Colorado Avalanche: Could a Maple Leafs Trade Make Sense?

The Colorado Avalanche might make a trade deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs — but it wouldn’t be an Avs forward leaving.

NEWSFLASH: 29 NHL teams are interested in Colorado Avalanche forwards Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog.

That’s a joke — those two core players are so much at the center of trade rumors that even NHL.com has written a story just for them. In reality, many teams would be unwilling to give up the pieces necessary to pry one of those players out of Colorado.

The Toronto Maple Leafs might be one of those teams. They have four players who have more points than the Avalanche’s top scorer (Nathan MacKinnon) — Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Nazem Kadri and James van Riemsdyk.

The crown jewel of their team, of course, is last year’s first-overall pick, Matthews, who’s a strong contender for rookie of the year. The Maple Leafs have been in a full rebuild for a couple years now, and their hard work is just coming into fruition.

Indeed, as of right now Toronto holds the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. They have two points and a game in hand over the Philadelphia Flyers. The Leafs haven’t qualified for the playoffs since the 2012-13 season, and they didn’t qualify for seven seasons before that.

If you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you’re excited right now.

That said, I’m not going to suggest the Maple Leafs would make a trade that beggared their future just to make the playoffs this season.

According to Avalanche insider Adrian Dater, Toronto is having a conversation about trading right now:

I'm hearing some chatter that Toronto is suddenly in play for either Landeskog or Duchene
— Adrian Dater (@adater) February 16, 2017

Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic’s ask for either Matt Duchene or Gabriel Landeskog is high — an NHL-ready defenseman, a prospect and a draft pick. No way a rebuilding team would want to give up that much.

That said, according to NHL.com, Toronto is on the lookout for a top-four defenseman. Their top defensemen are Morgan Reilly, Nikita Zaitsev and Jake Gardiner. That’s two lefties and a righty.

Seems like they could use a puck moving offensive defenseman with a right hand shot. Ahem, Tyson Barrie.

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According to the same NHL.com article, Toronto might be willing to trade forwards William Nylander or James van Riemsdyk. (It seems a lot of Leafs fans want to trade JVR anyway.) Of the two, Nylander seems a more likely bet — JVR is 27 years old, carries a $4.25 million cap hit and has a Modified No Trade Clause — and I doubt the Colorado Avalanche are on his list of 10.

Nylander, on the other hand, has one year left on his entry-level contract with a cap hit of $894,167. Toronto drafted him in the first round, eighth-overall in 2014.

Nylander is a talented playmaker with excellent skating. He can play all three forward positions. He’s between Duchene and Barrie in size (5-foot-11, 190 pounds). Currently, he has the same amount of points as the Avalanche’s top scorer, 38 (15 goals, 23 assists). He’d slot instantly into Colorado’s top-six.

I’m not sure why the Toronto Maple Leafs would want to trade Nylander — unless they really coveted that top-four defenseman.

The article has Toronto going after 35-year-old Johnny Oduya (Dallas Stars) or pending UFA Kevin Shattenkirk (St. Louis Blues). Barrie would be a better fit than either of those players. He’s a lot younger than Oduya at 25. And his $5.5 million cap hit is a lot less than what Shattenkirk is projected to fetch, in the $7-million range.

But Barrie would probably cost Nylander.

MORE FROM MILE HIGH STICKING: Colorado Could Afford Barrie Loss

Would you support a straight Tyson Barrie for William Nylander trade? I would. Not only would the Colorado Avalanche be getting an exciting forward to rejuvenate their top lines, they’d shed over $4 million in contract. They could use that to make an even bigger splash in free agency this season.