Good morning to all of you Toronto Maple Leafs fans and people who found this post scrolling through Google news while doing their morning business.

The Maple Leafs 2021 Development camp begins today, and there’s a whole slew of prospects, potential draft picks, and other kids out on the ice trying to impress coaches and get in shape for the upcoming seasons, there’s lots of info in the below links:

Maple Leafs announce roster for 2021 development camp
HORNBY: Leafs rookies, vets back on the ice

From today to Monday players will have training, medicals, and scrimmages to fill their days and get to know each other. There are already professionals like Toronto Marlies Joseph Duszak and Riley McCourt to star prospects like Nick Robertson, an random invitees like Sam Sedley from the Owen Sound Attack.

We’ll get some quotes from kids, and some video to take a look at, and this camp will lead into the Traverse City prospect tournament the following weekend.

NHL Prospect Tournament

In the only other bit of Leafs news I scrounged up, it’s a rumor from Bruins reporter Jimmy Murphy (yes, I know) about the Boston Bruins and Maple Leafs taking a look at trading for New Jersey Devils defender PK Subban.

Bruins, Maple Leafs Linked to Devils' P.K. Subban - The Hockey News on Sports Illustrated

The Maple Leafs have been linked to Subban before. At the 2019 NHL draft the Maple Leafs and Nashville Predators were in talks about moving Subban back to his hometown team, however the Maple Leafs were looking at Nashville to retain a significant chunk of Subban’s salary due to cap constraints. The deal was apparently close before the Devils came over and offered to take the full deal.

If the Maple Leafs were to bring Subban to the blue & white, the Devils would have to retain 50% of the defenders salary right now, which would still leave $4.5 million and that is still a struggle to make work.

Alex Kerfoot is the highest paid quality player the Leafs can afford to part with - the big 4 forwards and top 4 defenders can’t be touched. The Leafs need Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, and Marner for the regular season and I wouldn’t trade any of them for one season of Subban. The defense shouldn’t be touched. We want the top 4 of Rielly, Brodie, Muzzin, and Holl to stay, and give some flexibility and depth to the positions. Travis Dermott could be in on the trade if the Devils want a defender back, and his cap hit works with Kerfoots to make work against the $4.5 million cap hit Subban would carry. You could also include Pierre Engvall or Ilya Mikheyev to make it work. The Devils would probably also want a pick but that would need to be a 2023 pick, as the Leafs only have a 1st, 2nd, and 7th at next years draft, and would lose that pick if Brennan Menell plays 30 games in the NHL.

The deal could also wait until the trade deadline when Subban becomes a lower cap hit and the Devils figure out if they’re in or out of the playoffs.

Would you want to bring in PK Subban?

Yes - A full season of PK276
Yes - However, a mid-season deal is better143
No - He’s past his prime and costs too much770
No - He might do something awful like raise millions of dollars for a children's hospital52

Yesterday saw Travis Dermott be named #9 on our Top 25 Under 25, #8 comes out today. Who could it be?

Top 25 Under 25: Travis Dermott is #9

Enjoy your day folks.

From The Branches