The Toronto Maple Leafs have reportedly been hard at work looking at ways in which they can upgrade their roster moving forward, and it sounds like there are at least a few key pieces that they are focusing on.
On Saturday we reported on the fact that the Leafs are currently targeting a free agent goaltender, but it also appears as though the Anaheim Ducks have a defenseman that the Leafs also currently have on their radar. That defenseman is 30 year old National Hockey League veteran Josh Manson and on Saturday during the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman indicated that Manson is someone the Leafs are interested in acquiring.
That being said Friedman's comments also left a clear indication that the Leafs are not the only team around the league interested in potentially acquiring Manson moving forward.
"A couple of other notes, first of all Josh Manson was injured in our opener today... that will be an interesting one to watch in terms of how long he is going to be out," said Friedman. "He's an unrestricted free agent to be, there is interest and Toronto is one of the teams believed to be looking at Manson if he is interested in potentially coming there."
This may be a difficult one for the Maple Leafs to pull off given that a number of players around the NHL are reportedly uncomfortable making the move to Canada given the tighter restrictions in that country when it comes to Covid. Although there is a good chance that Manson, whose contract is up at the end of this season, will be traded ahead of the NHL's trade deadline he does have some control over his future. The final 3 years of his current deal include a 12 team no trade list and that is more than enough teams to eliminate all the Canadian franchises if Manson were inclined to do so.
Manson is a former 6th round pick (160th overall) of the Anaheim Ducks and has played every game of his NHL career with that team thus far. He has 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points and a plus minus rating of 0 over 43 games with Anaheim this season.
