Eklund: The Rumor That Could Reshape the Leafs' Defense

Florida only has $19 million in cap space left, they want to use $7.5 million of that on Rielly?

Yeah, that’s not happening lol

Yes, the Rumor Chart. The one that says I need a Season Ticket subscription. The same subscription that says expired 6/10/25, even though my PayPal account says I was charge 6/10/25... Still waiting to hear back from support...

You are not the only one having Sason's Ticket issues.

Florida only has $19 million in cap space left, they want to use $7.5 million of that on Rielly?

Yeah, that’s not happening lol
- Dozzer

Who said it was a trade!? Leafs sign Ekblad and trade Reilly to anyone! Time for Reilly to go. I’m sure they’ve asked him to wave his no trade!

Yes, the Rumor Chart. The one that says I need a Season Ticket subscription. The same subscription that says expired 6/10/25, even though my PayPal account says I was charge 6/10/25... Still waiting to hear back from support...
- DTJ9610

Not sure if you seen it, but EK posted the other day that he will be launching a new hockeybuzz website shortly, and realizes that there are currently issues (bugs) with this version of that site, but that this will all be resolved once the new site is up and running.

With Ekblad, the Leafs could add his offensive punch while offering him more time on the power play than he has received recently. He also brings a strong, punishing physical style and a champion's mindset that many feel the Leafs' locker room lacks. His experience and talent are a perfect match for Toronto's needs, but can they make the money work?


You could replace ‘the Leaf’s’ with every other team in the league for this write-up.

Why deal Rielly? Ekblad at most will come in around 5yrs/$8.0aav/$40M. I doubt he would top Petro’s $8.8Maav when he came over to Vegas from St. Louis considering Ekblad’s running afoul of the testing program last season.
Ship out McCabe and his $4.15M and you’re left with

Rielly-Ekblad
Ekman Larsson-Tanev
Benoit-Carlo

Pretty sure the Top 6 Defense there comes in at under $30M which is under 32% of the cap spent on 26% of the roster which might seem overweighted until you consider that your top pairing, assuming all things are healthy and no one leaves the game, eats about 38% of the minutes available in any given 60 minute contest, thusly counterweighting the cost:value proposition.

No one is over their head or having to reach. In fact, one could argue Carlo is being under utilized but defense wins Cups and better to have than have not.

The biggest mistake would be trying to replace Marner’s contributions on paper by adding a Mangiapane, Granlund, Benn, etc With each addition you added another variable set and thus risk. Marner is gone. Better to adapt philosophy than be caught aiming at the same goal in the same way with inferior weapons.

Time to add a little of the Brian Burke Era back into the the remnant of the Core 4 era. Will it work? Likely not. GMBS and non-pro scouting for this team continue to spit out awful results, save for Knies. Until that’s resolved the tail chasing will continue.