Maple Leafs rumors: Which 2025 pickup could be traded before 2026 NHL trade deadline?

The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to a dreadful start to the 2025-26 NHL season, with a 9-10-3 record. They are last in the Eastern Conference and will not have their first-round pick in June’s draft if it lands outside the top five. That is because the Maple Leafs traded for Brandon Carlo, who struggled and is now injured, at the 2025 NHL trade deadline. According to Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, Carlo could be on the move again.

“The Leafs did explore trading Carlo last off-season, but couldn’t get to the right deal. There’s a strong suggestion Toronto and Buffalo were in talks over having Carlo involved in a JJ Peterka trade and then moving towards a Carlo-for-Bowen Byram type of trade over the summer,” Kypreos reported.

He continued, “Carlo still has some attraction to other teams. He can log big minutes, is a right shot, still relatively young at 28 years old, and Boston is eating $615,000 of his salary, so he’ll count for just $3.485 million — and possibly less if the Leafs retain some of that. Carlo has another season left on his contract, so an acquiring team would get him for two playoff drives. He’ll get a lot of respect in the trade market.”

The Maple Leafs traded their 2025 first-round pick and forward prospect Fraser Minten for Carlo last year. That pick may be in the top ten, and Minten has been an everyday player for Boston. Giving up Carlo would be a huge failure of admission from Brad Treliving. That is something NHL GMs are not quick to do.

The Bruins have been surprisingly solid to start the season despite having bottom-tier expectations. That makes the trade even more painful for the Maple Leafs. They are tumbling toward missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Can a Carlo trade spark this team to a playoff run? Or will this sale be the beginning of a fire sale in Toronto?

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