Maple Leafs Lose Out on Another Target As Mason Marchment Finds a New Home

The Toronto Maple Leafs had been linked to power forward Mason Marchment for a few weeks and with the Dallas Stars having re-upped Matt Duchene earlier in the day on Thursday, trade winds were brewing, but not with Toronto.

The Seattle Kraken acquired Marchment for a 2026 3rd round pick and a 2025 4th round pick from the Stars in what is definitely a salary cap dump. After the Duchene extension, the Stars had less than $500,000 in cap space.

Dallas had Duchene, Mikael Granlund, Jamie Benn, Cody Ceci, and Mavrik Bourque in need of new contracts, but with very limited cap space at hand, a trade had to occur. Jason Robertson had his name dangled in rumours as well but it was always going to be Marchment.

Marchment had only one year left on his deal with a modest cap hit of $4.5 million. His move to Seattle essentially cancels out Duchene's $4.5 million dollar extension that he signed earlier in the day.

As for the Maple Leafs, it's getting harder and harder by the day as they've recently found out about Sam Bennett and Jonathan Toews not being interested in signing in Toronto, as well as the obvious impending departure of Mitch Marner.

The pickings remain slim in free agency, so expect the Leafs to be active on the trade front. However, looking at what Seattle had to give up, it doesn't seem like that steep of an asking price. Toronto's draft cupboard is barren but they had similar picks in future drafts to match Seattle's offer.

With another target off the board, the Maple Leafs have to get back to the drawing board and figure out a new plan with the off-season well underway.