It’s now the final week leading up to the trade deadline and as much as the Maple Leafs don’t want to publicly commit to being sellers, selling should absolutely be the name of the game. There is only one thing worse than the Leafs being buyers and that is the Leafs being quiet though. There are few points in the year where General Managers are willing to accept some changes in their roster and foregoing an opportunity bring about change seems worse than whiffing or even worse than the Leafs becoming buyers (at least if they buy an attempt to upgrade was made and even if the player is a rental there is a value in that early re-signing window.)

Everyone has established different dates for when the wait and see window for the Leafs would come to end and a decision on their direction would have to be made, but any decisions made Saturday night’s game against Ottawa feels a little too late to confirm the direction. Waiting until close to the trade deadline has usually benefited teams as sellers but the Leafs, especially with who they will make available won’t see as significant returns at the eleventh hour. Sell now and take back salary on March 6th seems like the best play.

Here are a few other stray thoughts on the Leafs heading into a busy week.

If the Leafs are in fact planning being sellers there is no reason why Scott Laughton, Bobby McMann, or Calle Jarnkrok should be in the lineup this week. It’s also likely that there will be some interest in Anthony Stolarz so the Leafs leaning towards Joseph Woll as their starter makes a lot of sense (although the back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday will force the usage of Stolarz if a deal hasn’t been made yet.)

These are the easy examples but if things start heating up over any other player in the Leafs lineup that applies to them as well. There seems to be plenty of interest in Simon Benoit and Nicolas Roy and the Leafs need to use the press box to their advantage.

Personally, I wouldn’t hate the Leafs preemptively holding out certain players creating the illusion of something imminent and attempting to drive up the return on their assets, but how successful that ploy would be depends on how informed you believe NHL GMs are when it comes to what their peers are up to.

No matter what, the Leafs can’t risk high draft picks in favour of attempting to pick up a meaningless win against the Flyers.

There are some interesting names being tossed around the deadline. A lot of this is closely linked to the fact that every sports media outlet (including ours) has deadline coverage they need to sell you. Nevertheless, if players like Elias Pettersson, Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas are available, all NHL GMs need to consider what they can do to make their best case for acquiring these players as high level talent does not come available in this league as often as you’d hope. The Leafs need to be interested.

The Leafs also need to consider the youthful side of who is available and it should matter that  Pavel Mintyukov, Brad Lambert, Shane Wright, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Braden Schneider have their names out there as well.

The club also needs to prioritize some of the intriguing salary dump options that are out there. Players like Andrew Mangiapane, Ryan Strome, and even Warren Foegele have upsides as high as players like McMann, Laughton, and Roy that the Leafs are looking to cash out on. And all have contracts that essentially mirror what the Leafs will be paying in free agency for similar talent.

Most options should be on the table for the Leafs and while selling is the priority, that shouldn’t negate adding a fresh face to the Leafs locker room as well.

Probably not.

It’s been an emotional week surrounding the Leafs captain and understandably the combination of Auston Matthews and his Team USA teammates attending the Trump White House and not standing with the women’s hockey team in solidarity leaves a bad taste in a lot of mouths. Even if you’ve long given up on any hope of athletes having views that mirror your own, this was an exceptionally tough situation to watch unfold and having hockey players pretend that there is nothing political about their decision is either insulting or egregiously stupid.

It’s understandable that some Leafs fans are done with Matthews as a result, it’s understandable that others at least don’t want to see Matthews as their captain and given the extremely political nature of this situation I completely agree with everyone who is putting their personal ethics above their desire for a competitive Leafs team.

That said, Auston Matthews is not someone that is going to be traded in season by a General Manager on the hot seat. That’s not to say that considering moving on from Matthews isn’t worth considering down the road, but not now.

A lot of the same criticisms over lack of playoff output that led to accepting Marner’s departure will also apply to Auston Matthews and now he also needs to be looked at as player with just two years left on his current deal on what is likely a non-playoff team and as one of the best statistical American born players of all-time and the captain of Team USA, there is a strong possibility that these are the last two seasons that Matthews will be a Maple Leaf. The door to a Leafs team without Matthews needs to be considered but isn’t something that will hastily occur in a week.

The lack of a return for Marner and seeing the Rangers return for Artemi Panarin is a reminder that waiting and letting players build more leverage in the situation results in underwhelming returns and whether it is Brad Treliving or someone else, whomever is in charge of the Leafs this summer needs to fully understand Auston Matthews’ intentions and proceed accordingly.