Expect the Toronto Maple Leafs to remain active in trade market after Lyubushkin trade

Following yesterday’s trade that saw the Toronto Maple Leafs re-acquire Ilya Lyubushkin, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli shines some light on the addition and how the Leafs are not done yet heading into the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Ilya Lyubushkin is once again a Maple Leaf, they gave up a couple of picks and got his salary retained twice by the Anaheim Ducks and Frank this was probably a good indication that the Leafs were in on Chris Tanev, are you shaking your head at this or not, what do you make of it? 

Frank Seravalli: Well no, they were never really authentically in on Tanev, they wanted him but they don’t have a second-round pick and unless they were trading a first-round pick for a package that included more than Tanev they were never really in it. They tried other ways to do it by packaging other picks but they just couldn’t reach that price and didn’t want to go above the second-round pick territory just for Tanev. It left them with other options and that’s how they ended up with Lyubushkin.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I was scrolling through Twitter and there were quite a few fans not overly thrilled with this trade but is it unfair to look at this as the addition for the Maple Leafs? 

Frank Seravalli: This is definitely not the add, this is just part one of their deadline plan. They’re active on both the forward and defenseman market, and they felt like they were able to fill that hole by getting a right-shot defenseman, which by the way has nothing to do with the Giordano injury, the Leafs were actively pursuing this deal before the injury. So really what the trade does is give the Leafs a warm body for the time being. They feel like with the salary retenion and getting him under the league minimum it leaves them with some cap room. When you look at the picks involved and the Leafs don’t have their third-rounder this year, they had to reach into 2025 to do it. I don’t think they’re worried about the picks and getting back a player they already know despite it being a different regime.

Frank Seravalli: It’s not a needle mover and I think that’s why people in Toronto are annoyed by it. You look at the totality of the capital you’ve given up for Lyubushkin over the last couple of years, you’re talking a second-round pick, a third-round pick and a sixth. That’s a pretty significant capital outlay for what will probably amount to less than 60 games.

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