The Leafs almost managed to land Subban!

Defenseman P.K Subban wasn’t shocked to find out he had been traded by the Nashville Predators on Saturday, however fans will be stunned to find out how close he almost became part of the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

Subban was traded to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for defencemen Steven Santini, Jeremy Davies, a second-round pick at this year’s NHL Draft and another second-round pick next year.

However, Devils GM Ray Shero explained to Elliotte Friedman for his 31 Thoughts column on Sportsnet that he had to wait for Predators general manager David Poile to see if Subban was moving to Toronto instead… 

Here’s Devils GM Ray Shero on the PK Subban trade timeline: “Friday night, (Nashville GM David Poile) was trying to make a decision and he said, ‘I’ll call you tonight.’ He didn’t…and that’s not like David, really. So this morning, I was having coffee with (Devils owner) Josh Harris, and (David) called me, and first apologized for not calling (Friday night). He just said, ‘Listen, I’m not gonna wait on something else that I’m looking at, do you want to do this?’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’”

Poile said in his post-draft availability that there were four teams, with New Jersey being the only one that could take Subban’s full contract. I believe Toronto and Vancouver were two of the other three. It sounds like the Predators wanted Adam Gaudette in the package from Vancouver, but — and this is my sense more than absolute truth — that the Maple Leafs went harder at Subban. I think they’re the team Poile was waiting on.

We know the Maple Leafs need to be careful moving forward, seeing that the Mitch Marner issue still hasn’t been resolved and the cap space is tight in Toronto. 

Maybe Kyle Dubas realized just in time that despite needing to bolster the back end he simply couldn’t take on Subban’s full $ 9 million annual salary… 

Money rules the hockey world too!