Elliotte Friedman Reveals What the Leafs' Next Big Move Could be Following Ryan Reaves Trade

This has been an intriguing off-season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team that finally moved on from Mitch Marner in a sign-and-trade, with a few more changes happening around that.

The latest was the trade of Ryan Reaves that occurred on Thursday, as the team sent him so San Jose for an intriguing 24-year old defenseman in Henry Thrun, but looking at their lineup, they still need to make a big move.

Now, NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman has revealed what that move could be, and unsurprisingly, it would involve finding another player that could help pick up the slack of the offense this team will lose without Mitch Marner.

According to Friedman, the team's next move will likely be the swap of a defenseman to land a forward, with the team currently having solid depth on the blue line by having one of Oliver Ekman-Larsson or Brandon Carlo likely to play on the third pairing.

The forward group is just as crowded, with the team needing to make some key roster decisions ahead of the 2025/26 season, but according to Friedman, they're looking to add a forward by using a defenseman as trade bait, with the move likely to include another forward.

Candidates to be moved include Brandon Carlo, who the team already dangled in a trade offer for JJ Peterka, or even someone like Ekman-Larsson, who the team landed in free agency a season ago.

Either way, for now, it appears as though Toronto aren't set with the lineup they're going to take into next season, so whether this is true or they opt to go another way on the trade market, expect Brad Treliving to remain busy in the coming weeks.