The Toronto Maple Leafs are reportedly telling other NHL teams they’re prepared to take a big swing. According to insider Elliotte Friedman, the Leafs want a difference-maker or a game-changer, and they’re willing to pay a “premium asset” price to get it.
Speaking on Saturday Headlines, Friedman made clear the Leafs aren’t interested in a stopgap fix. “They’ve made it very clear they are not interested in a Band-Aid solution.” While no names were confirmed, prospects like Easton Cowan and Ben Danford, along with the first-round pick acquired from Colorado, would likely be the starting point for any deal of this magnitude.
Would the Maple Leafs Go Big on Quinn Hughes?
There aren’t many game-changing defensemen the Maple Leafs might target. There certainly isn’t much to choose from if Toronto is willing to trade a “premium asset”. One of the few names potentially available is Quinn Hughes.
That said, there’s been no link between the Leafs and Hughes, who is going through a dramatic contract extension delay with the Minnesota Wild. On paper, Hughes represents exactly the kind of transformative, franchise-altering defenseman Toronto seems to be hunting for. In practice, the idea runs into an immediate and fairly obvious wall: commitment.
Hughes Can’t Seem to Make Up His Mind
Hughes has shown no indication he’s willing to sign long-term with anyone, let alone a contender in the Wild. That’s not a good omen for Toronto, assuming they point their trade arrows in his direction.
Minnesota has a lot to offer that Toronto doesn’t. They’re a better fit geographically, since Hughes wouldn’t have to return to Canada. He’s also looking to win, which has been a struggle for the Maple Leafs so far this season. Finally, Hughes has a well-documented desire to keep playing alongside his brothers.
That reality turns a Hughes pursuit into something closer to a Hail Mary than an actual front-office strategy. Even setting aside the near-impossible odds of finding the assets that might get Minnesota to trade him, Toronto would then face the even steeper challenge of convincing him to commit to an extension once he arrived.
Toronto Would Have to Give Up A Ton of Its Younger Talent
What makes Hughes such a long-shot idea is that Friedman also reported Chayka wants to get younger. That means any blockbuster acquisition like Hughes would mean trading multiple young prospects, picks, and emerging talent. The Leafs’ back end is riddled with veterans who won’t fetch much value on the trade market. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe, and Troy Stecher come with limited trade value, no-move protections, and little appeal to teams not looking for aging depth.
In short, while the appetite for a blockbuster is real, a Hughes trade specifically looks less like an ambitious plan and more like wishful thinking. Even if the Maple Leafs were somehow able to pull off such a trade, it would be only the start of their problems. They’d somehow have to convince him to stay, and it would cost them $20 million per season.
Maple Leafs Long-Shot Trade Plan Brings Quinn Hughes to Toronto