Dakota Joshua's Acquisition More Than Likely Ends the Leafs' Pursuit of Rumoured UFA Signing

The Toronto Maple Leafs needed to acquire a top-9 forward and they did just that when they traded for Dakota Joshua from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2028 4th round pick.

With a little over $5.3 million in cap space to play with, the Leafs had room to add and Joshua will now be part of the every day lineup for the next 3 seasons at a cap hit of $3.25 million.

Now with minimal funds remaining, it doesn't leave them with much more room to add an impactful player unless they find new homes for both Calle Janrkrok and David Kampf, which would alleviate a combined $4.5 million of cap space.

So with that in mind, Joshua's acquisition all but ends their pursuit of Jack Roslovic, who they had been pursuing since the start of the off-season. His ties with Auston Matthews, as well as his versatility in the top-9, had GM Brad Treliving poking around, but ultimately, they went down the trade route for Joshua.

Roslovic was coming off of 22-goal campaign with the Carolina Hurricanes and earlier reports indicated that he was willing to wait on the Leafs, who were looking to take care of internal business first when it came to players like Jarnkrok and Kampf.

They missed out on Andrew Mangiapane for that very reason, as the Bolton, Ontario native was unwilling to wait and was offered a fair deal from the Edmonton Oilers. However, the wait proved to be valuable as the Leafs acquired a player in Joshua that perfectly fits Craig Berube's system.

Having played a few seasons under Berube in St. Louis, Joshua also had the privilege to be coached by Rick Tocchet in Vancouver, who bears a lot of similarities to Berube as a head coach, so he should know what's coming his way heading into training camp.

With Joshua now in the fold, the Leafs will start to focus on their home base a little more as they continue to field calls on Jarnkrok and Kampf, while also having to deal with Nicholas Robertson's RFA status.