What Does the Grabner Trade Mean For the Leafs?

By Alex Hobson

The Leafs' forward group just got a whole lot more complicated.

Yesterday, the Leafs announced that they had trade Taylor Beck along with four prospects, including Matt Finn, Carter Verhaeghe, Tom Nilsson, and Christopher Gibson to the New York Islanders in exchange for Michael Grabner. Grabner would join an already packed group of forwards looking to solidify themselves roster spots in the upcoming season.

The main aspect that many Leafs fans questioned was why Grabner was worth four prospects and a good depth forward. Here's why. The Leafs and Isles essentially swapped a contract dump for a cap dump. The Leafs have tons of space to work with and they could afford taking it in to make room for potential signings of PTOs.

So what does this all mean? Well, here's the reality. The Leafs signed four players to PTOs, including Devin Setoguchi, Curtis Glencross, Brad Boyes, and Mark Fraser. Before this trade took place, they had 49/50 contracts signed. Because they dumped five of those contracts, they now have five spots to work with, and potentially sign their PTOs to short term deals, depending on how training camp goes. Grabner's career year came in 2010-11, when he put up 52 points in 76 games for the Islanders. This past season, the Villach, Austria native saw his production dip, and eventually had trouble remaining on the roster due to injuries. This coming season, he could potentially look for more ice time in the blue and white and live up to his $3 million contract. Here's a look at the Leafs depth chart with Grabner in the picture.

JVR - Kadri - Parenteau
Lupul - Bozak - Grabner
Boyes - Holland - Matthias
Glencross - Komarov - Winnik
Arcobello -  Spaling - Panik
Setoguchi

This is already a packed forward group. Not only do they have 16 forwards battling for a 12 player core, but this also excludes the option of prospects such as William Nylander, Nikita Soshnikov, and Casey Bailey cracking the lineup in the following season. Now, that being said, some of these players are on PTOs, and aren't guarenteed to be signed. If they are, however, this will be a very interesting training camp.

So what can we take away from this? The biggest aspect is that the Leafs will have a huge training camp full of hard working players. The thin amount of space for players mixed with the coaching of Mike Babcock will ensure that there are no slackers at camp this season.

Thanks for reading.