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Maple Leafs, Senators complete minor league trade

Rumours swirled that the Toronto Maple Leafs are in aggressive shopping mode heading into Monday’s NHL trade deadline, and on Wednesday evening they pulled off their second trade of the day.

Alright, full disclosure: it was an exceedingly minor transaction, but a trade between the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators is a trade nonetheless.

The Maple Leafs acquired Max Veronneau from the Senators in exchange for forward Aaron Luchuk and a conditional sixth-round pick.

Sure, it isn’t adding John Tavares, but Veronneau has played a handful of games at the NHL level and that maybe counts for something. Signed as a free agent out of Princeton in March 2019, Veronneau played 12 games for his hometown Senators last season, scoring twice and picking up four points. He played another four games this season without recording a point, and has played 33 more contests in the AHL.

An accomplished college player, Veronneau was second in NCAA Division I scoring in 2017-18 as a junior, picking up 17 goals and 55 points in 36 games. The 24-year-old hasn’t translated it to success at the NHL level, and will likely join the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.

As for Luchuk, he returns to the Senators after being part of the Cody Ceci deal that landed the Sens’ Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Brown. The 22-year-old forward has played mostly at the ECHL level for the Newfoundland Growlers this season. He has produced, at least, putting up 19 goals and 49 points in 44 games.

The conditional pick, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, gives the Senators a sixth-round pick in 2021 if Veronneau plays ten games for the Maple Leafs the rest of the way and re-signs with the team next season.

So, yeah, not a blockbuster by any means, but if nothing else it shows that general managers across the NHL are working the phones overtime as the deadline approaches and literally no deal is too big or too small to be discussed.

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