Leafs imminent trade plans has Toronto on high alert
Chris Johnston dropped a sentence Tuesday that just put every roster name not named Auston Matthews on the Toronto Maple Leafs trade board.
On his show, CJ said he's been told Toronto's messaging to other teams is direct. Everyone is available except Matthews. Everyone.
That's a list that includes William Nylander at $11.5 million, Matthew Knies at $7.75 million, Morgan Rielly at $7.5 million, and John Tavares at $4.39 million.
The honest framing is what makes the message hit. Front offices don't broadcast that kind of openness unless the season just collapsed in a way they can't spin.
And this Leafs season collapsed. Toronto finished 32-36-14 for 78 points, ranked 28th overall, last in the division.
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The Leafs gave up 299 goals, 3.6 a night, while limping into the offseason on a 7-game losing streak that closed with a 1-3 loss in Ottawa.
Which Maple Leafs name actually gets moved this summer
Nylander is the obvious one because of the contract size and the goal-scoring. He hit 30 goals and 79 points in 65 games, with 12 points in his last 10.
A name like that on an open market moves the market. Every Cap Hit team in the league makes a phone call within an hour of the rumour breaking.
Knies is the trickier conversation. The 23-year-old put up 66 points in 79 games but finished -30 on a roster that bled defensively all year.
That kind of differential makes him cheaper to acquire than his ceiling suggests. A rebuilder looking for a young top-six winger calls Toronto first.
Tavares is 35, scored 31 goals on a -28 rating, and carries the leadership history. A short-term contender with $4 million in cap space is the right phone call.
Rielly is the toughest sell at -18 with seven years of declining underlying numbers and a $7.5 million number. That one tests the front office's creativity.
The hardest question isn't who gets traded. It's whether Matthews himself signs off on watching half his lineup walk out without him.
If the building around him changes this drastically, the next conversation isn't about Nylander or Knies. It's about whether Toronto's untouchable stays an untouchable next summer.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 18, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Phillip Danault | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Greenway | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Beck Malenstyn | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Owen Power | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zach Benson | - | - | - | |
| Bowen Byram | - | - | - | |
| Cole Caufield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||