Toronto Maple Leaf Rumors: How Leaf Players Are Responding to Deadline Rumors

Swirling NHL trade rumors are picking up speed around the NHL, with moves starting to take place and the deadline only four days away. With certain Toronto Maple Leaf players' names starting to get caught up in the speculation, they are open and have been willing to respond.

The two Leaf defenseman most heavily involved in the rumors, Luke Schenn and Jake Gardiner, addressed the rumors that have been circulating over the past few weeks, Schenn shrugging them off while Gardiner expressed displeasure out of them. 

While Schenn has been falling short of expectations lately and was a healthy scratch, Gardiner on the other hand has looked like one of the better defenseman on the team. Playing in his first season, the rookie defenseman has looked like the man he was supposed to be when the Anaheim Ducks drafted him in the first round of the 2008 entry draft.

How does he feel about maybe being moved again? 

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"Any time your name comes up in a trade rumour, you don’t like it,” he said. “That’s the way hockey is and you have to deal with it. Everything is a rumour. I don’t know what’s true and what’s not. I don’t know what to think.”

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But could we see Schenn go, after watching Burke decide to keep the defenseman rather than trade up for John Tavares only 3 years ago? Schenn is used to the rumors. 

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“Make a bad pass, everybody wants to trade you. Being out and about in Toronto, people come up to you and ask if you’re going to be traded. You wake up from a pre-game nap, and there’s text messages saying: ‘I heard this.’ You face it every day (and) learn to have a thick skin playing in Toronto."

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Of course, on the offensive side of the puck, the biggest name fans of the blue and white have heard about being shopped is Mikhail Grabovski. Like Schenn, Grabo has shown some poise and has looked past the rumors, focusing on the games ahead for his Leafs.

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“Right now I’m focused on the games and the playoffs.I have an agent for that. He’ll tell me if something is happening.”

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Whoever the Leafs decide to move on the trade deadline day, they all remain politically correct in stating their hopes of staying put in Toronto. Monday could be a disappointing day for one of these three players.