The Carolina Hurricanes are holding Tim Gleason out of the lineup until he's traded. Who could possibly want an injured old defenseman on a long contra-
Leafs and Hurricanes trying to complete Tim Gleason trade. It's not done, still some work to do, but it's headed towards conclusion. #tsn
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 1, 2014 #Canes Gleason not practicing waiting 4 #NHL trade. Strong speculation is he could be a #Leaf today. Liles/prospect is talk going other way
— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) January 1, 2014 Oh right.
On the surface a Gleason for Liles swap isn't horrendous: they're both problems on similar contracts (though Gleason is slightly more expensive). Liles is three years older, but Gleason has battled injury. Liles has been ok as a 6th d-man this year.
Salary Cap
Gleason makes $4M until 2016, Liles makes $3.875M until 2016, not a big difference but an increase for a Leafs team that's pretty tight against the cap this season.
Prospects?
The real problem here is going to be what that prospect is. The Leafs aren't terribly deep in prospects, and I don't think they'd include Morgan Rielly who is the only guy I'd call a "prospect" skating in the NHL. Aside from Rielly there's Stuart Percy and Matt Finn in the AHL who I wouldn't include. Anybody else wouldn't be a crippling blow.
UPDATE:
Pending call. Gleason to Toronto for Liles and Robertson (d-man).
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 1, 2014 Dennis Robertson was a Leafs 6th rounder, he's a defenseman who played for Brown in the NCAA. I wish him luck in Carolina but I don't think he's a high price to pay. Here's our writeup on him from Top 25 Under 25.
Early Returns
We'll obviously update this once we know all of the details, but I don't think this is going to pay off for the Leafs. It's at the very best a garbage swap, and at the worst we're about to pay a prospect or worse to perform a garbage swap.
UPDATE: I don't mind tossing Robertson into any deal. We're now waiting to see if either team retained salary.