Maple Leafs acquire Denis Malgin from Panthers for Mason Marchment
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the midst of a most important two-team race with the Florida Panthers for the final postseason slot in the Atlantic Division, but that doesn’t mean the two teams can’t engage as trade partners.
On Wednesday, the teams swapped depth forwards, with the younger, more versatile, far more experienced Denis Malgin headed to Toronto in exchange for farmhand Mason Marchment.
Considering their position in the standings, this is especially strange from the Panthers’ perspective. General manager Dale Tallon is sending, at minimum, a warm body to the team that Florida must beat out in order to make the postseason, while in return taking back a player that looks to be a long shot at best when measuring his NHL future.
Malgin is hardly a game-breaker, but he’s scored at a reasonably effective rate in parts of four seasons, totalling 28 goals and 60 points in 184 games. Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe has been desperately searching for an effective combination in the bottom six, and Malgin at least provides a centre-ice option when piecing together his depth units.
Toronto has experimented with Marchment in that frustrating search for a working bottom-six combination, dressing him four times this season. While he has the size and brings other attributes the Maple Leafs may lack, he’s simply not a good enough skater yet to apply those skills at the highest level.
Malgin has a connection to Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews. The two were teammates in Zurich when Matthews was playing out his draft year in Switzerland.
Malgin is earning $750,000 this season, and will be a restricted free agent this summer.
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