5 Players Maple Leafs Won't Trade

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a lot of work to do to turn things around this season, but they are far from out of it and far from having a bad roster that can't dominate the rest of the season, even with the injuries the team is currently dealing with.

The Maple Leafs are still 9-9-2 on the season and second-last in the conference, but amidst many trade rumors and a need to shake something up, Elliotte Friedman said, Toronto doesn't want to trade Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan, John Tavares, or any futures.

This says a few things about the team. The new core four, which includes Knies instead of Mitch Marner, is believed in to get the job done. Knies and Tavares are also on great deals. Cowan, despite some struggles in the NHL early, has lots of time to grow into the player the Maple Leafs have seen in junior.

Not looking to trade futures is interesting. I don't think this means future draft picks, as those should be on the table to improve the team. Rather, some of the future players that could come in and make an impact like Ben Danford, Jacob Quillan, Dennis Hildeby, and William Villeneuve.

The Maple Leafs have the skill and depth, but it has to come together and the team has to recover from the loss of Marner, despite all of the criticism towards him in the later years.

The defense does need a bit of an overhaul, but that isn't easy to do. No defensemen were listed as players the Maple Leafs don't want to trade, even Morgan Rielly. There are some players who just won't be traded, but just aren't named as players Toronto may want to make known. Though it is a quarter of the way through the season, there is still a lot of time and maybe some earlier trades kick off ahead of Christmas this season for the more desperate teams.

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