{"id":563852,"date":"2026-05-01T02:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T02:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/563852\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T02:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T02:15:17","slug":"matthews-and-nylander-demanded-dogs-up-front-and-the-sharks-have-exactly-the-player-they-had-in-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/563852\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthews and Nylander demanded dogs up front and the Sharks have exactly the player they had in mind"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Toronto <\/p>\n

Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Toronto Maple Leafs need skill on their top-six, potentially they have an answer for what they need in the San Jose Sharks.<\/p>\n

The Leafs lack of youth talent is a hindrance to their potential success, this season exposing this Toronto roster<\/a> as one too slow and too old.Beyond Easton Cowan<\/a> and Matthew Knies<\/a>, the Leafs have little in terms of top-six youth upside, with it unlikely that anyone currently in their pipeline has that potential up front.For the Leafs success, one team that could make sense to look at for their success is the San Jose Sharks, and it goes beyond Macklin Celebrini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

San Jose has been rebuilding through the draft and their young forwards fit exactly what the Maple Leafs new roster needs to look like <\/p>\n

The San Jose Sharks have built their team with youth and skill, and it’s a formula the Leafs can follow, even without a first overall pick.<\/p>\n

While the Leafs can gain a top pick in this year’s draft, San Jose has found success outside of first overall. Will Smith<\/a> was a fourth overall pick, William Eklund<\/a> seventh overall, Igor Chernyshov<\/a> at pick 17, Colin Graf undrafted.<\/p>\n

The Sharks success isn’t just because of the instant impact of Macklin Celebrini, but smart drafting across the organization, and that their young team has shown growth stages this season.<\/p>\n

The addition of former first rounder Yaroslav Askarov<\/a> helps as well, but San Jose has a youth energy, along with some veteran support.<\/p>\n

It’s the lack of veterans, however, that San Jose has to contend with adding to get themselves to the next level, but their trajectory right now mirrors the Leafs team of a young core-four, and could yield greater results.<\/p>\n

A Leafs-Sharks trade makes sense for both sides and the new GM should make it the first call of the offseason <\/p>\n

With the San Jose Sharks need for a veteran, one theory that the Leafs could pursue is adding of San Jose’s youngsters to give the Sharks that veteran help, with William Eklund viewed as a sensible option for Toronto.<\/p>\n

There isn’t a reason, however, for San Jose on their end to deal Eklund. The 23-year-old winger has been a key piece for the Sharks with 15 goals, 38 assists, & 53 points.<\/p>\n

San Jose would seem unlikely to be moving a key youngster Eklund unless for a top veteran piece, with the blueline being the area of most need. And no, Morgan Rielly<\/a> isn’t that guy.<\/p>\n

San Jose is one of the few teams that could provide Rielly the opportunity to play his game, while one of Musty\/Bystedt could contribute middle-six, two-way games right away as rookies.<\/p>\n

The San Jose Sharks are one team that can take on Morgan Rielly’s contract, and with a new general manager, the Toronto Maple Leafs have what they need.<\/p>\n

Previously on Hockey Patrol<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

6 HOURS AGO|117 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Matthews and Nylander demanded dogs up front and the Sharks have exactly the player they had in mind<\/p>\n

Does Quentin Musty or Filip Bystedt for Morgan Rielly at 50% retained seem fair for Toronto?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images The Toronto Maple Leafs need skill on their top-six,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5127],"tags":[8450,5,885,4,519,168,5306,5305,1780,31,3613,801],"class_list":["post-563852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose-sharks","tag-easton-cowan","tag-hockey","tag-morgan-rielly","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sanjose","tag-sanjosesharks","tag-sharks","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-trade","tag-william-eklund"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116496913666762969","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563852","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=563852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}