The Toronto Maple Leafs approached this year’s NHL trade deadline with a practical mission. The aim was to move all impending UFAs and get as much as they could.
That statement might seem simplistic, but that’s what this year’s trade deadline boiled down to. But there was one deal that didn’t have to happen, but it did. That was sending Bobby McMann to the Seattle Kraken.
The deal didn’t have to happen because the Maple Leafs could have kept McMann. And he wanted to stay. The issue was that the Maple Leafs and McMann were too far apart on a new contract.