The Imminent trade of the Toronto Maple Leafs - by Moses

  It is apparent early into this years' NHL season that the Toronto Maple Leafs lack the muscle to support the skilled players they have.  The same could be said of the team through the last two years in the playoffs.  Dubas needs to be proactive in this quest for a tough player, as the Leafs can't afford to lose Matthews, Marner, Tavares, or Nylander to injury. 
   Look at the Montreal Canadians of the seventies.  They had a ton of skilled players (like the Leafs of today) and had Rick Chartraw when the opponent tried to intimidate one of the Canadians skilled players.  Montreal played under Scotty Bowman and were not the typical seventies NHL Teams.  There were the Bruins and the Flyers that played a dirty style game of hockey using intimidation as their weapon.  The reason the Habs were so proficient in the seventies was because they couldn't be intimidated.  If a team tried taking a run at one of their skilled players Chartraw or Larry Robinson would even the score.  Big Bird wasn't really a fighter but was the biggest and strongest player in the game when he played and was graceful when exacting a dirty hit.  In other words he wasn't the type of hockey player to injure a player when he fought back.  It was either a clean hit or a fight.  Many players feared what Robinson was capable of in a fight.  Chartraw on the other hand was a loose cannon and known to be one of the best fighters in the game.  He exacted revenge on the opponents with reckless abandon and teams (like the Bruins and the Flyers) knew they were in for it if they tried to be physical with Lafleur, Shutt, Cournoyer or any other skilled players on their team (for that reason).

  By account, the Leafs are a young enough team to withstand trading away draft picks to pick up a tough left winger in the mold of Wayne Simmonds.  Having a big guy playing alongside Matthews would free up Auston's game.  I would expect this to lead him to many years scoring 100+ points and perhaps a sip from the Cup.

Trade Proposals

1st Trade

From the Toronto Maple Leafs;  Jeremy Bracco (RW) and 2021 4rth Round Draft Pick to the New Jersey Devils for Wayne Simmonds (Forward) and $8 Million U.S.D (financial arrangements to pay 80% of Simmonds' salary for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 campaigns).

2nd Trade

From the Toronto Maple Leafs;  Trevor Moore (LW) to the Minnesota Wild for Carson Soucy (D)

  With Simmonds the Leafs would be adding another veteran that will prevent teams from bullying our skilled players.  The veteran presence will be very important for the Stanley Cup playoffs as this takes some of the load off our current veterans, such as John Tavares, Zach Hyman, Jason Spezza and Frederik Andersen (among others).  Trading for Soucy is purely insurance that at least our blue-line will have enough healthy bodies for the duration of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  

As a result here is our Roster;

Coach

Mike Babcock

Goaltenders

1.  Frederik Andersen
2.  Kasimir Kaskisuo *
3.  Ian Scott *

Defencemen

1.  Morgan Rielly
2.  Tyson Barrie
3.  Jake Muzzin
4.  Cody Ceci
5.  Justin Holl
6.  Travis Dermott 
7.  Carson Soucy  
8.  Rasmus Sandin *
9.  Martin Marincin
10.Timothy Liljegren *

Forward Lines

             LW                                               C                                        RW

1.  Wayne Simmonds                   Auston Matthews             William Nylander

2.  Zach Hyman +                           John Tavares                    Mitch Marner

3.  Andreas Johnsson                    Jason Spezza                   Kasperi Kapanen

4.  Dmytro Timashov                 Alexander Kerfoot               Ilya Mikheyev

Bench

1.  Frederik Gauthier (C)

* - in Minors
+ - on injured reserve