Kyle Dubas is at it once again, as he has acquired defenceman Jake McCabe and bottom six forward Sam Lafferty from the Chicago Blackhawks for a 2025 Conditional First round pick, 2025 Second, AHL forward Joey Anderson and undrafted forward Pavel Gogolev.
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As a result Chicago will also retain 50% of McCabe’s contract which carries an AAV of $4 million for each of the next two seasons after this. Toronto will only be on the hook for $2 million of McCabe’s salary.
McCabe is in his second season with the Blackhawks after spending parts of eight seasons with the Buffalo Sabres before joining Chicago as an unrestricted free agent in 2021.
In 55 games so far with the Blackhawks this season, McCabe has put up two goals and 20 points, which was good for second on the team for points by a defenceman.
Projections show that McCabe should fill in Toronto’s top 4 defencemen as he has the versatility to play both sides of the ice. There is currently a logjam on Toronto’s backend with the likes of Morgan Rielly, T.J Brodie, Timothy Liljegren, Rasmus Sandin, Justin Holl, Mark Giordano and Connor Timmins all looking to keep their place on the Leaf blue line, which would leave many to wonder if Kyle Dumas might not be done making trades ahead of the NHL trade deadline on March 3rd.
McCabe brings two things that the Leafs were looking to acquire on their backend, a bit of physicality and good puck moving option. At 6’1, McCabe might not be the tallest defenceman on the team but his stocky build and good defensive presence will make him a force defending the Leaf net, while also being able to carry the puck up the ice with ease.
Toronto also acquried another depth forward in this deal Sam Lafferty, shortly over a week after acquiring former St. Louis Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari to help shore up their middle to bottom six forward options.
In 51 games so far this season, Lafferty has put up a respectable 10 goals and 21 points on an offensively inept Blackhawks team.
While not known for his goal scoring abilities, with 10 passing his previous career high in goals at six, Lafferty is a solid bottom six options who will be a valuable asset in a shutdown role defensively, and on the penalty kill.
He is signed through until next season carrying a cap hit at $1.15 million.
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