The NHL trade deadline is still five days away, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are not waiting around.
Crosby and
Why make the trade now?
“You get a feel for what the market is and what you think it’s going to be. Pittsburgh was coming pretty hard for the last 10 days or so, pushing to get the deal done for Daniel. Their offer continued to improve over the last 48 hours. Again, you’re in constant contact with the other teams as well and it was our feeling that the offer that they were presenting was very fair.
“We felt it was probably what it was going to be on Monday. I didn’t think it was going to be better than that. You’re risking injury to the player or the team looking elsewhere trying to fill the hole that they’re trying to fill.”
Do you still expect to be busy on deadline day?
“We’ll continue to talk to teams on all the players we have remaining, whether it’s the guys that are playing with the Marlies or on our reserve list. So it’s not like business is done. Will we be active on the deadline day? I still think there’s a chance that we do make some other moves.
“Whether it’s on players who are on contract or not, it remains to be seen but we’re not going to stop looking to see if there’s still options for us. We’re going to push on through to Monday and if there’s options and opportunities for us to improve we’ll take advantage of those.”
Are you getting strong interest for Dion Phaneuf and Phil Kessel?
“Moving big names or big players during the season is difficult during the season. But that really hasn’t changed. If there’s an opportunity to improve, then we would look to take advantage.”
What was the trade market like for Winnik?
“There was interest in Daniel of varying levels. I think that some teams were obviously more interested than others and pushed harder. Some were kicking tires and were trying to get a bargain. But his play put him in a position where he was wanted and it put us in a position to get some quality assets back.”
