Coming into this season Kyle Dubas is starting to feel the heat. After another first round exit by the Toronto Maple Leafs fans are starting to get restless. Toronto brought in Mark Giordano at the trade deadline and then extended him for 2 more years to take on a leadership role in the locker room. In the off-season they traded for Matt Murray to try and help improve the goaltending. Now Dubas wants to make an even bigger splash and bring in another big-name forward.
Now that the Chicago Blackhawks are in re-build mode there has been rumours that the core players could be on the move, specifically Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. The two have been with Blackhawks organization their entire career. However, both players are in the final year of their matching contracts and now that the team is no longer competitive they may go looking elsewhere to make one last run at the Stanley Cup.
It seems that Chicago Blackhawks new General Manager and Kyle Dubas have been discussing a trade involving Patrick Kane. Anytime you're talking about trading a player with a $10.5 million salary cap hit there has to be a lot of moving parts. The Leafs are already sitting at the ceiling of the salary cap so it seems like it could be a struggle to make it work. However, the Blackhawks have about $7.5 million in salary cap space.
The Maple Leafs do have some pieces that could make this work. Could they finally find a trading partner for William Nylander? Who has a cap hit of just under $7 million. They still have their first round pick for next season so would the Blackhawks take a trade package that involves Nylander, a 1st, a prospect and Chicago retaining some salary? Probably not, but its a starting point and that's all you need.
