NHL Draft 2012: Could Toronto Maple Leafs Acquire a First-Round Pick from Tampa?

The Toronto Maple already hold the fifth overall pick in this year's NHL draft as a byproduct of the catastrophic stretch that ended their 2012 campaign.

With all the excitement surrounding their own lottery selection, many Leafs fans and reporters lose sight of the fact that there may be opportunities elsewhere to acquire a second first-round draft choice.

Last season, the Leafs ended up with two first-round picks, but both were after the 20th overall selection had passed, which meant much less attention was centered around Brian Burke and his management team and scouts.

This year, Brian Burke should look to acquire a second pick in the first round once again.

One of the teams that could definitely help Toronto out in that regard would be the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Not only do the Lightning have multiple first-round draft choices, but the Leafs would be a great trade partner for them, being able to offer potential young goaltending solutions and a plethora of young defensemen that could help an aging defensive corps in Tampa Bay.

With Steve Yzerman hinting a few weeks ago that Tampa Bay was not interested in acquiring Roberto Luongo and would rather go with a younger, more long-term solution, Toronto may be able to convince the Detroit Red Wings alumnus into accepting a trade for either young netminder James Reimer, or the Marlies' stud puck-stopper Ben Scrivens.

While neither of these two is guaranteed to pan out for Tampa Bay, there aren't any goalies in this year's draft that are projected to go in the top 10 or top 19 picks (where Tampa Bay's two picks are situated in the first round), and they still have Dustin Tokarski developing in Norfolk.

Sending Tampa Bay a goaltender like James Reimer or Ben Scrivens, along with a young, NHL-ready defenseman like Korbinian Holzer, as well as Toronto's second-round pick (35th overall), should easily be able to acquire Tampa Bay's 10th overall selection.

Now, many of you may think that this would be a steep price to pay to move up 25 draft spots, but in reality it doesn't hurt the current Leafs squad or their future prospects in any serious way.

First off, the Maple Leafs are going to have to find another goaltender this offseason anyway. A goalie tandem of Ben Scrivens and James Reimer will not suffice come October. This means that it's very likely that one of the two youngsters will not be on the Maple Leafs' roster.

So why not move one in order to pick up a top-10 draft pick and a potential impact player?

The same reasoning can be applied to the loss of Korbinian Holzer. With the likes of Jake Gardiner, Carl Gunnarsson, Cody Franson (assuming he re-signs), Dion Phaneuf, John-Michael Liles and Mike Komisarek already clogging up the blue line, and the potential signing of Justin Schultz in a few weeks time only making the situation more complicated, there is just no room for Holzer on this Leafs team.

Not to mention that there is still a good amount of young talent developing behind Holzer in the minor leagues in Jesse Blacker, Stuart Percy and Matt Lashoff, ensuring the Leafs would not be selling off their lone defensive prospect.

In the end, it seems like a small price to pay to add another top-10 pick in this year's draft, doesn't it?

Imagine drafting both Alex Galchenyuk and Radek Faksa in the first round, it will ease your mind if you are struggling to accept this proposal.

As for any Lightning fans who may not like this deal, you'd be picking up an NHL-ready defender, along with a potential goalie replacement (can't go anywhere but up from this season) as compensation for moving down just 25 spots in the draft, and you'd still have another top-20 pick to work with.

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