Should the Maple Leafs move Rasmus Sandin?

Over the last few weeks, there have been reports that the contract negotiations between Rasmus Sandin and the Maple Leafs have gone nowhere, and with the start of training camp under a month away, the question turns to “Should the Maple Leaf’s move Rasmus Sandin?”

Rasmus Sandin is a 22-year-old left-handed defence who the Leafs selected with the 29th pick in the 2018 draft, and since then he hasn’t been given a ton of development room with the NHL team to show that he can take the reins and be a top-4 defence in the NHL for the Maple Leafs. Sandin has played in only 88 games with the NHL team and has tallied 28 points, and after the progression, he made last season it appeared that he would be given a full-time role with the club this season and slowly make his way up the depth chart into that top-4 role. However, due to some congestion on the backend, it seems he could be on the outside looking in and needing a new deal, and because that has levelled off it is almost a certainty that Sandin is the 7thdefenceman on the depth chart this coming season.

I feel that the Maple Leafs shouldn’t trade Sandin, and they should look to a few players that are eating cap and have less production than him to find the space to get him a deal somewhere around $2,000,000/$2,250,000 for the next 2-3 years. Players that come to mind are Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl on the backend, and if we include players up front, I will also say, Wayne Simmonds. However, for argument sake let’s leave it to just players on the backend, and so the attention turns to Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl, would you want to keep these two players over 22-year-old up-and-coming defencemen who could make a portion of what these two make? I would move them both out to clear some cap space and use it to sign Sandin and potentially sign a Tyler Motte or Sonny Milano, and another depth defencemen rather than try and move Sandin and have to watch him develop elsewhere and turn into a nice top-4 guy on another team. If you traded both Holl and Muzzin, you would clear up approximately $7,625,000 which after signing Sandin to around $2,250,000 gives you around $5,375,000 to figure out any other areas of need and even sign a guy to a PTO.

If you go ahead and trade Rasmus Sandin, you are walking away from a very talented player who is so young and has so much more growth, for a few pieces that could be costly to your team’s future, with injuries or just poor play. Can you imagine if they dealt Sandin, and then Muzzin goes down early into the year and is out for an extended period? Who could have filled that space in the lineup from the start? Even in terms of poor play, if one of the defencemen that they have slotted into their top-6 play terribly, that ice time could be given to Sandin to take some of the pressure off and prove the haters wrong. I truly feel that it would be a bad idea to move on some Sandin so early into his career and miss out on what he can become if he was given a better chance similar to the opportunity that Travis Dermott was given in his time here in Toronto. I also feel that there is a better option available via trade with other players on the backend that can provide a bit of cap relief which you can go on to use to help your team make a push for the cup.