options, perhaps a package centred around Matias Maccelli could entice them. The Finnish winger has not quite found his footing in Toronto, and Treliving could try and sell Patrik Allvin on Maccelli being a better fit for the Canucks with potential partnerships alongside either Elias Pettersson or Brock Boeser.

Regardless of how they get it done, it would be in the Leafs’ best interest to take a run at Sherwood because he makes a lot of sense for what type of team they aspire to be. It won’t come cheap and they will have to fend off many other interested parties, but pulling off a potential trade would be worth it.