Kyle Dubas went to the school of Lou when it comes to his General Manager skillset.  Dubas keeps everything tight-lipped and over the past few months, it’s been very difficult winding our way through rumors to pick apart the facts. Sometimes you need to just ask nicely and Dubas will listen:

@kyledubas Please trade for someone to replace Par Lindholm.

Signed, most of the Leafs fans I know. #LeafsForever

— Shane Seney (@ShugMcSween) February 25, 2019

Yes, Dubas did come through on my request and about 4 minutes after I sent that tweet out, I received a text from a buddy who works with the team and they mentioned Connor Brown was being shopped.

@ItsDeanBlundell Hearing Connor Brown being shopped #LeafsForever

— Shane Seney (@ShugMcSween) February 25, 2019

Made sense to me. Brownie is a tad expensive if he’s only going to play 4th line minutes and with a team about to hit a cap crunch next season, it made sense for Brown’s name to surface. What the team was seeking was obvious, a right-handed shot defenceman because Mike Babcock has voiced his displeasure time and time again about having D-Men on their wrong side. It appears my assumption was indeed correct:

Hearing again today that #LetsGoOilers and #LeafsForever discussed a large trade that would've seen defenseman Adam Larsson end up in Toronto and Connor Brown end up in Edmonton. There were lots of moving pieces and that's likely why it didn' happen. Could revisit in offseason.

— Jimmy Murphy (@MurphysLaw74) February 26, 2019

Trading Larsson would be an ultimate slap in the face of Peter Chiarelli who traded away what turned out the be the MVP of the league in the infamous one-for-one swap. The Oilers do love Connor Brown, as reuniting him with his junior teammate Connor McJesus makes a ton of sense, they have had a hard time finding wingers for their Franchise and with the recent success of the Strome/DeBrincat combo in Chi-Town, maybe more teams go this route.

To me, I move Brown for Larsson in a heartbeat. This deal wouldn’t be a one-for-one, however, if this is main combatants, so be it.  It appears we will have to wait until the summer to see if this deal materializes. If Brownie does get moved, this is certainly one memory I will cherish for a long time, you too?