NHL News

Home

Teams

Quizzes

Newsletter

Schenn brothers, Brayden Schenn and Luke Schenn (The Hockey Writers)

Insider Believes Maple Leafs Are Trying to Unite Schenn Brothers

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Spencer Lazary | Last updated Feb 25, 2025 10:50 AM ET

According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, he believes that Brad Treliving and the Toronto Maple Leafs are one of two teams that are working to unite the Schenn brothers. With both Brayden Schenn and Luke Schenn on the market ahead of this trade deadline, there were rumours that teams would be interested in bringing in both the brothers.

Friedman discussed the idea on Saturday Headlines on Hockey Night in Canada. Here’s what he had to say:

“So there’s been a lot of talk obviously about Brayden Schenn, and he told reporters in St. Louis this week — I think Lou Korac actually was the reporter — that he has not been approached with anything right now and he’s trying his best not to think about (a trade).

“But what I do think has happened is that teams have talked about uniting the Schenn brothers — Brayden from St. Louis and Luke from Nashville — maybe acquiring them in separate trades to bring them together. We’ll see if anyone can do it.”

If there was a chance that the trades happened, it would take a bit of work to get done, which makes it difficult for the Maple Leafs to do it. This trade would likely become a three-team deal, that could allow the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators swap an asset to better position their teams.

Friedman Shares More on 32 Thoughts

Friedman took to his podcast, the 32 Thoughts Podcast to share more thoughts on this trade. When asked by co-host Kyle Bukauskas, he talked about more of what he had heard about the Schenn brothers.

“I just think there’s a lot of respect for those guys. Braden can play a role. He can play a center.He could play wing. He can play all over your lineup. He plays hard. He’s a very popular guy in dressing rooms. You know, Luke, right hand shot, veteran, plays a heavy game. Been on a Stanley Cup champion before, just like Brayden has.

You know, the kind of player that you need on your blue line during a playoff in long, hard series. We’ll have to see if someone pulls it off and then, you know, you can see if there’s a specific reason. I just heard it and I heard more than one team. Like sometimes you hear something like this and you think, oh, there’s one team that’s trying to do it. I don’t think that’s the case here. I think a couple have discussed it.

So I don’t know if it’s going to be possible, but I know what’s been talked about. And it’s one of those things you mentioned on the air and then you hear a couple things more. And what I heard on Sunday is that it’s more than one team apparently that has tried this.”

Friedman appeared as a guest on The Fan Hockey Show on Sportsnet yesterday and revealed that he believes that the Maple Leafs are one of the two teams that have asked. He said:

“It certainly fits the MO of the Maple Leafs, let’s just say that.”

Can the Maple Leafs Pull off this Trade?

While it is very unlikely due to the asking price and their salary cap situation, it could be something that they pull off if Treliving was okay with getting rid of future assets. Friedman mentioned that he thinks the asking price for Brayden will be a lot higher than Luke, and rightly so. Brayden is the captain of the Blues and will bring more skill to the roster. As for Luke, he is familiar with the Maple Leafs organization, as they not only drafted him in 2008 but re-acquired him in 2023 from the Vancouver Canucks.

Aside from the asking price being high and the Maple Leafs not having a ton of assets to give up, the lack of salary cap space will be another issue. Currently, they only have $1.3 million in cap space, and between both Schenn brothers, they would be taking on $9.2 million without any retention. This will likely mean that one of the Blues or Predators will need to retain up to 50% of a contract. In order to make this deal work, they may also need a fourth team to take on some salary to reduce the cap hits. However, teams typically would only do that on an expiring deal, and since neither of them are pending UFAs, it makes things a bit difficult.

If Treliving could get the combined cap hit coming back to the Maple Leafs down to around $6.2 million, it could be easier to take on. They would need to make a few roster moves, like sending Ryan Reaves and Conor Timmins to the AHL, clearing $2.3 million in cap with $100,000 in dead cap space from Reaves’ deal. They would also need to trade David Kampf or Max Domi or potentially both, depending on who is going out the door in this massive trade. That would clear up $6.1 million, plus the $2.3 million from the other roster moves would give them $8.4 million.

This deal would have a ton of moving parts with assets going out and new assets coming in. If the Maple Leafs could do it, it would be awesome to see. They could also use a bit of the leftover cap space and acquire Brandon Tanev from the Seattle Kraken to bring in extra depth. However, it truly doesn’t seem all too possible that this trade would happen. There is still a chance that Treliving brings in one of the Schenn brothers, probably Luke if anything, but both would be very, very hard to pull off.