On the deadline recap episode of 31 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Maple Leafs pursued Coyotes pending-RFA forward Connor Garland before pivoting and landing Nick Foligno on Sunday, although a deal with Arizona never came very close.
One player the Leafs looked at was Connor Garland in Arizona. If you look at what the Maple Leafs did, they added Foligno, who is a pending UFA. They added Riley Nash — UFA. They added Ben Hutton — UFA. They added David Rittich — UFA. All of that was important because they want to keep Zach Hyman, and they need the ultimate flexibility to do that.