Keefe may have just subtly told Brad Treliving to make a trade with the Flames
Following Wednesday night's 6-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators, Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said he was concerned about the team's defensive play, in particular, that of John Klingberg, who was minus-3 that night and was on for 4 goals against.
With injuries to Conor Timmins and Timothy Liljegren already, a struggling Klingberg and a lack of depth in the organization overall, rumours are flying about GM Brad Treliving looking to upgrade the back end. Those rumours have specifically linked him to his former team the Calgary Flames and a trio of their defensemen who are going to be UFAs at season's end - Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov.
It just so happens that Treliving's former team is in town tonight for a rare Friday night Leaf game. During his media availability this morning, Sheldon Keefe admitted he and Treliving had a conversation about his former team and what to expect. Based on Keefe's response when asked about the conversation the two had, it sounds like Keefe was subtly hinting that he wouldn't mind acquiring a few members of Treliving's former team.
«I told him you did a pretty good job building this team, deep down the middle, on defence, competitive through the group. Lots of guys that can move up on offence and do the job defensively."
The Leafs definitely need to upgrade blueline, particularly the bottom pairing and adding one of the afformentioned UFA defensemen from the Flames roster would certainly do that. Acquiring any of them of course would require some very good cap gymnastics as the Leafs have just $22K in available cap space with the use of LTIR.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 10 | 516 ANSWERS Keefe may have just subtly told Brad Treliving to make a trade with the Flames Which Flames defenseman would you like Treliving to acquire? | ||
| Noah Hanifin | 91 | 17.6 % |
| Chris Tanev | 64 | 12.4 % |
| Nikita Zadorov | 315 | 61 % |
| None of the above | 46 | 8.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
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