I’ve learned not to expect a ton of news when Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello speaks. The man is very, very good at keeping us in the dark.



But on Tuesday afternoon, late in the day on a conference call with a few reporters, he served up a couple of nuggets that are worth talking about. He was a little more frank than usual about what the Leafs’ plans are this summer, after signing Nikita Zaitsev and Ben Smith to two controversial deals.



Brief aside: There was a segment with Bob McKenzie last week on the radio at TSN last week that I bookmarked mostly because of the headline. (They always get you with the headlines on these hits.) It said that it was “conceivable” that the Leafs go into next season with basically the same blueline as they had this past year, which I think most fans would consider a major disappointment.



“I would say yes that’s possible,” McKenzie said, after musing on the various things they could do on the blueline.



I would have agreed. But Lamoriello seemed to deny that possibility pretty plainly on Tuesday. He seemed to say the Leafs D core would definitely be changing for the better.



“We have three individuals under contract in Gardiner, Rielly and Zaitsev right now that bring a certain style and certain dimension,” Lamoriello said. “We have a couple of younger players and then we have a couple of free agents that we have to make decisions on. I think we have to add to that group and not make decisions just for simply adding. They have to be people who can come in and help.”



Emphasis mine.



Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Maybe the “add” Lamoriello is talking about is the same one McKenzie references on the radio: simply bringing up Travis Dermott, who has been excellent for the Toronto Marlies and scouts tell me is really close to being NHL ready.



But it sure seemed like Lamoriello has bigger plans on the blueline. Especially when he also seemed to suggest trimming the minutes given to Zaitsev, who they just gave a seven-year deal to.



“He’s in a unique category as far as he can be used and how he’s trusted and can really play in all situations, if necessary,” Lamoriello said. “Although that it isn’t what you want to have any defenceman do. You want to have him [playing in] two out of the three but not three out of the three [i.e. not on both the power play and penalty kill].”



Again, I’m parsing what Lamoriello is saying here pretty finely because we don’t have a lot to go on. He isn’t going to lay a big blueprint of their summer out in front of us. This isn’t the Brian Burke era.



But if you look at what the Leafs have on the roster, and what they need, it is glaringly obvious that they have to get better on D as soon as they can.



“We definitely are looking at [adding on defence],” Lamoriello said. “I don’t think it’s anything that’s not obvious.”



Right.



The Leafs arguably had somewhere close to the 10th best team in the NHL this season. They had a high powered offence. They have a good coach and special teams. They’re young and many of those younger players should improve. They had a .918 save percentage starter in Frederik Andersen, which is above the .915 average for goalies that made 40-plus starts.



Those are a lot of check marks. Some of which (centre depth) are very hard to get in today’s NHL.



The biggest way they can get from 10th (or so) into the conversation of the top five or six NHL teams would be improving their defence core. The biggest way they could do that would be to find a top two option to eat big minutes, pushing Zaitsev and others down the depth chart.



Something like this:



Gardiner – [Mystery D]



Rielly – Zaitsev



Dermott – Carrick



Extras: Hunwick or Polak (if re-signed), Marincin or Marchenko (if not lost in expansion)



Mystery Man won’t be easy to find. Especially on RD. A big part of the reason why I think they felt they had to keep Zaitsev is he’s a solid point producer from the right side, which matters under Mike Babcock. Zaitsev was 21st among right shot blueliners in points this season. He was the only Leaf among the top 64 RD in scoring this season.



He is something they don’t have. He’s also something that is hard to get, generally speaking.



You look at free agency and there’s Kevin Shattenkirk, Cody Franson and a bunch of who available on RD. You look around the league at the best let’s say 50 options at that position and not many are going to switch teams on any given year.



Some teams have been fortunate to have made value buys in that department. Pittsburgh did so with Justin Schultz, who has had a nice rebirth after escaping oversized expectations in Edmonton. Calgary did the same with Dougie Hamilton. The Blue Jackets landed Seth Jones, the Predators got P.K. Subban and Washington signed Matt Niskanen.



So good RD do become available. They’re often expensive, but they’re there.



One of the keys – perhaps the key – to this off-season for Toronto is going to be making sure they’re in on whatever discussions surround any RD that can log more than 20 minutes a game and be a strong two-way presence. Trade talk is rather quiet right now with the second round of the playoffs going on, but it will pick up quickly with the expansion draft beginning on June 18, a little more than six weeks from today.



I can put together a pretty impressive little list of those types of players who might (and I emphasize might here as much as possible) be available, whether due to expansion draft factors or otherwise:



Justin Faulk, Carolina



Jacob Trouba, Winnipeg



Josh Manson, Anaheim



Tyson Barrie, Colorado



Chris Tanev, Vancouver



Matt Dumba, Minnesota



Travis Hamonic, NY Islanders



Any of those options would help the Leafs. They’re all also in the right age profile (22 to 27) to be part of a growing, young core. But some would be massively expensive to acquire. And that’s where the conversation takes a different turn.



One of the things McKenzie was asked in that radio segment above was something along the lines of if Leafs management thinks they’re good enough to contend. I think the answer to that is they probably do – if they can make a few of the right moves this summer (or by summer...