As teased in our earlier article about George McPhee’s confirmation that he and the Vegas Golden Knights already have at least six trades completed, is that the Toronto Maple Leafs are also still in discussions with the club. As Frank Seravalli of TSN notes in his latest piece, Toronto GM Lou Lamoriello was affected by travel issues and was given more time from McPhee to negotiate a deal with Vegas.
Though the Maple Leafs aren’t likely to need to dump salary or protect extra players—Joffery Lupul or Nathan Horton’s contracts could be moved for more cap space this summer, but it’s not imperative that the team do so—they could be on the prowl for one of the extra defensemen that Vegas will pick tomorrow. Seravalli notes Mathew Dumba, Colin Miller, Sami Vatanen and Marc Methot in his column but there are obviously many more. 
In our mock expansion draft, we had the Golden Knights picking ten defensemen from around the league and while it’s still unclear how the already completed trades could affect these names, it’s a list that would draw wide interest from the Maple Leafs. While Brayden McNabb and Nate Schmidt are both left-handed and would likely have to slot in behind Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner, they are both young enough to fit into the Leafs’ competitive window and would offer upgrades on Matt Hunwick and Martin Marincin, the duo most often deployed in that third pairing LHD spot last season.
The most interesting name though may be Trevor van Riemsdyk, young brother of Maple Leafs’ forward James van Riemsdyk and expected expansion casualty from the Chicago Blackhawks. The younger van Riemsdyk is only 25, right-handed and has begun to show a capability beyond his beginnings as an NCAA free agent.
In any case, there should be many names available to the Maple Leafs if the Golden Knights are looking to flip contracts after the draft. With several exciting prospects still in the Leafs system and a glut of young players already fighting for jobs at the NHL level, they could afford to move out a couple in any deal. It will be interesting to see what kind of dealing they have planned with the expansion franchise, if any at all.
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If I’m Vegas I’d just take the first 4 defenseman listed plus Van Reimsdyk, and compete now. That would be an interesting play and a strong defensive core to go with in front of plenty of talented goalies. Offense might not be as much of a concern at that point because you could win every game 2-1 lol