Rumor: Maple Leafs Closing in on Another Trade

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had themselves quite the off season, bringing in several new faces including Joe Thornton, Wayne Simmonds, TJ Brodie, Joey Anderson, Travis Boyd and Zach Bogosian. According to Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun, the team may not be finished.

Simmons believes the Leafs are working the phones trying to upgrade what could be their worst position, third-line center:

Thornton can’t play 200-foot hockey anymore and can’t be counted on to play in the defensive zone. Kerfoot is a better winger than he is a center. The combination of the two will test Keefe’s ability to manage in-games throughout the season.

The 'typical' third-line center is someone who can shut-down the other team's top-lines with foot-speed and solid defensive positioning. Usually the third-line center is on the first penalty-killing unit, and finding the perfect fit will be tough for Maple Leafs general manager, Kyle Dubas.

Steve Simmons has also been wrong many times before, so perhaps there's nothing to this.

The Leafs will likely have to wait and see how their new-look roster fares before making any more moves. The team is in a cap crunch with limited resources. Perhaps they wait until the trade deadline when the likes of Travis Zajac, Nick Bonino, or Derek Stepan become available.

Let's be real here, starting the year with Joe Thornton or Alexander Kerfoot behind John Tavares and Auston Matthews isn't the worst depth chart in the league.