The Detroit Red Wings will try to stop their skid from extending to five straight losses when they take on the Florida Panthers Thursday. And it doesn’t help that the Red Wings have two personnel problems hanging over them.
A new trade pitch published early Thursday would solve one of those nagging issues, shipping holdout defenseman Simon Edvinsson north of the border to the Toronto Maple Leafs, along with former first-round pick Marco Kasper, for an impressive four-player haul.
In fact, the Maple Leafs would send this year’s No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna to Detroit in the proposed Edvinsson blockbuster.
Edvinsson, Detroit’s unsigned restricted free agent, must sign by Dec. 1 or sit out the season, according to The Hockey News, so what would Toronto pay to land him?
The answer comes from the PuckGM roster-building simulator, where the trade pitch has Toronto sending McKenna, defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and forwards Miles Wood and Dakota Joshua to Detroit for Edvinsson and center Marco Kasper. The exercise signs Edvinsson to a seven-year deal worth $10 million annually.
Toronto Maple Leafs Land Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper
Edvinsson, born Feb. 5, 2003, in Kungsbacka, Sweden, is a 6-foot-6 left-shot defenseman whom Detroit took sixth overall in 2021. He put up 31 points in 78 games in 2024-25 and 25 in 72 last season, averaging 22 minutes, 21 seconds a night, second only to Moritz Seider among Red Wings skaters.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Edvinsson prefers to be traded.
But “I have zero interest in trading Simon Edvinsson,” interim general manager Shawn Horcoff said, as quoted by WWJ Newsradio. By late October, Friedman reported that trade talks were picking up.
Kasper, born April 8, 2004, in Innsbruck, Austria, is a 6-foot-1 center whom Detroit chose eighth overall in 2022. After 19 goals, 37 points as a rookie, he slid to 19 points and a minus-20 rating in 81 games, and he has missed the last 12 games with an upper-body injury. His $886,666 cap hit expires after this season, when he becomes a restricted free agent.
For Toronto, the deal adds a 23-year-old top-pair defenseman. NHL Trade Rumors’ Dave Litman called the blue line the next target for general manager John Chayka.
Detroit Red Wings Receive Gavin McKenna and Three Veterans
McKenna, born Dec. 20, 2007, in Whitehorse, Yukon, won the CHL’s player of the year award after 129 points in 56 Medicine Hat games, then posted 15 goals, 51 points in 35 games at Penn State. Toronto drafted him first overall in June and signed him to a three-year, $1.075 million entry-level contract. He has six goals and 12 points as an 18-year-old rookie.
Ekman-Larsson, 35, went sixth overall in 2009 and won a 2024 Stanley Cup with Florida. He has 540 points in 1,153 games, 39 of them last season, but one assist so far this year. His $3.5 million deal runs through 2027-28 and includes a 16-team no-trade clause.
Wood, 31, a Buffalo native, was a fourth-round pick, 100th overall, by New Jersey in 2013. He has 99 goals, 97 assists in 567 games. Toronto acquired him in the Kirill Marchenko deal with Columbus; his $2.5 million cap hit runs through 2028-29.
Joshua, 30, a Dearborn, Michigan, product, is a 6-foot-3 forward whom Toronto drafted 128th overall in 2014. He posted 18 goals and 32 points for Vancouver in 2023-24, returned to Toronto for a 2028 fourth-round pick in July 2025 and carries a $3.25 million cap hit through 2027-28.
Toronto would send out $10.325 million in cap hits and take back $10.887 million, a net increase of about $562,000. Edvinsson’s projected $10 million is more than 11 times his $894,167 entry-level cap hit. Detroit would add $10.325 million and shed Kasper’s $886,666, a net of roughly $9.44 million against $19.6 million in projected cap space.
Detroit has leaned on Albert Johansson to fill the top pairing beside Seider. Ekman-Larsson, like Edvinsson, shoots left.
The ledger favors Detroit. It gets three cost-controlled seasons of the No. 1 pick, a defenseman who outscored Edvinsson last season and an end to the Dec. 1 standoff, though it absorbs veteran contracts running through 2028-29. Toronto gets a younger, longer-term defenseman, but pays with its top pick and three veterans.
So, who says no?
Red Wings Trade Pitch Sends Simon Edvinsson to Maple Leafs for 4-Player Return