Kyle Dubas woke up on Sunday morning and chose violence.

We’ve all had Leafs PR Twitter notifications turned on for weeks and have been extremely frustrated to see them respond to taxi squad paper transactions. But that couldn’t be said yesterday.

The Leafs pointed at a finger at the entire NHL and screamed, “We’re going for it!” and like always, it started with Brandon Pridham and his salary cap knowledge.

Frederik Andersen hasn’t been in the Leafs’ net since March 19th in a 4-3 loss to the Calgary Flames. It’s been the Jack Campbell show ever since winning the next eight games in-a-row while Michael Hutchinson popped in for a few matches. Andersen’s condition is up in the air and all we’ve gotten is thoughts of optimism and reassurances of further follow-up appointments. Either way, Pridham went to work.

The Leafs acquired Riley Nash from the Columbus Blue Jackets and immediately placed him and Andersen on long-term injured reserve to open up over $7 million in cap space to use at the deadline. Nick Foligno was the first Sunday target followed by Dubas shoring up the team’s goaltending by acquiring David Rittich from the Flames for a third in 2022.

Toronto Maple Leafs acquire Nick Foligno

Maple Leafs acquire David Rittich for a 3rd round pick

Foligno may be the player to help perfect Keefe’s shutdown third line model while Rittich has been a decent goaltender when the Leafs are on the ice. Another thing the Rittich trade could indicate is the status of Andersen. We knew that improving on the position was something the Leafs wanted to do, however, this may confirm that Freddie won’t be ready to return by the end of the regular season.

The aura around Kyle Dubas is a glowing yellow and the sparks of ascension of fierce. And to make things even more interesting: the Leafs may not be done.

According to CapFriendly, the Leafs still have nearly $2.5 million left in cap space. This could be used to add to the depth because you can never have enough of that. But it can also be applied to something bigger.

Teams like the San Jose Sharks and Detroit Red Wings have benefitted from being the third team into retain salary and make contracts more affordable. The Foligno deal is a prime example of that as his cap-hit went from being $5.5 million on Columbus to the $1.375 million it is now thanks to the Sharks.

Anything can happen on deadline day, and Dubas has made it clear that he’s not messing around.

In Case You Missed It

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TRADES!