Maple Leafs Have Identified Their Latest Target After Missing Out on Brad Marchand

On the eve of NHL free agency, there were a slew of moves that truly set the tempo for what's to come, all of which took place within a span of an hour or two.

The Florida Panthers managed to extend both Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad, which put the Toronto Maple Leafs behind the proverbial 8-ball.

Having just moved Mitch Marner to Vegas as part of a sign-and-trade, the Leafs saw their top targets fall off the board fast.

Having to change gears, Brad Treliving and company will have to find new targets to address their lineup needs, and they might have found that player in Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers, as reported by Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

Expected to be the main free agent target heading into July's frenzy, Ehlers will be looking to cash in on his newfound popularity, and fortunately for the Maple Leafs, they do have a decent amount of cap space remaining, even after their slew of moves from earlier today.

The 29-year-old was a first round pick of the Jets back in 2014 and has spent the last 10 years in Winnipeg. Ehlers has amassed 225 goals and 520 over 674 games across those 10 seasons, including back to back 60+ point campaigns in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

He dealt with a few injuries this past season but still potted 24 goals and 63 points in just 69 contests, which gave him his 8th career 20-goal campaign. Additionally, Ehlers fell just one shy of the 25-goal mark for the 6th time in his career.

The market for Ehlers is going to be robust because outside of him, the only other marquee forwards left on the board would be Brock Boeser and Mikael Granlund. However, the Maple Leafs should be highly motivated to get a deal done, considering their biggest rival found a way to keep all their marquee free agents from reaching the open market.

Only time will if the Maple Leafs can squeeze ahead of the line and find a way to potentially nab their replacement for Marner. Ehlers would be a perfect addition to the Maple Leafs lineup and he would give them another scoring option alongside the usual suspects.