Insider Lists 6 "Affordable" Centers On Maple Leafs Radar

The Toronto Maple Leafs' need to acquire a center became more and more obvious during the absences of Auston Matthews over the last two months. But per Darren Dreger of TSN's Insider Trading, don't expect them to be in the bidding for someone in the "high-rent district" like the Vancouver Canucks' JT Miller and Elias Pettersson, the NY Rangers' Mika Zibanejad or the Buffalo Sabres' Dylan Cozens.

No, the Leafs would be in the market for centers that come in at or under the $5M AAV price point, and Dreger offers up his list of six centers the team should be interested in that are more of the "affordable" variety:

Yanni Gourde, Seattle Kraken, $5.16M AAV
Mikael Granlund, San Jose Sharks, $5M
Ryan Strome, Anaheim Ducks, $5M
Ryan O'Reilly, Nashville Predators, $4.5M AAV
Scott Laughton, Philadelphia Flyers, $3M
Nick Bjugstad, Utah HC, $2.1M

Some of these names have been linked to the Leafs already. We talked about the potential of a Gourde addition here, while the intriguing potential return of O'Reilly would be a favorite move of at least one former Leaf. He was a trade deadline acquisition by Toronto in 2023, and he helped them garner their only playoff series win in 20 years.

Dreger notes that the Flyers are looking for a first-rounder in return for Laughton, so that might not be a fit, as the Leafs don't have one in 2025.

Granlund is still very productive as a playmaker, and would be a rental.

Other intriguing names include Brock Nelson of the NY Islanders, who has a $6M cap hit, just out of range of the above list, and even Jonathan Toews, who has been out of the NHL for two years and has some interest from the Leafs as he is eyeing a comeback.

Some retention would be needed for some of the names on Dreger's list, but there are also several players Toronto could look to move out to create a bit more cap room.