Maple Leafs News and Trade Analysis

Latest News

• William Nylander is riding a nine-game point streak. During these nine games, he has picked up 6 goals and 5 assists for 11 points. Nylander is having a career year for goals. He currently has 25 goals, which is three more than his previous best of 22 back in the 2016/17 season.
• Auston Matthews scored his 39th goal of the season last night. That goal also happens to be the 150th goal of his career. Matthews is now just one goal away from his personal best of 40, so a new career-best is likely to be reached.
• John Tavares scored his 20th goal of the season last night. That gives him 11 straight seasons of scoring at least 20 goals. Even though it seems like he is not producing well this season, he does have 44 points in 47 games. That is almost a point per game pace and he did miss six games with injury.
• Cody Ceci will be placed on Long Term Injury Reserve (LTIR). He suffered an ankle injury in last night’s game against the New York Rangers. With Ceci on LTIR, the Maple Leafs will be rewarded with $4.5 million in cap space.

Trade Analysis

Shortly after last night’s game against the New York Rangers, the Maple Leafs announced that they had completed a trade with the Kings. The Maple Leafs receive backup goaltender Jack Campbell and gritty depth forward Kyle Clifford. The Kings will receive depth forward Trevor Moore, a 2020 3rd round pick and a conditional 2021 3rd round pick. The conditional pick becomes a 2nd round pick if Clifford re-signs with the Maple Leafs or if Campbell wins six regular-season games.

Kyle Clifford

Clifford gives the Maple Leafs the much needed physical element that the team has been lacking all season long. In 53 games this season, Clifford has 6 goals and 8 assists for 14 points. Clifford grew up in Ayr, Ontario as a huge Maple Leafs fan and is honoured to be getting the opportunity to wear the Maple Leaf.

Jack Campbell

Campbell has a record of 8 wins and 10 losses with a .900 save percentage and a 2.85 goals-against average. Campbell is under contract for another two seasons after this season. The Maple Leafs will be playing in back to back games this Friday and Saturday. It is more than likely that Campbell will play in one of those games and it could be as soon as Friday.

Final Thoughts

It is nice to see Nylander having a bounce-back season and a career year on top of that. Also great to see Matthews in contention for the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for the league’s leading scorer.

This trade provides the Maple Leafs with a backup goaltender who is capable of not folding under pressure. It also provides the team with some much-needed grit and a player who won’t allow his teammates to be pushed around.

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