Oh, I love it when Eklund is vague in his trade rumors.

A couple of days ago, Eklund from HockeyBuzz.com mentioned in one of his rumor updates that the Toronto Maple Leafs are in talks with the San Jose Sharks about a “quality center.”

Hmm, let’s see. That narrows it down quite a bit. Lets look at the Sharks depth chart at center. I’ll presume that the player is already in the NHL and not a prospect. From first line to fourth line, they have Joe Thornton, Logan Couture, James Sheppard and Andrew Desjardins.

I doubt the Leafs are interested in Sheppard or Desjardins, so that narrows it down to Thornton and Couture. It would be lunacy to even think that the Sharks would move Couture as he has the potential to be a star in the NHL. So we can assume the “quality center” is Thornton.

If the Leafs were to bring in Thornton, they would certainly have to send a bit of salary back. Thornton carries a $6.75 million cap hit for this and the next two seasons. The first part of the deal going the Sharks way would have to be either Joffrey Lupul or Jake Gardiner. Gardiner has a $4.05 million cap hit and Lupul has a $5.25 million cap hit.

The Sharks currently have almost $9 million in cap space. So they would be able to take on either of those salaries in a heartbeat. With the Leafs less than a million below the cap, they would have to put another player or two in the deal.

Of course, this is just speculation so don’t expect anything to happen anytime soon.