When we here at PPP talk about trading members of the Leafs, it is rarely done with any sort of pleasure. Even last year, in the great fire sale of 2016, Leafs fans had to experience the heartbreak of the realization that they were going to lose Nick Spaling and Roman Polak forever. Knowing that once you lose them, they never come back—hey, Daniel Winnik is a free agent this summer, isn’t he?—sorry, I mean, once you realize they aren’t coming back, facing their loss is hard.
So since the Leafs aren’t likely to trade anyone, not even Roman Polák, who is a totally different guy from the defenceman they traded last year to the Sharks, I thought I’d offer myself as the objective voice for the rest of the Atlantic division as they try to make deals.