Maple Leafs showcasing Wayne Simmonds for a trade?

The Maple Leafs find themselves in something of a difficult situation when it comes to veteran forward Wayne Simmonds, and as it turns out another difficult situation for the Leafs may have paved a path to a solution to the team's Simmonds problem.

The problem of course is that the Leafs appear to be ready to move on from the veteran forward given the decline in his performance over the last few seasons. The Leafs did not have Simmonds on their opening day roster and instead opted to place him on waivers and send him down to the American Hockey League to join their affiliate team the Toronto Marlies. Simmonds however has refused that assignment and has thus far refused to report to the AHL, with the Leafs giving all indications that they will be going out of their way to do right by the player.

There were some rumblings that there may have been interest in a trade for Simmonds, included among those rumors was his former team the Philadelphia Flyers, but thus far no trade has materialized and now Simmonds is lingering on the sidelines.

Thankfully, sort of, an injury to veteran goaltender Matt Murray resulted in a great deal of additional cap space opening up for the Leafs, cap space that has translated into the call ups of defenseman Victor Mete, forward Nick Robertson and of course the aforementioned Wayne Simmonds.

While it seemed somewhat unlikely that Simmonds would actually get to spend any time in the lineup, that appears to be exactly what will be happening tonight when the Maple Leafs take on the Winnipeg Jets. Simmonds is set to step into a fourth line role in relief of forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and you have to wonder about the decision making from head coach Sheldon Keefe and/or general manager Kyle Dubas here and what the motivations behind that decision might be. While Sheldon Keefe acknowledge that Aube-Kubel had some things to work on, he also confirmed that this decision was more about getting Simmonds on the ice than anything else.

“He’s done good things for us physically, but other areas of his game haven’t come together yet,” Keefe said of Aube-Kubel as per the Toronto Sun. “It’s less about him and more about getting Wayne involved."

The Leafs would no doubt love to find a trade partner for Simmonds at this stage of the season, or at the very least before Matt Murray comes off of long term injured reserve and his cap hit comes with him, and a showcase of his current level in tonight's game may be the best way to get that done.