NHL Rumor Mill – November 17, 2025
Check out the latest on the Maple Leafs and Senators in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Adam Proteau noted the recent report by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman indicating the Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t willing to trade their core players.
He also believes they won’t part with defensemen Jake McCabe and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and forwards Nicolas Roy, Scott Laughton, and Steven Lorentz. “They all possess the combination of skill and snot that coach Craig Berube is looking for.”
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly (NHL Images).
Proteau can see the Maple Leafs attempting to peddle defenseman Morgan Rielly, even if he controls his exit with his full no-movement clause. “Would Toronto move Rielly to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Erik Karlsson? Or what about a Rielly to the New Jersey Devils swap in exchange for Dougie Hamilton?” Proteau asked, suggesting those moves could be sold to Rielly as going to a playoff contender.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Assuming Rielly would waive his NMC, it would take Karlsson to waive his, or for the Maple Leafs to be on Hamilton’s 10-team trade list. That’s assuming the Penguins or Devils would be interested in Rielly in the first place.
Max Domi could be a trade candidate. The 30-year-old forward has a 13-team no-trade list. Defenseman Brandon Carlo has an eight-team no-trade list.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Yes, Domi or Carlo could be trade candidates, but they likely won’t fetch returns that help the Leafs.
The Leafs have a glut of forwards to draw on for trade bait. They include Calle Jarnkrok, Nick Robertson, Bobby McMann, and Dakota Joshua. Proteau noted that Robertson is on a hot streak, but it may be time to sell high on him as an asset.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Robertson’s been touted as a decent trade chip before, but it doesn’t appear as though anyone’s knocking down the door trying to get him. During the summer, the Columbus Blue Jackets reportedly rejected a swap of Robertson for Yegor Chinakhov.
McMann might have some value. He had a 20-goal performance last season.
OTTAWA SUN: Bruce Garrioch reports that an injury to Thomas Chabot and the departure of Donovan Sebrango have left the Senators shorthanded on the left side of their blueline. It’s forced general manager Steve Staios to scour the trade market for depth on defense.
The Senators aren’t seeking someone who can skate in their top six. At this point, they’d be happy to land a left-shot blueliner to help their AHL affiliate in Belleville, and be available for call-up should more injuries strike.
Garrioch suggested Ville Heinola of the Winnipeg Jets. He’s skating with the Jets’ AHL affiliate and has indicated he wouldn’t mind a fresh start.
So the Leafs want to improve but won’t trade core players or top prospects. How long till Treliving figures out the flaw in his plans.
April.
There are some fixes out there just depends which way you want to go?
Would Nashville retain a quarter or half of Stamkos’ salary and would he come to Toronto. He wouldnt cost much to acquire Im sure…Leafs have space next year and no UFAs to spend it on.
Want to be bold and go in a different direction?…would Matthews accept a deal to LA? Close to his home…and would the Kings who are starving for a star player be interested….
Dont shoot me here but would the Kings move a Byfield, Clark and picks for Matthews?
Can you get Rielly to waive – if this was Florida or vegas he would already have been gone…and what about Anaheim with their glut of yound D- would they move a Mintykov and a prospect for a proven vet who could slot into their 2nd pair at 7.5 locked up. Rielly has value – he is just miscast here
Please don’t tell me these players arent valuable just bc they are Leafs lol…
I’ve been sating that for months now in this chat. I don’t think you need picks in return. Both those players plus the cap savings is enough. Time to move on from Matthews. Not because of his ability we just need a leader who has more grit and determination.
Sad isn’t it- what a complete mismanagement of a rebuild- this is worse than Thornton Marleau Sharks era at least they made a final, and coincidentally same type of guys leading the charge..
The eee is no way kings give up Clarke AND Byfield. Both players are just starting to scratch the surface. Kings are playing good hockey too. Maybe they would trade one and a first but no way they’d get both.
I’m looking at what the Sabres got for Eichel in 2021 coming off neck fusion surgery and without a fraction of the resume Matthews has . Tuch, Krebs a 1st and 2nd round pick
Matthews’ value has diminished in the past 2 years. He is not the same person w/o Marner and health-wise.
So what you are saying is: AM to Vegas (to play with Marner) for Theodore + ?
🙂
Although I agree with you, he is 18 months removed from a 69 goal season and his decrease may have to do with his utilization under Berube as much as it does with his health. This happened before Marner’s absence. He is still an elite player – value is still there
Funny how, these last 9 years when the Leafs lose in either the 1st or 2nd round of the playoffs, they never blame the core players.
When they lost to the Panthers a few months ago, they looked to put players like David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok and Max Domi on the trade block and only looked to change the bottom six. They never call out the core 4(now core 3)
In previous years, they refused to invest in a good goalie and used horrible goalies like Samsonov who is really horrible, he always lets in some bad goals and Michael Hutchinson who also let in bad goals.
So according to the Leafs, it’s the bottom six players who are the reason why the team cannot get past the 2nd round of the playoffs each year. They were trying so hard not to let Marner leave despite his poor performance in the playoffs.
So now they won’t give up a core piece to get a good player. To get something good, you have to give up something good.
Time to rebuild soon in the next 2-3 years
It’ll be 4-6 years before the Leafs rebuild. You forgot the 1-3 year denial period they’ll go through first.
I feel bad for my father.
I see Matthews playing under Barube as Modano played for Hitchcock…Madano put up crazy numbers until Hitchcock sat him down and said, If you want to win a cup, you need to learn to play defense”. Modano did, and the Stars were a force in the late 90’s. I bet Barube has had the same sort of conversation with Matthews, and used his former center, O’Reilly as a reference. “Hey you are a better player than O’Reilly but, he had his name on the cup and you don’t”.
Same can be said about Eichel and Mcdavid! Bottom line Stanley Cup Winner.
Matthews was a Selke finalist in 2024. Just sayin’.
Yeah, some Selke finalist… Matthews watched his buddy Marner feed McDavid (of all people to leave wide open in the slot!) for the OT winner during the Four Nations Cup. ‘Oops’ doesn’t quite seem to cut it here.
How many cups did Modano win with the Stars ?
One in the 1998/99 season, then in the following season they lost in the finals to the NJD in 6 games.
NJ. should call Ottawa about a swap of Cousens for Nemec plus another piece.Rd to play with Sanderson or Chabot.Pinto is being wasted as a third line center.
In the summer I commented that the Habs couldn’t count on Guhle or Dach to play a whole season.
At the time I wanted to pick up an RD like Perbix giving the team Dobson, Carrier and Perbix at RD, and playing Matheson, Hutson, Guhle at LD with Xhekaj and/or Struble as extra to replace Guhle when he goes down.
I also suggested Ssigning Kampf as a 3or4C for his faceoff and pk skill since Dach is unlikely to play all year.
I know folks didn’t like the suggestions but these players going down for a lengthy period surely isn’t shocking.
It’s a long season and many other scenarios will unfold and while I like almost everything that HuGo have done in building I think they missed out on the backup plan for some weak links.