Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Leafs May Have To Look West For A Trade Partner

01/15/2014 at 1:48pm EST

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Realistically, the Toronto Maple Leafs might have just 14 potential trading partners as the playoff bubble team looks to upgrade for the stretch run.

“There’s a lot of talk now. Because of the Olympic break and the March 5 deadline, there’s starting to be a lot of discussion out there. It's a tricky situation,” Toronto VP and assistant general manager Claude Loiselle told Sportsnet The Fan 590 Wednesday morning. "A lot of teams in your own division, particularly when the standings get this tight, they don't want to deal. It's hard to make a trade with a team that's tied with you or one or two points behind you."

"So you tend to look to the Western Conference, and that cuts out half the teams you're going to be trading for."

Not only are six teams within two standings points of the Leafs, but Toronto is a team already using LTI (Dave Bolland) and is tight up against the salary cap.

One name that repeatedly comes up in Leafs trade speculation is that of centre Nazem Kadri. Loiselle admits that Kadri's chemistry "for one reason or another" with linemate Joffrey Lupul has evaporated.

read on for more rumor talk...

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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