Maple Leafs Acquire Edmundson From Capitals

The Toronto Maple Leafs weren't set on their defense and have added another player. This time it is Joel Edmundson from the Washington Capitals. It cost the Maple Leafs a third-round pick in 2024 and a fifth-round pick in 2025.

Return for Edmundson is:

NYI’s 3rd round pick in 2024 Draft & Chicago’s 5th pick in 2025 Draft

Caps retain 50%
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 7, 2024

The Maple Leafs and the Capitals aren't strangers to making deadline deals as the teams hooked up for two involving defensemen at last year's trade deadline. This saw Toronto add Erik Gustafsson in one deal and trade away Rasmus Sandin (recently re-signed in Washington) in another.

Edmundson is another solid addition for the Maple Leafs on the back-end that has had problems and multiple injuries to deal with all season. Since Edmundson is already having half of his cap hit retained by the Montreal Canadiens, the Capitals retained half again, and the Maple Leafs get him for under $900,000. He has 49 blocks and 59 hits in 44 games and is utilized on the penalty kill.

There was no reason for the Capitals to keep Edmundson this season unless they really believed that they can jump a number of teams and make the playoffs. Even then, they had already traded Anthony Mantha to the Vegas Golden Knights. Expect no further additions on the back-end ahead of the deadline for the Maple Leafs.