Maple Leafs target elite center as Chayka considers blockbuster trade
Mason McTavish is back in the rumour mill, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are right in the middle of it after a fresh report from David Pagnotta.
This morning's intel has the Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues all checking in on the 23-year-old Anaheim centre. The price tag may finally be reachable.
Why now? Because McTavish just wrapped a down year. He put up 17 goals and 24 assists in 75 games, with a -15 rating that didn't help his case in California.
The Ducks finished 43-33-6 and ranked 17th overall, so this isn't a tear-down. But Pat Verbeek has options if his young centre wants out, and Joel Quenneville behind the bench changes the room dynamic too.
For Toronto, the fit is obvious. The Leafs limped to a 32-36-14 record, ranked 28th, and ended the year on a seven-game losing streak. The roster needs a jolt at centre.
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Slot McTavish on the second line beside William Nylander, who posted 30 goals and 79 points, and the top six gets younger and meaner overnight. That matters in a market that just watched a 2-7-1 collapse in the final ten games.
Why Toronto's bottom-six youth makes the Ducks pick up the phone
The cap math also works. McTavish carries a $7 million hit through 2031, just under the $7.75 million Matthew Knies is locked into. Two power forwards, 23 years old, on team-friendly money.
Anaheim wants young, NHL-ready pieces in return. Easton Cowan, 21, with 29 points in 66 games, is the type of name agents quietly bring up in these calls. So is goalie Dennis Hildeby and winger Nicholas Robertson, who scored 16 times last year.
The question Leafs fans should be asking. Is Toronto willing to cash in a chunk of its prospect pool for a centre whose best year is still a 22-goal campaign?
This is high-risk hockey. McTavish has played four NHL seasons and his goal totals have hovered between 17 and 22 every year. There's another gear in there. Or there isn't.
Anaheim's leverage is the contract. Five more years of cost certainty on a 23-year-old centre means Verbeek doesn't have to move him. He gets to wait for a Toronto offer that hurts.
Coming off a 28th-place finish, the Maple Leafs can't afford to lose another bidding war. The Jets and Blues aren't bluffing, and Winnipeg has the cap space to win the room if it comes to that.
If McTavish ends up in Toronto, the second line solves itself. If he doesn't, the front office spends another summer explaining to a frustrated fan base why the centre depth still looks the same.
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JUNE 2, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nikolaj Ehlers | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 1 | 1 | |
| K'Andre Miller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Smith | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | - | - | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Jackson Blake | - | - | - | |
| William Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Dylan Coghlan | - | - | - | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||