4 Potential Trade Spots for Maple Leafs Winger William Nylander

After yet another disappointing postseason showing and with a new general manager running the show, there is at least the possibility that the Toronto Maple Leafs could try something major to shake up their roster.

That something could be a trade involving one of their core-four forwards.

If new general manager Brad Treliving decided to go in that direction, William Nylander seems to be the most logical option.

Auston Matthews is the best player on the team, the biggest star and the face of the franchise.

John Tavares has a no-move clause that he is unlikely to waive and also has a contract that few teams could afford or want.

It would be really difficult to win a Mitch Marner trade and get back enough value to make it worth it given his production and contract.

That leaves Nylander.

Nylander is fascinating because on his current contract ($6 million per year salary-cap hit) he might actually represent the best value of any of them. He is a 40-goal, 80-point winger and signed for a below-market deal. For now. The trouble is that he is due for a new contract after this season and will not be anywhere near as cheap on a new deal.

As good as he is, that short-term value could make him an attractive trade chip if the Maple Leafs decided to shake things up.

Treliving also has a track record of not being afraid to make bold, blockbuster moves with his roster (see the Matthew Tkachuk trade last year).

So let us work with that logic and try to figure out a couple of teams that should (or could) have an interest in Nylander.

The Avalanche have a great roster at the top, but some free agent departures and the injury to Gabriel Landeskog have robbed them of a lot of the depth that made them a Stanley Cup champion during the 2021-22 season.

They need to replenish that.

They took a small step toward during that on Saturday by acquiring Ryan Johansen (at half of his salary-cap hit) in a deal with the Nashville Predators to hopefully address the second-line center absence left behind by Nazem Kadri's departure.

But they still need to do something about the wings where Andre Burakovsky and Gabriel Landeskog have not been replaced.

Nylander would be a whopper of a blockbuster, and they should have the salary cap flexibility to make it work, especially after Landeskog goes on LTIR.

The question would be what does a trade look like.

In terms of a one-for-one swap, Devon Toews would be an interesting starting point where Colorado deals from a position of extreme strength (defense) to hopefully fill a position of weakness. It would be a shakeup for Toronto and still bring them back a top-tier player while the money mostly works for everyboody.

The problem is that Toronto does not really need defense, contrary to the popular narrative surrounding the Maple Leafs. They need more scoring and that would only be magnified if a Nylander trade were to happen.

It would make a ton of sense for Colorado, but would take some creativity to find a package that works for what Toronto needs.

Nylander seems like the exact type of player that Carolina needs to be the missing piece of its Stanley Cup puzzle.

The Hurricanes do pretty much everything absurdly well.

They are consistently one of the best possession teams in the NHL. They relentlessly defend. Even though they never have big-name goalies, they have seemingly found the recipe to get at least winning play from the position.

The one thing that always seems to hold them back comes playoff time is just not enough finishers and difference-makers at forward. The talent and potential is certainly there, and they made a huge splash last offseason in trading for Max Pacioretty.

But Pacioretty's season was ruined by injuries, they lost Andrei Svechnikov just before the playoffs and then they just didn't have enough juice to get through Sergei Bobrovsky and the Florida Panthers.

Nylander would give them that dimension and despite their loaded roster the Hurricanes would also have the salary-cap space to make it work.

The Hurricanes also have a pretty deep collection of forwards -- both veterans and young -- that could be of potential interest to Toronto including Seth Jarvis and Teuvo Teravainen. Carolina also has a full allotment of draft picks, including its first-rounder for the 2024 class.

The Flames are a team in a fascinating situation right now.

The 2022-23 season was a nightmare of failed expectations that saw their some of their big offseason additions disappoint (specifically Jonathan Huberdeau) while former head coach Darryl Sutter wore out his welcome.

They have a new GM, a new head coach, and a couple of veteran forwards in Mikael Backlund and Tyler Toffoli are reportedly not interested in signing contract extensions after this season which could put them on the trade block.

Despite all of that, there is enough reason for the Flames to believe they can bounce back.

With a new head coach and hopefully a rebound from Huberdeau and Jacob Markstrom, it could still be an intriguing team in a wide open Western Conference. Adding a player like Nylander to take one more run at it could be an intriguing option to consider.

Treliving, as the Flames' former general manager, also has quite a bit of familiarity with the team's roster.

Could something centered around Elias Lindholm or Toffoli as the focal point be enticing to Toronto?

The Detroit Red Wings and Steve Yzerman have to be feeling some pressure here.

The rebuild has been going on long enough that it should be producing some fruit, but they are not really getting any closer to the playoffs no matter what they try.

They have a couple of young core players in Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider to build around, and they tried to spend big last offseason by acquiring and signing David Perron, Andrew Copp, Dominik Kubalik, Olli Maatta and Ville Husso to complement that core.

It didn't work.

The Red Wings have a significant amount of salary-cap flexibility to play with and a lot of draft-pick assets. Given how close they should be to contending and how much a player like Nylander could help them it is a phone call that should get made.

The problem is that Detroit doesn't have a lot of assets to offer a Toronto team that is still interested in competing now. The out-of-the-box idea here could be dealing Nylander for future assets (first-round picks, prospects, etc.) and then turning around and flipping those assets somewhere else for immediate help.