The latest on P.K. Subban and one way that the Leafs could fit him into the picture

Almost a month into free agency, there are still some intriguing names available on the open market and with most teams nearing the 23-man roster limit, the remaining free agents may have some big decisions to make; either loosen up on their contract demands or expand their list of cities in which they'd be willing to play.

P.K. Subban is the best right-shot defenseman who remains available, but with rumours having surfaced that he is looking for a very specific opportunity, there may be a lot of teams who may not be able to meet his criteria. Subban's agent, Don Meehan, has already confirmed that Subban wants to play in the NHL next season and that he wants to sign with a contending team. However, with many contending teams being very close to finalizing their lineup, the Subban camp is running out of runway.




By the sounds of things, Subban is still very much in play for some teams. It will be interesting to see what happens as we inch closer to training camp, when teams are going to want to have their players present to compete for spots.

The question I have is, with the Leafs being already over the cap and needing to make a trade to open up some cap space to be able to sign Rasmus Sandin as it is, are they one of the teams who is interested in bringing Subban in? It might seem somewhat unlikely, given the fact that the Buds currently have 8 NHL defensemen signed through next season. One of them is likely to move to make room for Sandin's new deal and Justin Holl might have made the most sense if he wasn't one of just two RHD's on the Leafs' roster.

Could the Leafs be quietly working on a Jake Muzzin trade behind the scenes? Such a deal would not only allow for the Leafs to get Sandin signed, but moving that $5.625M could also leave plenty of room for Subban and one additional forward (Evan Rodrigues, Sonny Milano, etc) to better balance the roster.

If Muzzin did depart via trade and the Leafs are one of the teams who have an interest in Subban (assuming he'd like to come home), the pairings would be much more balanced and there wouldn't be such a log jam on that left side.

Morgan Rielly - T.J. Brodie

Mark Giordano - Timothy Liljegren

Rasmus Sandin - P.K. Subban/Justin Holl

The other of Holl/Subban as the 7th defenseman, Victor Mete and Jordie Benn as the team's depth defenders and first call-ups in the event of an injury (at least one of them is likely to clear waivers).

Just thinking out loud here, but I do think that such a D corps could work out fairly well for the Leafs.