Insider officially links Leafs to defenseman in Nashville

With the NHL's trade deadline now just 3 weeks away, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to begin to ramp up their efforts to address their needs to set themselves up for a lengthy playoff run. Obviously, the need for a defenseman is still at the forefront, with the Leafs being connected to the likes of Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Sean Walker and Jakob Chychrun, just to name a few.

On last night's edition of Insider Trading just before the Leafs and Flyers game, TSN's Chris Johnston mentioned another name in connection to the Leafs that we hadn't heard yet. 27-year-old right-shot defenseman Alexandre Carrier was the player that Johnston had identified as a player whom the Leafs have checked in on.

Carrier, who was originally drafted in the 4th round of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft by the Nashville Predators, has played in 49 games for the Preds this season, amassing 4 goals and 11 assists, totaling 15 points over that span. The 5'11, 175-pound defenseman isn't the biggest player you'll find, but he does a lot of the right things, including blocking shots and not shying away from the physical aspects of the game.

The 27-year-old Quebec City native is a +31 in his 193-game NHL career while playing for a consistently re-tooling franchise over the last 6 seasons. Is he a star? No, but he could be a valuable role player in Toronto on that 3rd pair. Obviously, Carrier would not be the Leafs' only blueline target. They would still need someone to play a little higher up, within the top-4, to replace the injured John Klingberg if they're hoping for a longer playoff run this season.


The beauty of chasing a guy like Carrier is that he won't cost a lot and would undoubtedly leave the Leafs with all of their top trade chips with which to barter for a top-4 improvement - someone like Calgary's Chris Tanev or Noah Hanifin, for example.