After the New Jersey Devils took in a pretty big haul for Andy Greene and Blake Coleman, immediate questions about what other rentals and top-quality talent might fetch moved to the front of the line regarding upcoming trades. Will more first-round draft picks move? Will GM’s be more anxious to hold onto top picks or move them?
One of the teams that is a confirmed seller this year is the Los Angeles Kings. One of the names often talked about is Tyler Toffoli. What could Toffoli fetch on the market? He’s a legitimate 20-goal man and he’s heating up just as the final week of the trade deadline comes and goes.
The Kings will move Toffoli in the next few days. Where and for what are the real questions worth asking. Today, Frank Seravalli of TSN listed Toffoli at #6 on his Trade Bait board, but said the return might not be exceptional. We disagree.
Seravalli writes:
’Every team is looking to get bigger, stronger and faster and [Chris] Kreider checks all of those boxes,’ one Eastern Conference executive said Monday. ’Toffoli doesn’t have that speed and power element. He doesn’t play with pace.’
That executive, whose team isn’t in trade talks for Toffoli, said he could see ’a package that looks like a second- and a fourth-round pick that might become a third with a condition’ or ’a second-round pick and a team’s fourth- or fifth-best prospect.’
First, that’s not a terrible haul for Toffoli. Second, based on the recent movement in the NHL and accepting that there’s only one Chris Kreider to go around, Toffoli has to fetch more as a backup to nearly every team that misses on Kreider, no?
There’s always a bit of a worry that you can base what’s to come on a small sample size but Toffoli has four goals in his last two games. He’s now go 18 goals through 58 games on a terrible Kings team. If he’s a potential 30-goal player, that has to be worth a decent second-round pick and a good prospect. If the demand is there, it might even fetch a first.
That he is a rental is worth noting, and that teams aren’t willing to move first-rounders for rentals is a statement that has been made by more than one “insider”. But, over the final week of the season, GM’s have a tendency to throw logic out the window. Toffoli is the kind of player where logic might not rule the day.
Others On the Go in LA
It likely won’t just be Toffoli who moves. Alec Martinez and Trevor Lewis, Derek Forbort, Ben Hutton, Joakim Ryan are all scheduled to become unrestricted free agents. Even Jonathan Quick has been in the rumor mill.
We talk about how many teams will be busy at the deadline. Los Angeles might be among the most active.
Related: Kypreos Apologizes, Shea Weber Ready to Return?
