Penguins defenseman lands on waivers; Is he a fit for the Maple Leafs?

The Maple Leafs are very thin on the blueline at the moment, missing all of Brandon Carlo, Chris Tanev, Dakota Mermis and, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who are sidelined sidelined due to injury.

While Tanev is working his way toward a comeback, and while Carlo is recovering from surgery, we don't yet know how long it will be before either is ready to get back into the lineup.

Mermis will miss at least a month with after taking a brutal knee-on-knee hit from the Lightning's Gage Goncalves, and the jury is still out on just how long OEL will be sidelined after last night's injury.

The bottom line is that the Leafs need bodies. The Pittsburgh Penguins may soon answer their prayers.

According to the Penguins' PR team, veteran right-shot blueliner Matt Dumba has been moved to the non-roster list for the Pens and will be placed on waivers on Friday.

While it seems unlikely that the Leafs claim Dumba and his full $3.75M contract, there could be room for a deal to be made after Dumba clears waivers in Pittsburgh.

If the Leafs wait to try to acquire Dumba until after he clears waivers, he would be able to be assigned to the Marlies immediately without having to pass through waivers again. Then, once they call him up, it will start the clock until he needs to pass back through waivers to be sent down gain. It would give the team some much needed flexibility.

We know that Brad Treliving and Craig Berube like their physical defensemen. We also know that Dumba does like to shoot the puck, and the Leafs really could use some additional offense from the blueline.

There are a lot of reasons not to do this deal if you're the Maple Leafs, especially if Carlo and Tanev are close. However, if there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the statuses of Carlo and Tanev, as well as OEL, then perhaps just having an actual NHL body available could make this a worthwhile deal to make.

Dumba is a pending UFA and will become a free agent at the end of this season. He has appeared in just 11 games for the Penguins this season, notching 3 points.