Toronto Acquires Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty
The NHL trade deadline on March 3rd is approaching very quickly, which means trades are starting to happen more frequently. On February 17th, 2023, it was revealed that Kyle Dubas - the GM of the Maple leafs- was involved in a huge trade. The Leafs had traded assets in exchange for some forward depth of Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari which shocked both the Blues and Leafs fan bases. This trade made a team who was already outstanding this season even better, but apparently, Dubas wasn't done improving his team.
On February 27th, 2023, exactly ten days after the last trade, the Maple Leafs made headlines once again. Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty of the Chicago Blackhawks were being shipped to Toronto in exchange for Joey Anderson and prospect Pavel Gogolev. The Maple Leafs also ended up acquiring two conditional 5th-round picks in the 2024 and 2025 drafts, while Chicago got a conditional 1st-round pick in 2025 and a second-round pick in 2026.
Defenseman Jake McCabe was picked 44th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in 2012 and played with them for eight seasons before signing with the Blackhawks in 2021. McCabe has 20 points throughout 55 games this season, averaging 19:29 TOI. Defense has been one of the problem areas for the Maple Leafs this season, and this acquisition will definitely alleviate that.
6’1 forward Sam Lafferty came to the Blackhawks in 2021 after spending his entire career playing for the Penguins. So far this season, Lafferty has 21 points in 51 games, which adds to Toronto's forward depth even more.
Coming closer to the end of the season, talks about playoffs are starting to pick up. Toronto is almost guaranteed to secure a playoff spot, and these new players could help them go far. With Toronto's curse of not being able to get past the first round, analysts say adding some solid players throughout the lineup may help. With McCabe’s strategies on the backend, this may have been the pickup they needed to make an awesome playoff run.
Surely the Maple Leafs are backing out of the trade deadline after making outstanding improvements these last couple of days, but who knows? Teams have until 3:00 pm PST on March 3rd to make any moves, so keep an eye out for trade news these next couple of days. Has your team made a trade yet, or are they waiting until the very last minute?