If Red Wings Trade Dylan Larkin, the Maple Leafs Should Be Interested

The Toronto Maple Leafs could go even further with their strategy of paying star players and using cheap contracts to fill out the rest of the roster.

Yesterday I came across an article about trading Dylan Larkin on Octopus Thrower, a Detroit Red Wings FanSided Site.  They suggested a William Nylander for Dylan Larkin swap, and while that is patently ridiculous from a Maple Leafs perspective, the idea of trading Larkin to Toronto is a good one.

The Leafs already believe that paying star players is the best use of money, and they’ve got some money they could free up pretty easily if this is something they wanted to pursue.

And this is something they should want to pursue.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Dylan Larkin

Larkin is 25 and has two years left on a deal that pays him $6.1 million.  The Detroit Red Wings are not going to be competitive before that deal runs out, so it would be smart to move him now with two full years on his deal to get maximum value.

The Leafs could offer a first round pick and Detroit’s choice of Nick Robertson or Rodion Amirov.  Despite being a great player, Larkin hasn’t exactly set the league on fire in the last two seasons, so this is  a price point that might work for both teams.

I think that if the Maple Leafs didn’t ask Detroit to retain salary, then this is a deal that might be plausible.  If the Leafs could trade Mikheyev and Kerfoot for picks, they would probably get close enough to being able to fit him in that it would work.

The Leafs, if fully healthy, and with all players hitting their potential, have seven star players (Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares, Rielly, Muzzin and Brodie).  The top heavy model has taken a lot of criticism, but of the many reasons the Leafs have failed, depth hasn’t been one of them. They clearly believe in a star-based team, and so it is logical to think that if they can cash in two non-star players (Mikheyev and Kerfoot) and use their salary to add a star player, that they would.

Larkin is a really good player, playing really tough minutes, on a really bad team.  He is a star player who makes a big impact on games. He is the kind of upgrade that would make a huge difference, and which contending teams don’t normally get to make.  His salary is more than reasonable, and if the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired him they would have the best roster in the NHL.

This is a slam dunk for any team willing to be proactive, and the Leafs should be all over it.