Buyers Remorse? Maple Leafs Already Regretting Major Deadline Acquisition
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton Imagn Images
According to Leafs reporter James Mirtle, the Leafs are having buyer's remorse with one of their major trade deadline acquisitions from last season.
It was an atrocious weekend for the Maple Leafs, defensively speaking. It wasn't just that they gave up multiple leads, but rather how they gave them up. They were outworked, outplayed and made costly mistakes that resulted in pucks in the back of their net.
Defensive Lapses At Forefront
Without Chris Tanev, all members of the Leafs' blueline has been asked to take on more responsibility in their own end. Unfortunately, they have failed miserably defensively.
Getting little to no help from the forward group, the Leafs' blueline has struggled to move the puck out of their zone effectively leading to harsh criticism from head coach Craig Berube, the fans and the media.
Buyer's Remorse on Deadline Deal?
Acquired at the trade deadline last season, the Leafs were high on Brandon Carlo. Many disapproved of having to give up Fraser Minten and a first-round pick, but understood the need for a reliable top-four defenseman to play with Morgan Rielly.
So far, however, Carlo and Rielly have not complimented one another the way the Leafs had hoped. They have had good moments, but most of the time, they look disjointed and give up dangerous scoring opportunities.
On Monday's edition of the 'JD Bunkis Podcast', Leafs reporter James Mirtle revealed that the Leafs are regretting the decision to acquire Carlo, which was emphasized by Minten's goal on Saturday night.
"I think there's buyer's remorse for the Leafs with Carlo in the organization. It's telling that when they were looking at trading for a top line winger, they were looking at moving him. In hindsight, they were looking at moving Carlo in a deal for Peterka with Buffalo... That would have worked out pretty well... They don't have enough puck-movers."
There were rumours in the off-season that the club was trying to deal the defenseman, and it is apparent that GM Brad Treliving misjudged what the team needed on the back end.
As he hunts for a top-six forward, he may want to turn his attention to finding a cheap puck-moving defenseman or giving someone like Henry Thrun an opportunity to add another element.
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