Leafs Land Muzzin

			2019 Season			July 1st, 2018
To Toronto	POS	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Years	Cap Hit
Jake Muzzin	D	29	50	4	21	2	$4 mil
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To Los Angeles	POS	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Years	Cap Hit
Carl Grundstrom	F	21	0	0	0	2	$925k
Sean Durzi	D	20	0	0	0	0	USD
2019 1st Round Draft Pick

We're still a few weeks away from the trade deadline, but the moving and shaking has already begun and on Monday night, we've seen one of the bigger deals this season, as the Toronto Maple Leafs moved to acquire defenseman Jake Muzzin from the Los Angeles Kings for a couple of former 2nd round picks and their 1st round pick in the upcoming draft.  A solid package for a defenseman with still another year on his deal after this one.

Muzzin has been a very reliable defenseman for the Kings over the last handful of years, really making his full-time mark back in the 2014 season and has been able to provide Los Angeles with three 40-point seasons in his time there and was keeping a reasonable pace for close to 35 points, something that could certainly be improved upon with the move to a more offensively capable Toronto team.

It does appear safe to say that the rebuild mode is now on in Los Angeles, despite having Ilya Kovalchuk on the books for another two seasons.  The futures that the Kings received in this deal would definitely be a strong signal to say that it's on now.  I would be looking to see what the Kings will also do with UFAs to come, Carl Hagelin and Nate Thompson, but they won't show up on the blog, since they're not pool worthy.

Muzzin is a pool guy, belonging to Neil's team this season and has been his best defenseman this year with his 21 points.  It's not a good year for defensemen for Neil.  This is actually a pretty good gain for his team, especially in the week of the Waiver Draft and his activation on the new team starts at the end of the week, a couple days before the new players go live from the Waiver Draft.  Neil's defense ranks last in the pool with 57 points this season, but could move up with these gains, Wilton's blueline is only 1 point better and ripe for the picking.