Maple Leafs trade targets: Why Toronto might need to shop for another defenceman

Morgan Rielly was sitting on his couch, sports on the TV, when he saw the trade come down this past summer.

His team, the Maple Leafs, had dealt a 2026 seventh-round pick and prospect Max Ellis to Dallas for the rights to negotiate with Chris Tanev days before the start of free agency. It wasn’t exactly a surprise for Rielly, who had already spoken to GM Brad Treliving about the prospect of the Leafs adding Tanev, a teammate of Rielly’s once upon a time at the world championships.

Rielly reached out to Tanev, a Toronto native, via text. “I was just like, ‘I know you’re a local guy, but if you’re curious about how we do things, let me know, I’m around, we can go for a beer or something, or we can chat just about team dynamics and organizational stuff,” Rielly recalled of their initial chat.

Tanev agreed to a six-year contract with the Leafs on July 1.

Rielly was pumped for what Tanev — “elite defensively” — could do for the only NHL team he’s ever known. His mind also wandered to the obvious: Tanev becoming his next partner with the Leafs.

“Yup,” Rielly said. “That’s pretty much what I was thinking.”

Rielly explained all of this at training camp, when he and Tanev were in the early days of a partnership that would ultimately last only seven games.

It’s not that Rielly and Tanev didn’t work together. It’s what keeping them paired up meant elsewhere — namely a two-lefty second pair of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jake McCabe that didn’t click. It’s the same reason, really, that coach Craig Berube has frequently veered away from the devastating defensive combination of Jake McCabe and Tanev, even as they stymied top lines across the league.

If McCabe played with Tanev, what did that mean for Rielly? An awkward fit with Ekman-Larsson is what, with the 33-year-old Swede playing his off side and struggling to move pucks efficiently — the thing he was brought in to do.

Overall, the Leafs have had a strong first half. But clearly, the puzzle pieces on defence don’t quite fit.

All of which leads to the obvious question: Do the Leafs need to go shopping another defenceman? And given how well McCabe and Tanev have played together, another defenceman to play with Rielly in particular?

It’s become abundantly clear over the years that only a certain type of defenceman can play with the sometimes unpredictable Rielly. A defenceman who plays a very simple game, who won’t be affected by Rielly’s occasional freewheeling.

Tanev fits the bill. Others like Ekman-Larsson and Conor Timmins do not.

The Leafs found that player via trade in each of the previous three seasons: Ilya Lyubushkin in 2022 and 2024 and Luke Schenn in 2023. (And while it’s become easy to forget after his rapid decline last season, not to mention the postseasons he spent playing elsewhere on the Toronto defence, TJ Brodie was that player, too.)

Round three with Lyubushkin isn’t an option. He signed a three-year deal with Dallas this past summer.

But what about Schenn?

Schenn and Rielly were superb together during the 2023 playoffs, the Leafs’ best pair by a lot. The Leafs pumped the Lightning and Panthers 9-2 in their five-on-five minutes and handily won the shot-quality battle.

Rielly has never looked better than with Schenn by his side that spring. He was arguably the Leafs’ best player over those two rounds, cashing in with four goals and 12 points in 11 games. Schenn moved pucks better than anyone could have anticipated and provided a menacing defensive presence.

Schenn wanted to stick around after things ended for the Leafs against Florida. The Nashville offer that summer — three years with a $2.75 million cap hit — was too much to turn down, and too much, ultimately, for the Leafs to indulge.

Nashville GM Barry Trotz insists he won’t sell, but it would be foolish for him to hang up the phone if Treliving made a pitch for Schenn.

The Leafs don’t own a ton of draft picks in the near future and need to keep the best ones stashed away for a possible acquisition at centre. Would Trotz say no to the Leafs’ return from the Timothy Liljegren trade: third- and sixth-round picks?

Add Schenn and the Leafs could reconnect McCabe and Tanev, putting together a more well-rounded defence than the one they have now, with potentially three lefty-righty combos:

McCabe – Tanev
Rielly – Schenn
Ekman-Larsson – Timmins/Benoit

Schenn would also bring immediate expertise to the Leafs’ penalty kill, replacing one of Ekman-Larsson, Timmins or Simon Benoit.

Now, Schenn clearly isn’t the quickest skater around, he turned 35 in November, and he still has another year left on his deal.

The Leafs would have to be confident he can still give them good minutes next spring, at the very least. The last year of the contract wouldn’t be without some concern given his age, not to mention the age of others on the back end, but it might be manageable if the Preds are eating some of the deal (which feels like a prerequisite).

If not Schenn, the Leafs could pursue David Savard, the muscly Montreal Canadiens defender playing on an expiring contract ($3.5 million cap hit). He fits the meat-and-potatoes prototype, but the Leafs still can’t be sure he’ll be comfortable playing next to Rielly.

His cost might be a second-round pick (the Leafs have one in 2025, currently their top pick) and more for retention.

Another option: Cody Ceci, another pending free agent ($3.25 million cap hit). Unlike Savard, Ceci has played with Rielly, during a sometimes-bumpy 2019-20 season. He also logged over 19 sometimes-bumpy minutes a game for the Oilers during their run to the Stanley Cup Final last spring.

First instinct for the Leafs front office will almost certainly be to look internally before they get serious about a trade. They will hope Jani Hakanpää, the right-shooting behemoth signed to a one-year deal worth $1.4 million in early September, can be their guy who can play next to Rielly and make the other pieces all fit.

Hakanpää has played in two games this season, both with Rielly. But that’s the thing with Hakanpää — the 32-year-old has sat out all but two of 35 games so far. His current stint on injured reserve traces back to his last game action in mid-November.

Lingering issues with his knee threaten to swallow his season entirely.

Betting on him to not just be healthy when it matters, but effective in playoff terrain, feels like too dicey a proposition given how things have gone so far.

Relying on Jani Hakanpää feels like too dicey a proposition given how things have gone so far. (Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)

The Leafs could still revert back to the Rielly-Tanev combo, the one they initially planned on having atop their defence.

That would require Berube to trust Rielly to tangle with top-line competition, something he appeared reluctant to do in October. It would also force the Leafs coach to either play McCabe and Ekman-Larsson together again, a partnership that didn’t take in the fall, or use Benoit next to McCabe in top-four duty once more, which is what the front office hoped to avoid by adding Ekman-Larsson on a four-year deal last summer.

What makes the most sense? Finding a way to make McCabe-Tanev happen. They’ve been just about the best defensive duo in the NHL this season.

Which means that barring an unlikely Hakanpää revival, the Leafs front office will have to go shopping before the March 7 trade deadline.

—Stats and research courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, Hockey Reference and PuckPedia

(Top photo: Marc DesRosiers / Imagn Images)