General manager Brad Treliving finally made a move to bolster the Leafs' D group late Thursday night, acquiring Anaheim Ducks defenseman and ex-Leaf Ilya Lyubushkin. He gave up a 2025 third-round pick to the Ducks and a 2024 sixth-round pick to the Carolina Hurricanes to entice both teams to retain a combined 75% of Lyubushkin's cap hit. This allows Toronto to have Lyubushkin on the roster with a cap hit of only $687,500, less than the league minimum contract.
This shrewd bit of business by Treliving leaves cap space at his disposal to bring in more upgrades before the March 8th trade deadline. The Leafs have been in on just about every defenseman on the market this season in some facet, whether it be kicking tires or submitting an offer. The latest news, however, has the Leafs out of the running for one of the top available trade targets on the back end.
TSN's Darren Dreger was a guest on the Leafs Morning Take on Friday and revealed that the trade market is really heating up on Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Sean Walker, but affirmed that Toronto is not involved in discussions for the mobile right-shot defenseman after previously having shown interest.
The 29-year-old Walker carries a cap hit of $2.65M and will be a UFA this summer. He's a smooth skating defender who isn't afraid to jump into the play. In 60 games played this season, Walker has scored 6 goals and 22 points while averaging 19:30 in ice time.
The price point to acquire Walker may have gotten too high for the Maple Leafs to stomach, with early indicators being that the Flyers want a 1st round pick for him. Obviously, with Chris Tanev not yielding a 1st rounder for Calgary, it would be difficult to imagine that Philly will get one for Walker.
