Should the Leafs Learn a Lesson from the Panthers’ Tkachuk Trade Manual?
Shortly after everyone had decided that the New York Rangers were a team of destiny because it would be best for the NHL, the Florida Panthers struck again. On Wednesday, they won a game that they seemed to be losing. What should have been a 3-1 lead for the Rangers turned into a 2-2 series. Everything seems to be favoring the Panthers these days.
Floride is not the best remaining team in the playoffs – that’s Dallas. They are not the most exciting – that’s Edmonton or New York. But if you had to pick a team to compete like gladiators – 60 minutes to the death – it’s the one you would choose. They have that charisma.
They haven’t had it for a long time. Three years ago, the Panthers were stuck in the murky middle of the NHL. Not bad enough to tank and not good enough to get where it counts. Almost everyone who matters for a great Florida team in 2024 was also part of the extremely mediocre 2022 Florida team.
When you go through that list from top to bottom, the 2021-22 Panthers were a finished product. It just wasn’t paying off much. They couldn’t get past the Tampa Bay Lightning. Even if they did, the Bruins or the Leafs (so the Bruins) would still be there.
Panthers general manager, Bill Zito, could have played it safe. That’s what you do in the NHL when you have two or three stars and a lot of guys under contract. You do nothing and call it something.
Instead, Zito took a wild swing. He traded away Jonathan Huberdeau, a long-time centerpiece who had just scored 115 points in the regular season, to Calgary for Matthew Tkachuk.
Tkachuk’s quality was evident, but he had become leprous by refusing the NHL dance to sign with the one who brought you. It didn’t help when he stated that half the reason he went to Florida was the weather.
Three guys in a bar could have a long discussion about how much a hundred-point guy can really affect a team’s capabilities compared to another hundred-point guy, but you can’t argue with the results.
Huberdeau’s Panthers won a playoff round in 10 years. Tkachuk’s Panthers won five games in two, and we’re still counting.
Current Leafs general manager, Brad Treliving, is the man who made headlines in the Tkachuk trade. Whether Tkachuk forced him to do it is not an excuse. The general manager’s job is not to explain to fans that even hockey players can hate winter. It’s about winning by any means necessary.
Treliving didn’t make it. Within a year, he found himself unemployed. Florida’s success has as much to do with his fall as Calgary’s failure.
Unlike his father or brother – who were both as good, if not better, than him in terms of talent – Tkachuk is one of those guys who discard victory the same way we discard the flu virus. Players who are decent on their own terms turn into Rocket Richard when they get close to him. If Florida wins a Cup in three weeks, this trade will enter the top 10 of all time.
No one should feel this more keenly than Treliving. He’s on his way to becoming Calgary’s Harry Frazee (look it up).
One would like to think that Toronto hired Treliving in part because he was on the sharp side of that stick, that they will soon have to start pulling it.
Unless there’s a blaring siren and a turning red light, it can’t be more obvious to Treliving that he needs to make a Tkachuk for Huberdeau trade this summer. And this time, he needs to win.
This is where you say something about Mitch Marner or John Tavares. That they are the ones to get rid of.
That’s not the lesson from the Tkachuk trade. The lesson to be learned is that if you’re looking for a brand new patio set, don’t expect to get it for the four mismatched tires taking up space in your basement. No one wants your junk.
Huberdeau didn’t make a difference, but Florida hadn’t spent close to a decade reminding people of that. He still had a little shine on him. That’s not the case, Marner. Whoever takes him will have to rebuild him from the ground up while paying him $12 million a year. That sounds enticing.
Toronto’s despair is no secret. Opponents are probably not inclined to help them in this area. On the contrary, there’s no club they’d like to chisel more.
The only advantage the Leafs have is that they still have guys with broad appeal on the market. Getting true value for Marner is impossible. But what else do you have?
If the Leafs expect to make a transformative change this summer, everyone should be on board. That includes Auston Matthews and William Nylander, as well as Auston Matthews and William Nylander. I don’t know how you do that, or to whom, or for what, but that’s why the people running the club are paid so much. To win deals that are unwinnable. To secure contracts that are not even achievable.
How many more times does this club have to lose before all the usual rules about how things go down disappear? Check the ledger. Toronto is sitting on human NFTs. The entire accumulated value of their roster is not worth a nickel in the real world.
What the Leafs need in a trade is not exactly the same amount of talent. What they need are winners. Currently, they don’t have any. One – and I don’t care exactly what he does, how much he scores, or how many goals he scores in February – could make the difference.
When you think about it that way, there’s no right or wrong price. There’s just a good or bad result.
If the Leafs fail again, everyone will be fired. That’s obvious. But if they can’t make a big move this summer, with the instructive example so familiar to their current leadership, why would they deserve to try their luck elsewhere?