3 Top-Four Defenseman Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade For

The Toronto Maple Leafs need to trade for a top-four defenseman immediately.

If you watched the Toronto Maple Leafs versus the New York Rangers on Wednesday night, it was clear that the team’s defense wasn’t ready for that match-up. Morgan Rielly and T.J. Brodie played fine, but Rasmus Sandin, Timothy Liljegren, Travis Dermott and Alex Biega were not up for the task.

When you’re sheltered on the third-pair, you can get away with a few mistakes that won’t cost you. However, when you’re playing against the other team’s top-players, that’s not going to happen.

The Rangers third goal was the result of Liljegren being too cute. He tried to get the puck out of the zone by going through the middle of the ice (which is stupid to begin with) but gave the puck away. From there, he went to cover the point, without realizing that there was an opposing player 15 feet behind him, who then received a pass and executed a one-timer to perfection.

Liljegren looked like he didn’t belong in the NHL on that play and it was incredibly disappointing to see.

Obviously it’s just one game and he seemed to play better after that, but that type of performance is the opposite of what Toronto was looking for.

The same can be said about the Biega-Dermott pairing. Dermott is not a player you want on your roster during a playoff game. He was getting man-handled and can’t play a physical game. The Rangers’ fourth-line was destroying them all night.

If you’re going to lose, you want the Rangers best players to beat you. You don’t need Ryan Reeves scoring two goals and looking like a Rocket Richard Trophy winner out there.

If the Rangers game showed us anything, it’s that Toronto needs another top-four defenseman ASAP and they also need Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl back in the line-up.

Here are three top-four defenseman the Toronto Maple Leafs should trade for.