Montreal Canadiens acquire towering right handed defenseman from the Maple Leafs in blockbuster trade proposal

Philippe Myers is buried on the Maple Leafs' depth chart, and this summer's moves have pushed him toward the door.

Toronto brought Chris Tanev back into the fold, added Darren Raddysh and Emil Andrae, and never let Morgan Rielly get near the trade market.

That's four established defencemen ahead of Myers on paper. None of them are walking out before training camp.

The numbers didn't do him any favors either. Myers finished last season at minus-10 in 39 games, stuck on a blue line that never settled into a rhythm.

The Leafs themselves closed the year 32-36-14 and dropped their final seven games in a row.

Myers carries a cap hit of just $850,000 with one season left on his deal. That's the kind of number almost any team in the league can absorb without blinking.

New head coach Jim Hiller was hired June 17, and the roster reshuffle underneath him has left Myers as the clearest trade chip left on the back end.

So where does a 29 year old rearguard with size go when the math simply doesn't work anymore?

Three teams already circling Toronto's $850,000 castoff

The Philadelphia Flyers finished the year red hot, going 7-3-0 over their final ten games, and adding a low-cost, physical defenceman fits a team trying to build depth for a real push.

The Anaheim Ducks went the other way, stumbling to a 2-6-2 mark down the stretch, and a cheap, controllable body on the blue line is exactly the kind of add that doesn't require cap gymnastics.

Montreal has also been floated as a landing spot, though nothing concrete has surfaced on that front yet. They desperately need a towering right handed defenseman though.

Trading a $850,000 depth defenceman for futures is closer to cleaning out a garage than making a splash, useful, unglamorous, and easy to justify.

If Toronto wants a return, even a modest one, it likely comes in the form of a bottom-six forward who can help the Marlies rather than the Leafs directly.

Whether that trade gets done before puck drop on training camp, or lingers into the season as a depth-chart afterthought, is still very much up in the air.