Maple Leafs, Kings discussing a potential Patrick Marleau trade
As the NHL season winds down, offseason trade rumors are heating up with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings discussing a potential Patrick Marleau trade.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings have busy offseasons ahead of them after a pair of disappointing seasons, and they’re wasting no time on trying to get started preparing for next year.
According to Pierre Lebrun of TSN, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings have begun discussing a potential Patrick Marleau trade, but they have not yet found a mutual fit for the potential future Hall of Famer.
Hearing the Leafs and Kings have talked about a potential Patrick Marleau trade. Obviously there’s the Todd McLellan connection there for Marleau so he might waive. But as of now I don’t think the two teams have found a fit. Kings would need to unload a contract or two as well...
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) May 31, 2019
Marleau has a full No Movement Clause as he enters the final season of his three-year contract with a cap hit of $6,250,000. He would have to approve any type of trade or reassignment to the AHL, so there not only has to be enough of a fit to warrant an agreed upon trade, but Marleau has to be willing to go to Los Angeles and possibly waste what could be the final season of his storied career.
Marleau spent the first 19 years of his career with the San Jose Sharks after being drafted second overall in 1997, before signing with the Maple Leafs as a free agent in the summer of 2017. The 39-year-old has recorded 1166 points in 1657 career games but recorded his worst season since his rookie year in 1997 with 37 points in 82 games.
With Marleau and Nikita Zaitsev surfacing in trade rumors within 24 hours of each other, it’s very clear what the Maple Leafs are trying to do. They need to clear out the cap room in order to sign their own players like Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson, and Jake Gardiner, but there is no scenario where the Kings or anybody for that matter just take Patrick Marleau as a favor. They’ll need to take on some bad contracts in return, or send back some decent prospects or draft picks in order to entice a team to take him.
If the Kings are planning to pull off a trade for Marleau, it better be doozy that lands them some good picks or prospects, because he is clearly not what they need right now. The Kings are having a cap crunch of their own with several underperforming veterans making a lot of money against the cap, and they need to do more than just shed bad contracts by taking on a bad contract.
The Kings have a projected $11,728,106 in cap space for this offseason to spend on their free agents, and taking on Marleau’s full contract without sending any other money back would leave them with just $5,478,106 to maneuver with. They would have no choice to send back another bad contract, which is exactly what the Maple Leafs are trying to avoid having on the books right now heading into the offseason.
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Beyond pure asset management and cap space, Marleau going to the Kings is just flat out wrong. After spending 17 years with the Sharks, seeing Marleau in a Kings jersey to end his career should make any hockey fan, even Kings fans, sick to see. If the Maple Leafs respect Marleau as much as they claim, they should find another trade partner. There is not a fit here that makes any sense.