NHL agent confirms Brendan Shanahan sabotaged Maple Leafs trade deal.

The Brendan Shanahan era is officially over in Toronto and, as is often the case when moves of this nature occur, all kinds of stories are beginning to make their way to the surface about some of the things he did while serving as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs over the last decade. There will no doubt be plenty of stories that will continue to filter out over the coming days and weeks, but one in particular caught my attention this weekend when an agent who currently represents players in the National Hockey League used his platform to openly discuss a trade that was blocked by Shanahan.

That agent is none other than Alan Walsh, who shed light on what was meant to be a truly blockbuster deal between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks. Walsh was careful to only speak of the players he represents, but his comments make a number of puzzle pieces that we already had fit together.

"Marc was playing in Chicago and it was discussed right up front... that at the deadline that Marc would probably garner a first round pick in a trade," revealed NHL agent Alan Walsh on his podcast.

Walsh is of course speaking of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, his client, a client that according to Walsh did in fact agree to waive his no-trade clause to become a Maple Leaf.

"Chicago was not a very good team... and it was put to Marc 'If you want to stay in Chicago we will honor your wishes... but if you want to play playoffs somewhere and go on a run and try to win a cup, we think we can get a first round pick for you.'"

Walsh confirmed he spoke to Kyle Dubas who was general manager of the Maple Leafs at the time and added that Fleury was prepared to face the intense scrutiny of the Toronto market.

"After a lot of discussions between Marc and I and Marc and his family, Marc had decided 'I'm in, I'm ready to go for it' and I communicated that to both Kyle Dubas and Kyle Davidson."

It wasn't just that Walsh had spoken to both the Maple Leafs general manager in Dubas at the time as well as Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson, according to Walsh this went so far that he actually received confirmation that the deal was done from Dubas himself.

"About 5 days before the deadline... Kyle Dubas calls me and says 'We have a deal with Chicago, this trade is getting done,'" revealed Walsh.

Kyle Davidson also confirmed to Walsh that the deal had been agreed upon, but things would eventually take a drastic shift.

While Walsh didn't go into any more details about the trade outside of speaking about his own client, Marc-Andre Fleury, the details of this deal have actually already been reported prior to this story coming out. Back in 2022, NHL insider Darren Dreger revealed that the deal had been Brandon Hagel and Fleury to the Leafs for Mrazek, Matthew Knies and 1st round picks.

While Walsh stopped short of discussing any other players, he did confirm that this deal involved much more than just his client at the time.

"I did know it was a bigger deal, I did know there were several different pieces involved, players and draft picks going in both directions," confirmed Walsh.

What Walsh also revealed was the fact that Dubas hadn't suddenly changed his mind, but that he had been overruled when he attempted to get approval from Shanahan to make the deal.

"About two hours later I get a call from Kyle Dubas who is crestfall in his voice, I can tell something is very wrong," said Walsh. "And he said 'Alan I don't know how to tell you this... I went upstairs to get approval and this trade has been nixed."

Walsh never mentions Shanahan by name by I think we can all connect the dots here, especially considering that Dubas would go on to make a very public play for more organizational control before being fired by Shanahan very shortly after doing so.

Who knows how this trade could have changed the future for a number of organizations across the NHL had it been allowed to pass. Hagel was eventually traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning where he has averaged over 30 goals each of the last 3 seasons and was even featured on Canada's top line at the Four Nations Face-Off, the kind of player that just about every team in the NHL would kill to get their hands on.