Trade Bait: Leafs interested in Red Wings' Glendening again Toronto is believed to have kicked the tires again on a Mike Babcock favourite from his time in Detroit, TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Frank Seravalli writes.

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

Mike Babcock hasn’t exactly been shy with team brass when it comes to his trade deadline wish list for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It’s believed the Maple Leafs have kicked the tires again on Red Wings centre Luke Glendening this year, a Babcock favourite from his time in Detroit.

Glendening, 29, is the biggest mover on the latest edition of the TSN Trade Bait board, climbing up to No. 25.

He played under Babcock for parts of two seasons in Detroit, the type of scrappy fourth-line centre who has seen his minutes rise at playoff time.

Toronto has traded its second-round pick each of the last two springs for fourth line centre help in Brian Boyle (2017) and Tomas Plekanec (2018).

Last year, the asking price from the Red Wings was believed to be a second-round pick, a price that was too rich for then-GM Lou Lamoriello’s blood.

This year, that price would seem to be the starting point, given that older rental Boyle – who has not scored in his last two playoff runs – fetched a second-round pick from Nashville earlier this week.

The Red Wings view Glendening as a big part of their team culture. With eight goals and 10 assists for 18 points, Glendening is on pace to set new career-highs in goals, assists, points and time on ice (15:51).

The hang-up for the Maple Leafs is two-fold: 1) How much of an upgrade is he over Frederik Gauthier? 2) Glendening’s contract.

Gauthier, 23, has two goals and 10 points playing just over half the ice time Glendening receives. He’s also locked up next season near the league-minimum salary at $675,000.

Glendening has two years remaining at $1.8 million, which is about twice as much as the Leafs can afford for his position next season, when their salary cap crunch will become a daily struggle.

However, if the Red Wings could be enticed to retain half of Glendening’s deal, he would provide cost certainty for the next two seasons at a manageable price for a player the coach clearly would be happy to pencil into his lineup.

Elsewhere, Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle climbed into the Top 10 after a lifeless loss to the Edmonton Oilers, while Chicago Blackhawks centre Artem Anisimov joined the board for the first time.

Here is the latest TSN Hockey Trade Bait board, which always seeks to blend a player’s prominence with his likelihood of a trade:

The Top 50 Trend Player Pos Age GP G PTS Cap Hit Years 1. Artemi Panarin, CBJ LW 27 51 20 60 $6M UFA 2. Matt Duchene, OTT C 28 45 24 51 $6M UFA 3. Wayne Simmonds, PHI RW 30 54 16 24 $3.98M UFA 4. Jets' 1st-Round Pick 5. Mark Stone, OTT RW 26 54 23 54 $7.35M UFA 6. Mats Zuccarello, NYR RW 31 39 9 30 $4.5M UFA 7. Dougie Hamilton, CAR RD 25 54 9 21 $5.75M 2 8. Gustav Nyquist, DET RW 29 54 13 46 $4.75M UFA 9. Charlie Coyle, MIN C 26 54 10 28 $3.2M 1 10. Sergei Bobrovsky, CBJ G 30 38 2.98 .902 $7.43M UFA 11. Micheal Ferland, CAR LW 26 45 14 28 $1.75M UFA 12. Cam Talbot, EDM G 31 30 3.3 .895 $4.17M UFA 13. Jimmy Howard, DET G 34 36 2.77 .914 $5.3M UFA 14. Kevin Hayes, NYR C 26 44 12 37 $5.18M UFA 15. Brett Pesce, CAR RD 23 45 5 13 $4.03M 5 16. Marcus Johansson, NJD LW 28 41 8 20 $4.58M UFA 17. Adam Henrique, ANA C 29 55 9 27 $5.83M 5 18. Jack Roslovic, WPG RW/C 22 53 7 16 $894K 1 19. Brayden Schenn, STL C 27 48 10 32 $5.13M 1 20. Artem Anisimov, CHI C 30 51 8 24 $4.55M 2 21. Derick Brassard, FLA C 31 43 9 17 $5M UFA 22. Cody Ceci, OTT RD 24 50 5 17 $4.3M RFA 23. Jakub Silfverberg, ANA RW 28 46 12 20 $3.75M UFA 24. Andre Burakovsky, WSH LW 23 48 7 13 $3M RFA 25. Luke Glendening, DET C 29 54 8 18 $1.8M 2 26. Justin Faulk, CAR RD 26 54 5 20 $4.83M 1 27. Jeff Carter, LAK C 33 51 10 25 $5.27M 3 28. Chris Kreider, NYR LW 27 53 24 40 $4.63M 1 29. Colton Parayko, STL RD 25 52 9 15 $5.5M 3 30. Alex Steen, STL LW 34 38 6 15 $5.75M 2 31. Alec Martinez, LAK RD 31 40 3 11 $4M 2 32. Jay Bouwmeester, STL LD 35 48 2 10 $5.4M UFA 33. Andreas Johnsson, TOR LW 24 47 13 27 $788K RFA 34. Ryan Dzingel, OTT LW 26 52 20 40 $1.8M UFA 35. Patrick Maroon, STL LW 30 44 4 14 $1.75M UFA 36. Alex Edler, VAN LD 32 38 5 20 $5M UFA 37. Adam McQuaid, NYR RD 32 29 1 4 $2.75M UFA 38. Ben Lovejoy, NJD RD 34 44 1 6 $2.67M UFA 39. Jamie McGinn, FLA LW 30 0 0 0 $3.33M UFA 40. Chris Tanev, VAN RD 29 50 2 11 $4.45M 1 41. Vlad Namestnikov, NYR LW 25 49 4 16 $4M 1 42. Nikolay Goldobin, VAN LW 23 48 6 24 $863K RFA 43. Carl Hagelin, LAK LW 30 33 2 8 $4M UFA 44. Nathan Beaulieu, BUF LD 26 27 3 7 $2.4M RFA 45. Mikkel Boedker, OTT LW 29 51 6 28 $4M 1 46. Tobias Rieder, EDM LW 26 40 0 9 $2M RFA 47. Jesse Puljujarvi, EDM RW 20 43 4 9 $925K RFA 48. Dale Weise, PHI RW 30 42 5 11 $2.35M 1 49. Kasperi Kapanen, TOR RW 22 53 15 31 $863K RFA 50. Jeff Skinner, BUF LW 26 53 33 49 $5.73M UFA

TRADED:

No. 5: Maple Leafs’ first-round pick - Toronto to Los Angeles on Jan. 28

No. 8: Derick Brassard - Pittsburgh to Florida on Feb. 1

No. 11: Brian Boyle - New Jersey to Nashville on Feb. 6

No. 13: Chris Wideman - Ottawa to Edmonton on Nov. 22

No. 14: Tanner Pearson - Los Angeles to Pittsburgh on Nov. 14

No. 17: Jake Muzzin - Los Angeles to Toronto on Jan. 28

No. 27: Alex Petrovic - Florida to Edmonton on Dec. 29

No. 27: Nino Niederreiter - Minnesota to Carolina on Jan. 17

No. 28: Nick Bjugstad - Florida to Pittsburgh on Feb. 1

No. 28: Brandon Manning - Chicago to Edmonton on Dec. 29

No. 35: Michael Del Zotto - Vancouver to Anaheim on Jan. 16

No. 35: Jamie Oleksiak - Pittsburgh to Dallas on Jan. 29

No. 36: Luke Schenn - Anaheim to Vancouver on Jan. 16