{"id":452185,"date":"2026-02-09T15:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452185\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:31:16","slug":"jonathan-marchessaults-trade-preference-has-toronto-written-all-over-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452185\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Marchessault\u2019s trade preference has Toronto written all over it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another player to add to your trade boards: Jonathan Marchessault. Nashville has the big names and strong complementary players (Michael McCarron and Nick Perbix would be two), but I sometimes forget Marchessault, and now have been reminded a couple of times.<\/p>\n

He has control, but there\u2019s a willingness between team and player for something to happen. Unique in his case: his preference is somewhere with good minor hockey infrastructure for his children.<\/p>\n

Marchessault looking to make sure his kids have a good hockey foundation is definitely something that we don’t hear often but it shows a different side of free agency and why certain players won’t go certain places.<\/p>\n

However this request really does make one team stand out above the rest: The Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs hold huge advantage if they want to add former Cup winner<\/p>\n

It’s no secret that the Greater Toronto Area and the city itself is one of the biggest and best areas to grow as a hockey player and the numerous high-level and elite leagues for young adults and children has set off several NHL careers.<\/p>\n

There are so many U14-U17 leagues,<\/a> as well as the entirety of the GTHL (Greater Toronto Hockey League) so Marchessault’s kids would be able to advance through the system no matter how old they get.<\/p>\n

It might be a little frustrating for fans if the Maple Leafs bring him in only because it’s yet another big contract ($5.5-million) for a player who is much nearer the end of his career than the start.<\/p>\n

But this is a player who has won a Stanley Cup, has shown consistent playoff production, is still an elite player who had 40 goals only two seasons ago; he has a lot to offer and his environment just hasn’t helped him at all.<\/p>\n

If the Maple Leafs were to find a way to bring in Marchessault (without mortgaging their future) then here’s how his placement in the lineup might look:<\/p>\n

Marchessault – Matthews – Domi
Knies – Tavares – Nylander
Maccelli – Roy* – McMann*
Lorentz – Laughton* – Robertson*<\/p>\n

* denotes a player who may be traded from Toronto this season.<\/p>\n

If Toronto makes a few moves obviously the lineup looks different but if they are staying put for a playoff push, adding Marchessault alongside Matthews and Domi is a pretty big boost.<\/p>\n

He’s still a very good defensive player, and while he isn’t uber-physical he still likes to throw hits and isn’t afraid to muddy himself up so to speak.<\/p>\n

With Toronto needing an improvement in the top-six (more specifically, a real playoff contributor) especially if they have the postseason in mind, adding Jonathan Marchessault is a really solid way to do it — and they may have a huge advantage going into it too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another player to add to your trade boards: Jonathan Marchessault. Nashville has the big names and strong complementary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[2300,5,781,51114,20,5172,231,4,14978,66,31,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-452185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-elliotte-friedman","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-jonathan-marchessault","11":"tag-leafs-trade-rumours","12":"tag-maple-leafs","13":"tag-mapleleafs","14":"tag-nashville-predators","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-nhl-trade-rumours","17":"tag-toronto","18":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","19":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116041396691316199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}