NHL Rumors: St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Brayden Schenn

The Toronto Maple Leafs failed attempt last year to acquire Brayden Schenn … Does the truth lie between three stories

Nick Kypreos of the Toronto Star: There was talk that the St. Louis Blues didn’t want to trade Brayden Schenn to the Maple Leafs at the deadline last year for Easton Cowan and Ben Danford. They could look again to move either of those players, or one of their goalies, but it’s hard to see them being able to land a significant player, either a scoring winger or a puck-moving defenseman.

Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Controversy in Ottawa Around Linus Ullmark episode on the St. Louis Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs talking about Brayden Schenn last year.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Bukauskas: “But one thing you wanted to highlight that Nick (Kypreos) had talked about was what they had looked at a year ago around the trade deadline. That (Easton) Cowan was on the table in an attempt to get Brayden Schenn from St Louis.

Friedman: “Yeah, you know, Nick’s trade boards and his rumor columns are really good. And when I read that one, I was like, Okay, another good column. And then I had a couple of people kind of ask me about it. Like, did I hear the same thing on St Louis?

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And I heard mostly the same stuff. A couple of different things, but I figured, you know what, I do it in the pod. So one thing that I absolutely believe is true is that if the Blue, the Blues told the Maple Leafs, if you want Schenn, it was going to be Cowan, (Ben) Danford and something else, like possibly a pick. And they said that is the deal we will do, that we will take to ask Brayden Schenn. And so I think that’s 100% true. Like, I think that was on the table.

The story I heard that was just a little bit different was how it all came to an end. And Nick reported that he heard that Doug Armstrong wasn’t willing to do it. I heard two other versions. So somewhere between the three of them is the truth.

Number one, I heard, was that Schenn wasn’t going to wave to Toronto unless the Maple Leafs also got Luke. Like when that was all going on about teams uniting the Schenn brothers, that’s what I think Toronto was trying to do. And if the Maple Leafs had gotten Luke, I think Brayden would have waived to go there.

So part of the problem was, I don’t think, since that didn’t happen and Luke went to Winnipeg, where he’s now available. I don’t think this deal was going to get done. I don’t think Brayden was going to waive.

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The other thing I heard was that the Maple Leafs also looked at the situation and said, instead of doing that deal, we can do more by making two deals. And they ended up making the deals they made, the one for (Brandon) Carlo and the one for (Scott) Laughton.

And so it’s interesting, like it’s interesting because my information is no better than anyone else’s. But I absolutely think that that was the package that was on the table, that was going to have to get it done for Schenn. I just heard different outcomes. But Nick is totally right, that that was what it was going to take to get him.”

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