Trade me right f****** now!

I like to imagine Rick Nash and Roberto Luongo are getting awfully close to a Denis Lemieux impression. While those two names could wind up being the biggest trades of the summer, the Leafs are going to need to scour the market for help as well. Where do they need help? What happened to free agency? James Mirtle of the Globe & Mail has you covered:

Free agency, meanwhile, has become a place where elite talent is scarce and can generally only be acquired with the type of heavily front-loaded deals Burke has refused to give out (The fact the Leafs are no longer much of a free agent destination is also a problem.). That leaves only trades, and to get elite talent there, you generally have to either get really lucky or give up something of considerable value. And the Leafs can’t afford to subtract a lot of talent from their current group. That said, the Kings team that just won the Stanley Cup had eight regulars who were acquired by trade, including five of their top seven forwards. With a little bit of prospect depth, there are ways for Toronto to get at least incrementally better at every position over the next few months – especially defensively – and that will go a long way to climbing the standings.

It looks like the theme of today's FTB is all about trades. With free agency winding down, the only way teams will be able to improve their rosters before October is the trade market. That's good news for the Leafs, as they still have several holes to fill and the more active the market, the better.

Links after the jump...